Will Democrats go to war on voting rights?
ANALYSIS  Democrats plans to sweep away new restrictions on voting that some Republican-run states are imposing took a blow when one of their own, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III, declared on June 6 that he would oppose the House-passed For the People Act. Marc Elias, the Democratic lawyer with Perkins Coie who fought former President Donald Trumps baseless election challenges and is now suing several states over their new laws, has an idea. In a blog post last month, Elias proposes that the House Democratic majority refuse to seat newly elected Republicans from states that imposed the restrictions. Elias recounts the story of Mississippi civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamers challenge to a segregationist incumbent in the 1964 Democratic primary and in the general election, when she ran on the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party line. Hamer and other losing candidates petitioned the House not to seat the Mississippi delegation and presented extensive evidence of disenfranchisement and voter intimidation.