Who will step up as GOP stomps on voters?

On the same day Republicans in Congress officially slammed the door on the For the People Act, which would have massively expanded federal voting rights, here in Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a July 8 special session, which will be exceptional only in its partisan commitment to limit voting.

At the federal level, enabling more Americans to vote through mail-in ballots, automatic voter registration and new voting machines sounds great for democracy. So, of course, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas declared it a “brazen power grab.” One “to ensure that Democrats cannot lose for the next hundred years.”

C’mon, Ted, the next 100 years of Republican solitude? Even when Democrats win the national popular vote, everyone knows they have a pretty good chance of losing a presidential election. That’s part of the problem, right?

The real (brazen) power grab is what’s happening in statehouses across the country, perhaps most notably in Austin, where raw power will come to fruition with the narrowing of ballot access coupled with the Republican gerrymandering that will shape voting for the next decade.

The lie of widespread voter fraud — and the very real legislative response to that bit of political fiction— is the actual voter fraud of this era, a modern day stab-in-the-back myth that reverberates in unsettling ways.

Should Democrats win the presidency in 2024, will Republicans accept the outcome? That this is a legitimate and fair question should make your patriotic heart sink.

Abbott’s commitment to prioritize SB 7 in the upcoming special session — and his defunding of the Legislature for leverage — should be condemned because the elections bill not only will make voting harder for many people, especially people of color, but it also furthers the Big Lie of voter fraud.

Abbott has championed SB 7 as “ensuring election integrity,” but Texas Republicans performed exceptionally well in the 2020 general, which former Secretary of State Ruth Ruggero Hughs described as “an election that was smooth and secure.”

Given the serious concerns over limiting voting in Texas and the partisan roadblocks to do anything at the federal level, one would think Democrats in the Lone Star State would have, by now, settled on a high-profile alternative to Abbott. Someone to also hold pressers at the U.S.Mexico border. Someone to hammer Abbott on his failure to reform the electric grid and to speak about the power of the vote, and the power derived from limiting it.

And perhaps former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, with his fundraising prowess and name recognition, is that person. That this remains a question, though, or that it’s seemingly Beto or Bust for Democrats reflects the fragility of personal brand politics and the lingering weakness of the party in Texas.

It’s striking that former Housing

Secretary and San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro is only marginally mentioned in this conversation. Certainly, if he can seek the Democratic presidential nomination, it’s within the realm of possibility to challenge Abbott. But a key difference is there is no risk in running for president and losing if no one expects you to win. In such a scenario, the benefit is standing on the national stage.

But there is risk in challenging Abbott and losing by a wide margin. A lopsided defeat could tarnish the brand of a rising star. To which, I say, who cares?

If we are indeed facing a crisis in democracy and an assault on voting rights — and a potential electoral crisis in 2024 — then Castro or O’Rourke should embrace that sense of urgency, even if it means losing, perhaps big, in 2022.

This criticism isn’t meant as a “both sides are wrong” type of argument — or even a partisan one. To be clear, there is a wide gap between making voting harder and tethering a political party to the lie of voter fraud versus not stepping up to run for an office one is likely to lose.

That gap is exactly why O’Rourke or Castro should run.

While limiting voting access is profoundly anti-democratic, democracies also falter when there is a paucity of credible candidates to offer an alternative vision, fresh ideas and sharp critiques. Here in Texas, one party seeks to strangle the vote, while the other seeks … a credible challenger. It’s a profoundly sad state of affairs.

Elizabeth Conley / Staff photographer Democrats Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro share the debate stage in 2019 when they were running for president. But now with the rights of Texans in peril, neither has yet jumped in to challenge Gov. Greg Abbott. Take the plunge.