“The Democracy Doesn’t Belong to the Politicians” Warnock Stands with Faith Leaders to Decry Gutting of Voting Rights Act

Last month, the Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, greenlighting states' ability to making it significantly easier for states to dilute the power of Black and brown voters

Senator Reverend Warnock has long fought to protect the voting rights of Georgians, including introducing legislation to restore critical safeguards of the original Voting Rights Act and to ban gerrymandering

Senator Reverend Warnock: "The same people who have robbed people of health care and robbed people of food are now trying to rob them of their vote and their voice and their democracy because they don't want the people to hold them accountable come November. But I've got news for them. We're going to show up not just in November, but in the months leading to November, because the democracy doesn't belong to the politicians."

Photo credit: WJCL Savannah

Savannah, GA - Today, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) stood with dozens of faith leaders and elected leaders across South Georgia. The Senator, along with Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, and Reverend Thurmond Neill Tillman, stood in front of the historic First African Baptist Church. The speakers highlighted the legacy of Savannah's Civil Rights heroes, including Rev. Ralph Mark Gilbert and Hosea Williams, and denounced the court's decision, which undid their lifetimes of work.

"So, let's be very clear, Last week marked a devastating day in the history of our country and a massive step backwards in American democracy. And the impact of that massive step backwards will be felt by all Americans. I'm here because I'm worried about all Americans," said Senator Warnock."I promised that I would fight for all Georgians, and this is an assault on the ability of ordinary people to be heard, thanks to the Supreme Court's deeply misguided decision, states are now free to racially gerrymander however they see fit."

"The same people who have robbed people of health care and robbed people of food are now trying to rob them of their vote and their voice and their democracy because they don't want the people to hold them accountable come November," continued Senator Warnock. "But I've got news for them. We're going to show up not just in November, but in the months leading to November, because the democracy doesn't belong to the politicians."

The Senator's full remarks can be found HERE and below:

"Well, good morning, Savannah, Georgia, it's great to see all of you here today. We really can't overstate how important this moment really is. Thanks to my friend Mayor Van Johnson. Let's give the mayor a great big round of applause, and the pastor who knew me when I was an elementary school student, you're getting up there, Rev. But I used to spend evenings in the basement here for overnight retreats. And now I'm his Senator, and he's forever my pastor, Reverend Thurman Tillman. None like him. Give him a great big round of applause.

So, let's be very clear, Last week marked a devastating day in the history of our country and a massive step backwards in American democracy. And the impact of that massive step backwards will be felt by all Americans. I'm here because I'm worried about all Americans. I promised that I would fight for all Georgians, and this is an assault on the ability of ordinary people to be heard, thanks to the Supreme Court's deeply misguided decision, states are now free to racially gerrymander however they see fit.

The court is bringing back so-called race-neutral policies. Let me be really clear, Black and brown voters are being targeted by these gerrymanders. This notion of race neutral is a lie on its face. We have seen so-called race-neutral policies before that completely erase the ability of Black and brown voters to be heard. Grandfather clauses, literacy tests, tell me how many jelly beans are in the jar. All of those policies were allegedly race-neutral. There's nothing new about this.

Black and Brown voters are being targeted, but women are also being targeted because the same folks who cheer this awful decision by the Supreme Court were also trying to pass the so-called SAVE Act. And let me be clear, they're not trying to save America. They are certainly not trying to save the democracy. They're trying to save their power at any cost.

So the SAVE Act said that you've got to have your birth certificate in order to register to vote. Most people can't find their birth certificate, or you've got to have a passport. Most Americans don't have a passport. And if you're a woman and your name is different from the name that's on your birth certificate, you've got to find your birth certificate, then find your marriage certificate, which you may not want to find! And then go get an affidavit.

You've got to jump through all of these hoops just to vote. Voting is not a privilege, it's a right, and I'm tired of people treating it like a privilege, it's a right, it's a right.

And so I'm honored to stand here. We are on holy ground. This is First African Baptist Church. This is the church that was built by slaves who never gave up on the American promise. They really didn't have much reason to believe, but they kept fighting. This is the church of Reverend Ralph Mark Gilbert, who was also the president of the NAACP, dedicated to ensuring that we had access to the ballot and he saw firsthand the challenges of black representation, again, under allegedly race-neutral policies. We're standing on holy ground.

Folks in Washington are playing with the blood of our ancestors. Jon Lewis, my own parishioner, who gave a little blood that day, as he used to say, on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Amelia Boynton, who was gassed, but not just African Americans, Schwerner, Chaney, and Goodman, two Jews and an African American, who died fighting for the right to vote. Viola Louisa, a white woman from Detroit, killed in the heart of the South, fighting for that basic American covenant, one person, one vote.

And so all of these things must be seen as knit together, the SAVE Act, the assault on Section 2, after the assault on Section 5, the raiding of the Fulton County Board of Elections by the FBI about an election that was in 2020? And now a subpoena from a US Attorney in North Carolina demanding information about regular election workers in Georgia. Why? Why is the Trump administration harassing election workers? Why are they intimidating ordinary people that they might be afraid to volunteer just to be the gears that keep our system going?

He doesn't believe in democracy. He believes in power. And he's aided and abetted by cynical politicians who, just hours after the Supreme Court tore down Civil Rights Era protections, jumped into action, and they're busy redrawing the maps, mid-decade in Louisiana, in Tennessee, threatening to do it in Mississippi, doing it in Alabama.

The same people who have robbed the people of their doctors with their draconian cuts to Medicaid, who robbed ordinary children of food through these awful cuts to SNAP, which, by the way, are disproportionately hitting red rural districts. I'm out here fighting because I don't want to see poor little white children in rural Georgia hungry. I don't want to see Black kids growing up in Kayton homes, [gestures in direction of Kayton homes] where I grew up hungry. I don't want to see working people unable to get their health care because they can't afford it, because this Congress would not provide those tax credits.

The same people who have robbed people of health care and robbed people of food are now trying to rob them of their vote and their voice and their democracy because they don't want the people to hold them accountable come November. But I've got news for them. We're going to show up not just in November, but in the months leading to November, because the democracy doesn't belong to the politicians. They're trying to turn the democracy upside down. That's what gerrymandering is about, so that rather than the people picking the politicians, the politicians get to pick their voters. That's what it is. That's what gerrymandering is.

But I've got news for them: The democracy doesn't belong to the politicians. It belongs to the people, and the people are coming to get their power back."

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