January 18, 2022

Dear Members of the U.S. Senate:

We cannot think of a time more defining to the American story than the chapter you are presently
writing.

God’s book explains that “a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.” What
country will your children and grandchildren be left with, given the relentless assaults on American
freedom and democracy?

Many young Americans will have fewer rights at the ballot box by age 18 – if any – than they would
have had in the year they were born. This is not an issue of bipartisanship; it is not a time to play a
repugnant game with our politics. This is about the future of America.

Last year, state legislators introduced 440 voter suppression bills across the country, and many
were successfully etched in law. Efforts to suppress voters have only intensified in this new year.

As an American, first and foremost – before political party – it is your duty to preserve democracy.
This has nothing to do with the D or the R after your name. But it has everything to do with being
an American that We The People elected to office.

Senators, our democracy may be standing in its final hour. The bedrock of freedom in America lies
in our sacred right to vote. Without it, everything else crumbles. We still have time to act, but the
window of opportunity is rapidly narrowing. Let’s not miss this critical moment to pass federal
voting rights protections, what may be our last hope to save our democracy.

Democratic senators: what good is preserving a dysfunctional tradition of bipartisanship if

bipartisanship cannot even preserve democracy? It is morally inconsistent to praise voting rights
legislation while allowing a procedural rule to tank it.

Let’s be honest, every voter suppression bill passed in the 19 states across the country has been
passed by Republicans alone. If one party can dismantle our democracy on its own, the other party
should muster the courage to safeguard it.
You swore an oath to defend the United States. If it boils down to it, a partisan vote is a very low
price to pay to defend America.

And to Republican senators: Mitch McConnell – a Republican – stated on the floor of the Senate
that the Voting Rights Act is “a good piece of legislation that has served an important purpose over
many, many years,” and that this “landmark piece of legislation will continue to make a difference,
not only in the south but for all of America.”

It’s not just Leader McConnell. Republican presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush and W. Bush each
reauthorized the Voting Rights Act. In fact, at the NAACP National Convention in 2006, President
George W. Bush passionately urged Senators to pass the bill “promptly,” so that he could sign it
into law. The Voting Rights Act was reauthorized that year by 98-0, with the support of 16
Republicans still serving in the Senate today.

Your party has a history of supporting voting rights. What is so different about preserving our
democracy now?

To each and every senator: please do not further contribute to the devastating state of our
politics today, especially with our democracy in peril. For over a century, the NAACP has fought for
equal rights under the law. We have experienced throughout the decades the tragic consequences
that occur when groups of people are denied a seat at the table of democracy. Do not play that
dangerous game with our own country and our own people, again.

It is President Lyndon B. Johnson who expressed that “it is wrong, deadly wrong, to deny any of
your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of states’ rights or national
rights, there is only the struggle for human rights.”

Senators, with your vote, you will decide who defines America, and who has a voice in America.

Your vote could complete the final sentence to the story of American democracy, shutting the
doors on The People’s right to vote. Or it could flip the page to a new, inclusive and prosperous
chapter. So we implore you to cast your vote wisely, for if you fail to do so, it is our votes and our
children’s votes that may soon no longer count in the eyes of the law.

The millions around the country who make up the NAACP pray that God grants each of you the
courage necessary to do what is right for America.

Sincerely,

Derrick Johnson
President and CEO
NAACP