The Supreme Court has issued their opinion in Louisiana v. Callais, effectively eviscerating the remaining protections of the federal Voting Rights Act and the limitations on racial gerrymandering and discrimination in voting. It will go down in history as a cynical and insidious opinion issued by the Court’s six conservative justices.
The Callais opinion is the latest in a long series of Republican efforts to undermine our democracy. At core, the Republican strategy is a one-two punch of gerrymandering and voter suppression — and although these strategies are different, they have two key things in common. Both are specifically targeted to silence minority voices, and both are designed to suppress the vote by making voters feel that our votes don’t matter. The end goal is to entrench Republicans in power and insulate them from accountability for their extremism and corruption.
A report by Black Voters Matter and Fair Fight estimates that after Callais, Republicans could secure an additional 27 seats in the U.S. House, with southern states being among the hardest hit. These impacts will likely compound after 2030, as population trends are projected to shift additional Congressional seats to Republican-controlled states — including in five states where Power the Vote has funded voter protection staff: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas.
We founded Power the Vote because we believe Democrats need a strategy that strikes at the heart of Republicans’ suppressive tactics. We saw the power of sustained voter protection funding in Georgia in 2020, where the voter protection program we led saved enough votes to make the margin of victory. Now, as the threats to democracy are growing, it’s not enough to stick to business as usual. Democrats have to scrap the old playbook of boom-and-bust voter protection programming — but they need all of us to do our part to make it possible. That’s why Power the Vote is on the leading edge of this fight, working to support state Democratic Parties as they build a year-round movement for democracy.