Fight the Obama-inspired 'backlash,' DNC chair tells NAACP
Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, tells NAACP meeting in Philadelphia that Republican-enacted voting restriction are "backlash" against the coalition that elected President Obama.
Republicans have enacted restrictive voting policies across the nation that amount to "voter suppression" aimed at minority communities, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told the NAACP national convention in Philadelphia on Monday.
She urged the civil-rights organization to keep fighting against limits on early voting and requirements that voters bring photo ID to the polls, which she said disproportionately harm women, young voters and people of color.
"It is not a secret that the election of president Obama prompted a backlash against the electoral coalition that put him in office," Wasserman Schultz said. She mentioned Bloody Sunday, the 1965 day that marchers for voting rights were beaten in Selma, Ala., violence that shocked the nation and helped build support for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
"It is difficult to comprehend that this fight continues 50 years later – that's more than my entire life," Wasserman Schultz said. "We're not going back. We're moving forward."
She blasted Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who announced his presidential campaign Monday, for pushing through one of the toughest voter ID laws in the nation. "More of his aides have been indicted than people in Wisconsin have been convicted of voter impersonation," Wasserman Schultz said, referring to a corruption investigation stemming from Walker's earlier time as Milwaukee County executive.
Wasserman Schultz got a huge ovation when she name-checked Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman to serve as the nation's chief law-enforcement officer.
"It's about time. Why'd it take so damn long?" Wasserman Schultz said, as the crowd cheered and whistled. "That wasn't in my remarks; I just had to say that."
DNC officials said that Wasserman Schultz, as well as the convention CEO the Rev. Leah Daughtry, the CEO of the party's 2016 convention in Philadelphia, were meeting later Monday with leaders of the city's host committee for the gathering.
They expressed confidence that the DNC will exceed its 2012 accomplishment for the Charlotte, N.C. of 33 percent of convention-related work going to minority owned firms.