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For Immediate Release
September, 19 2023, 02:03pm EDT
Contact:
Katie Scally: kscally@commoncause.org
John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act Will Protect Every American’s Freedom to Vote
Statement of Sylvia Albert, Common Cause Director of Voting & Elections
Americans expect and deserve free and fair elections. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act will protect the freedom to vote of every American at a time when voting rights are once again under attack in many parts of our nation. The legislation, reintroduced today in the House of Representatives, will repair much of the damage done to the Voting Rights Act a decade ago by the Supreme Court in its Shelby County v. Holder decision and subsequent rulings.
This legislation will curb the coordinated effort by Republican state legislatures across the country to silence Black and brown voters after they showed up to vote in record numbers during the 2020 election. This ongoing effort to suppress the vote harkens back to the shameful Jim Crow era. At that time, it took the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and rigorous enforcement by the U.S. Department of Justice to curb the wholesale abuses and attacks on the freedom to vote.
Today it will take passage of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to curb this new generation of assaults on the freedom to vote and to strengthen the ability of the Department of Justice to protect that sacred freedom with the tools it used for decades.
We commend Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL), Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and the rest of House Democratic leadership team for introducing this critical legislation to safeguard the voting rights of every American. We urge both the House and Senate to pass it swiftly so that it can be signed into law by President Biden.
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
(202) 833-1200LATEST NEWS
'Charade Is Over': New Platner Ad Takes Aim at Collins' 'Symbolic Opposition' to Trump Agenda
"Symbolic opposition doesn't reopen hospitals. Weak condemnations don't bring back Roe v. Wade," the Democratic challenger thundered in a new broadside against Maine's five-term Republican senator.
May 07, 2026
US Senate hopeful Graham Platner called out the "performative politics" of his Republican opponent, Sen. Susan Collins, in a campaign ad released Thursday.
"Susan Collins' charade is over," Platner said in a recent Portland speech featured in the minute-long ad which calls the Maine incumbent—a self-styled "moderate"—out for what he describes as "symbolic opposition" to President Donald Trump while co-signing his agenda.
Despite frequent public statements of opposition to the president, according to a tracker by VoteHub, Collins voted in alignment with Trump nearly 95% of the time in 2025.
While criticizing Trump's threat to wipe out all of Iranian civilization as "incendiary language," Collins has on multiple occasions voted against war powers resolutions that would give Congress a check on the president's warmaking authority. (Though she did recently break with Trump by voting to advance another failed measure to remove US forces after a 60-day deadline in late April—making her one of only two Republicans to do so.)
Previously, while expressing concerns about the "harmful impact" of massive Medicaid cuts in last summer's Republican budget legislation and ultimately voting against the final bill, Collins played a critical role in its passage by casting a decisive vote that allowed the legislation to clear a procedural
In 2022, when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Collins warned the ruling would lead to “extreme abortion bans,” but ultimately voted against a bill that could have codified abortion rights into law while refusing to help lift the filibuster to pass her own bill.
"We don't care that you pretend to be remorseful at the start of a new forever war that you chose to let happen," Platner thundered from the podium in the new ad, which will air digitally and on TV across Maine. "We don't care that you are 'concerned' while we go broke as you sell us out to the president and to the Epstein class," referring to the wealthy allies of the late billionaire sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
Platner said these elites "are engineering the greatest redistribution of wealth from the working class to the ruling class in this nation's history."
"Symbolic opposition doesn't reopen hospitals. Weak condemnations don't bring back Roe v. Wade. And selling out working-class voters who've delivered mandate for change after mandate for change is not forgivable," he continued. "A performative politics that enables the destruction of our way of life is disqualifying."
After Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills suspended her floundering campaign last week, Platner, a 41-year-old former Marine-turned-oyster farmer, is on track to easily win the nomination to take on the five-term incumbent Collins in a race that could decide the Senate’s balance of power in November.
Platner’s campaign, which has unapologetically deployed the rhetoric of class war and centered on proposals like Medicare for All, a tax on extreme wealth, and an end to foreign wars, has been described as rewriting the conventional wisdom of what sort of Democrat can be viable in a purple state like Maine.
Though Mills had the backing of the Democratic Party establishment, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), polls have consistently shown that Platner’s message has resonated much more with the state’s Democratic voters. It appears to be resonating with general election voters as well.
According to a poll by Echelon Insights in early April, before Mills dropped out, Platner was leading Collins by a six-point margin of 51-45%, while Mills led by just two points.
But Platner will face a challenge to maintain this lead, as the Pine Tree Results PAC—an outfit supporting Collins with funding from wealthy tech and Wall Street barons—has more than $11.5 million on hand to pepper him with attacks in the coming months, according to Politico.
Platner has rejected super PAC donations, but has dominated with small donors, raising around $4 million from about 88,000 individual contributors in the first quarter of 2026, though he has just about $2.7 million left after his protracted battle with Mills.
During the same quarter, Collins raised just over $300,000 from individual donors of under $200, according to Federal Election Commission filings—less than 15% of her total fundraising haul.
In an email, the Platner campaign said it hoped the new ad would help it make "the case for change in Maine" as Collins "sells Mainers out to corporate lobbyists."
Ryan Grim, the editor and co-founder of Drop Site News, remarked on social media that with this ad, Platner was taking a much harsher tone towards Collins than previous Democratic opponents have.
"Platner hits the Epstein class in his first ad," he said. "Treating Collins with kid gloves hasn’t worked before. Platner is taking them off."
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‘What Evil Looks Like’: Outrage as Tennessee GOP Rams Through Racist Voting Map at Trump’s Behest
“This is not a special session—this is a white power rally, and a white power grab," said one Tennessee Democrat.
May 07, 2026
Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives voted during a special session on Thursday to adopt a new congressional map that would carve up the state's lone majority-Black district, a move that came amid raucous protests from angry residents and Democratic lawmakers.
The special session was called by GOP Gov. Bill Lee at the behest of President Donald Trump, whose aggressive gerrymandering push across the country was supercharged by the US Supreme Court's decision last week gutting the 1965 Voting Rights Act’s protections against racial discrimination. One Tennessee Republican—state Rep. Todd Warner (R-92)—walked into the House chamber for Thursday's vote wearing a Trump 2024 flag as a cape.
The Tennessee House approved the new congressional map, which would likely draw the only Democrat in Tennessee's US congressional delegation out of his seat, by a party-line vote of 64 to 25. Following the vote, The Tennessean reported that "Democrats linked arms and walked out of the room. Seconds later, the chamber adjourned."
Shouts of rage flooded the Tennessee House chamber after the map passed, and protesters booed and jeered Republican lawmakers as they exited.
⚡️ WATCH — JUST NOW — 99% white Tennessee House Republicans pass a racist 9-0 map stripping majority Black Memphis of congressional representation pic.twitter.com/OYwTWZK2i1
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 7, 2026
House passage of the map came after lawmakers voted to repeal a 1972 ban on mid-decade redistricting after limited debate, clearing the way for approval of the new district lines, which are expected to draw US Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)—the only Democrat in Tennessee's congressional delegation—out of his seat.
The Tennessee Senate is expected to approve the new map on Friday.
State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-86), whose brother was among the demonstrators arrested during a protest against the new map, said in the wake of Thursday's vote that "this is what evil looks like."
"I told a colleague today that you're all going to have a lot to repent for, because these actions are evil," Pearson told Zeteo. "And we have to use that language."
Ahead of Thursday's vote, state Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-90) said that "this is not a special session—this is a white power rally, and a white power grab."
REP. @VoteGloriaJ: “This is not a special session, this is a white power rally, and a white power grab.”#JimCrow #Memphis pic.twitter.com/K3TO3IAbzk
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) May 7, 2026
Democracy Docket reported that the new map "splits Memphis, a majority-Black city that made up most of the state’s 9th Congressional District, between three districts."
"It also further fractures Nashville, another Democratic stronghold in the state," the outlet added.
The ACLU of Tennessee called the redrawn district lines a "Jim Crow" map with the "specific goal of targeting the state's only majority-minority district in Memphis."
"The moment politicians manipulate the map," the group warned, "the power begins to leave your hands."
Tennessee's special session came days after Louisiana's Republican governor suspended his state's US House primaries to allow lawmakers to redraw district lines following the US Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v. Callais, the high court's latest hammer blow to the Voting Rights Act.
Republican lawmakers in Alabama and Mississippi are also moving to redraw their states' district lines following the Supreme Court's ruling.
"By weakening protections against racial gerrymandering, the court made it easier for politicians to draw voting maps that look neutral but quietly weaken the voices of communities of color," warned the pro-democracy group Common Cause. "When that happens, certain voters have less of a say in who represents them, and that’s exactly how power gets skewed.
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'An Embrace of Anti-Intellectualism': Public School Bans on Nonfiction Books Doubled as Trump Returned to Power
One expert warned that removing works on activism and social movements erodes the ability of marginalized communities "to take action amid rising authoritarian tactics by our government and attacks on free speech."
May 07, 2026
As President Donald Trump returned to the White House in the middle of the 2024-25 academic year and swiftly pursued increasingly authoritarian policies, there was "an embrace of anti-intellectualism" within the book-banning movement targeting US public schools and classrooms.
That embrace is detailed in "Facts & Fiction: Stories Stripped Away By Book Bans," an annual report released Thursday by PEN America, a nonprofit that promotes the protection of free expression through the advancement of human rights and literature.
The group found that from July 2024 to last June, 3,743 unique titles were removed from school libraries and classrooms nationwide—and 1,102 of them were "educational or informational books for young people—textbooks or reference texts on a wide range of subjects, history books, biographies, and autobiographies."
Although the majority of banned titles were still fiction, such as Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the share of "fiction titles dropped from 85% to 69% of all banned titles, while nonfiction rose from 14% to a startling 29% of all banned titles," according to the analysis.
"This marked impact on books anchored in scientific and historic facts, real events, and real people represents something new and distinctive about the trajectory of book bans in public schools," the report states. "As nonfiction titles are not always the targets of efforts to remove books, that books on ancient Egypt, the digestive system, and self-help for teens, to name a few examples, are impacted by censorship signals an alarming spread of book bans that ignore the educational value of texts and books."
Targeted "nonfiction titles are wide-ranging," the report notes, "from memoirs such as Night by Elie Wiesel to biographies such as RuPaul by Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara, alongside historical and educational or informational books such as Aztec, Inca & Maya by Elizabeth Baquedano and Challenges for LGBTQ Teens by Martha Lundin."
Flagging this "embrace of anti-intellectualism" in a statement about the new report, Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America's Freedom to Read program, said that "it is another example of how censorship sweeps broadly, leading to removals of all kinds of books, in its efforts to sow fear and distrust in our public education system."
Like the previous academic year, "realistic/contemporary and dystopia/sci-fi/fantasy remain the dominant genres banned," the publication highlights. "But of note, educational/informational titles grew from 5% of all titles in 2023-24 to 13% of total titles banned in 2024-25, or nearly 500 unique titles."
Among the nonfiction titles banned, "52% contained themes of activism and social movements, the most commonly banned topic within nonfiction titles," the report says. "Whether #WomensMarch: Insisting on Equality by Rebecca Felix or IntersectionAllies: We Make Room for All by Chelsea Johnson, LaToya Council, and Carolyn Choi, and illustrated by Ashley Seil Smith, this literature is crucial in the education of young people. These books can encourage readers to challenge the status quo and resist injustice."
Freedom to Read program assistant and report co-author Yuliana Tamayo Latorre said that removing books on these topics "silences the voices of marginalized communities and erode[s] their ability to take action amid rising authoritarian tactics by our government and attacks on free speech."
The most common theme across all banned books was nonsexual violence. This was a theme in 57% of the targeted titles, and they addressed topics including "war, gun violence, natural disasters, domestic violence, human trafficking, slavery and genocide, physical fighting, and more."
Other key themes included death and grief (48%), empowerment and self-esteem (39%), LGBTQ+ topics and metaphors (36%), consensual sexual experiences (34%), mental health disorders (29%), verbal or emotional abuse (28%), and substance use and/or abuse (27%).
There was an increase in banned titles with themes of empowerment and self-esteem, up from 31% in 2023-24.
"Fictional titles with themes of empowerment include Flor Fights Back: A Stonewall Riots Survival Story by Joy Michael Ellison and illustrated by Francesca Ficorilli, and The Moon Within by Aida Salazar," the report says. "To remove these books from classroom and library shelves means revoking access to books that students may rely on for personal and emotional development."
There is an entire section of the report about "erasing people" that examines trends in the identities of characters in banned books. Of all the targeted titles, 44% featured people of color, 39% had LGBTQ+ characters, 19% included transgender or genderqueer individuals, and 10% involved those who are neurodivergent or disabled.
Trump and other leading Republicans have embraced and advanced campaigns against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). PEN America acknowledged that such efforts "have contributed to restrictions and removals on books with people of color and mirror efforts to suppress curriculum on Indigenous history, Black history, Asian American and Pacific Islander stories, and Latine and Hispanic contributions."
Another section of the report addresses a major "discrepancy between the titles impacted by book bans and the justifications made to ban books. Book banners have long cited 'pornography' and 'sexually explicit' material in literature to justify book challenges. Claims that these books contain 'explicit' or 'obscene' content grossly misrepresent the materials."
That section points out that 19% of last year's banned titles contained sexual violence—and "according to RAINN, 1 in 9 girls and 1 in 20 boys under 18 experience sexual abuse or assault. With so many of these titles banned since 2021, it is possible that some young people who have experienced sexual violence no longer have access to books that could help them."
"Books containing experiences of sexual violence include The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, set in a 1960s Southern juvenile reform school, and Laurie Halse Anderson's memoir Shout, a call to action for sexual abuse and trauma survivors in the wake of the #MeToo movement," according to PEN America.
The group's report came just a few weeks after a similar annual publication from the American Library Association, which details challenges to at least 4,235 unique titles in 2025, resulting in bans on at least 5,668 books and restrictions on another 920 works.
"In 2025, book bans were not sparked by concerned parents, and they were not the result of local grassroots efforts," noted Sarah Lamdan, executive director of the association's Office for Intellectual Freedom. “They were part of a well-funded, politically driven campaign to suppress the stories and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals and communities."
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