Voting rights are under fire right in front of our faces
Because the MAGA crowd knows they can’t win otherwise
Friends,
There’s something happening in America right now that we have to be honest about, and it is bigger than any single headline.
So let’s zoom out for a moment.
In Louisiana v. Callais last month, the Supreme Court made it much harder to challenge maps drawn to dilute Black voting power. The New York Times reported that the ruling could allow Republican legislatures to erase around a dozen majority-minority House seats across the South. Justice Elena Kagan warned that the Court’s decision would set back “the foundational right” of racial equality in representation.
But before that, there was the SAVE Act: Trump’s bill that would restrict the freedom to vote and require Americans to produce a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. But here’s the thing: Roughly half of American adults do not have a passport. And most married women do not have a birth certificate that matches their current name.
Imagine telling your grandma – who has been voting for decades – that she has to dig through a box in the basement just to prove she can do it again.
And before that, Trump attacked vote-by-mail – the system relied on by seniors, members of our military, disabled voters, and shift workers. The system Trump himself uses, by the way.
This moment could use some blunt Michigan honesty.
Here’s the truth: This is an effort to dilute the vote of Black Americans and trample on the very ideals this country was founded on.
This ruling signals something dangerous: that we, as a country, are willing to walk back basic protections that people fought for – and in many cases died for.
I’m talking about the people who marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The activists who worked relentlessly to register Black voters in Mississippi in 1964. Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis.
In Michigan, we know what democracy looks like when it actually works. In 2024, a record 5.6 million Michiganders cast a ballot, and a big reason for that was vote-by-mail and early voting.
The state did not collapse. The Pistons kept playing, and Coney dogs kept selling.
Here is the part the cable-news pundits will not tell you: Absentee voting – usually by mail – was the most popular way to vote in more than a dozen Michigan counties. Seven of them went for Harris, and seven of them went for Trump.
Turns out, making it easier to vote is not a partisan thing. Folks just want to vote.
That’s why we have to stand together – as one country, in every state, in every election – and say no to people who would rather rewrite the rules than accept the results.
Friends, this is not just a policy fight. It is a moral one.
And I think most Americans, from all different backgrounds, would agree with me if we asked them plainly: Do you believe every eligible American should be able to vote and that their vote should count equally?
Republicans and Democrats alike should be on the side of democracy. It sounds obvious, but it is worth saying out loud, because too many people in power are acting as if it’s somehow optional.
That’s why we’re fighting back. That’s why we’re making sure voters know the truth. for the people who don’t follow politics. And for the people who follow every second of it.
Because the one thing the folks on the voter suppression side of this fight are counting on is that the rest of us are too tired, too distracted, or too cynical to notice what they are building.
But I noticed. I’m sure you do too.
We’re paying attention. We’re not going anywhere.
The Voting Rights Act was not a gift.
It was a demand. It was fought for.
There was real blood and real sacrifice and real people behind those rights. They were won by Americans who refused to accept injustice.
And now, here we are.
With grit,
Haley
A personal note from Haley 👋
I’m a lifelong Michigander and the daughter of small-business owners. I’ve spent my career fighting for Michigan’s working families – and now I’m running for the U.S. Senate to keep standing up for the people I love.
But here’s the truth: Senate control could come down to Michigan. And Trump and his megadonors know it. That’s why they’re gearing up to spend tens of millions to defeat me and hand this seat to a MAGA Republican.
I need your help to fight back. This race will be one of the most competitive – and expensive – in the country, and I’m counting on grassroots support to win.
If you’re with me, will you chip in today?