--- title: Democrats' Popular Efforts In the Senate Keep Dying description: Increasingly, it seems as though the substance of the legislation being bandied about at the Capitol doesn’t really matter. canonical: https://time.com/6074743/democrats-congress-voting-manchin/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-06-22T15:26:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T01:09:17.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Democrats Bring Popular Efforts to the Senate. Why They Keep Dying og:description: It seems as though the substance of the legislation being bandied about at the Capitol doesn’t really matter. og:url: https://time.com/6074743/democrats-congress-voting-manchin/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08e11117684cfc03/698a1a7f86f68e7a656f0106/for-the-people-act-democrats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: For the People Act Press Conference on Capitol Hill, Capitol Hill, Washington, Dc, United States - 03 Mar 2021 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Democrats Bring Popular Efforts to the Senate. Why They Keep Dying twitter:description: It seems as though the substance of the legislation being bandied about at the Capitol doesn’t really matter. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08e11117684cfc03/698a1a7f86f68e7a656f0106/for-the-people-act-democrats.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Democrats Bring Popular Efforts to the Senate. Why They Keep Dying > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 12, 2023 1:09 AM UTCPublished: Jun 22, 2021 3:26 PM UTC  Staffers place a sign on a podium in preparation for a news conference with House Democrats regarding H.R. 1, the For the People Act, on Capitol Hill on March 3, 2021. Staffers place a sign on a podium in preparation for a news conference with House Democrats regarding H.R. 1, the For the People Act, on Capitol Hill on March 3, 2021. Kent Nishimura—Los Angeles Times/Shutterstock  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Updated: Dec 12, 2023 1:09 AM UTCPublished: Jun 22, 2021 3:26 PM UTC _This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletter%5Fopt-in?qs=3a19a0aa35903a2d9f214b74f69a37910b58de73cf3f2b89adc123fac024f0478c72f91010ae9d01f08f46c616068cab3e74726837cd2cce70dac3796e46c2b4) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday._ Increasingly, it seems as though the substance of the legislation being bandied about at the Capitol doesn’t really matter. Instead, partisan fault lines are as predictable as Washington’s humidity, and both are swamping Democrats’ hopes of getting big-idea bills to President Joe Biden’s desk. If it weren’t so maddening, it would be laughable. On Tuesday night, Senate Democrats attempted to begin the debate over a massive voting-rights [package](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/us/politics/senate-voting-rights-bill.html) that would [undo](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/02/state-voting-restrictions/) restrictive bills that have made their way into state laws in places like Georgia, Florida and Arizona. Along a party-line vote, Republicans [blocked](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-voting-rights-bill/2021/06/22/d63f6a46-d35a-11eb-ae54-515e2f63d37d%5Fstory.html) even the first steps on the measure. Backers describe it as an attempt to defend democracy itself, and its detractors decry as an overstep on elections, which should be run by the states and not by Washington. But voters? They really like it. In fact, when partisan cues are stripped from polling and pollsters simply ask about the meat of the proposal, more than 80% of Americans agree that foreign interference in U.S. elections should be a no-no, that money is too prevalent in politics and that election security can be improved. When it comes to making it easier to vote—same-day registration, 15 days of early voting and nonpartisan redistricting commissions—support still stays north of 60%, according to Vox [polling](https://www.vox.com/2021/5/3/22406391/hr1-poll-for-the-people-act) from the spring. Still, Republicans are standing lockstep against what Democrats have titled the For The People Act. And Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is standing with them—not because he disagrees with the Democrats’ bill on its merits, but [because](https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op%5Fed%5Fcommentaries/joe-manchin-why-im-voting-against-the-for-the-people-act/article%5Fc7eb2551-a500-5f77-aa37-2e42d0af870f.html) he says a partisan voting-rights bill could spark the kind of distrust and anarchy that [besieged](https://time.com/5927664/capital-siege-trump-supporters/) the Capitol on Jan. 6\. After intense lobbying from top Democrats, Manchin ultimately voted to begin debate but remains committed to finding something that can pass with Republican votes. Manchin has offered his own compromise, notably including a voter-ID requirement that was missing from Democrats’ earlier draft. Progressives have long [argued](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts%5Flaw/getting-a-photo-id-so-you-can-vote-is-easy-unless-youre-poor-black-latino-or-elderly/2016/05/23/8d5474ec-20f0-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972%5Fstory.html) that such a requirement is unfair to minorities and elderly voters who may not have access to such documents, but liberal voting-rights maven Stacey Abrams blessed Manchin’s compromise attempt. [Progressives](https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/20/politics/voting-rights-joe-manchin-bernie-sanders-cnntv/index.html) like Sen. Bernie Sanders, too, signaled they could accept Manchin’s plan if it meant getting his vote. And the voter-ID question isn’t as [partisan](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-oppose-many-voting-restrictions-but-not-voter-id-laws/) as many in the Democratic coalition had once feared: Monmouth [polling](https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll%5Fus%5F062121/) out just yesterday found voter-ID requirements have the support of 62% of Democrats and 87% of independents. (Republicans, who for years have argued poor and minority voters were cheating the system in places without voter-ID laws, support the requirement with a whopping 91%.) So even if the Democrats’ For The People Act goes down, Manchin’s compromise is going to get across the finish line, right? No. Manchin may have found the sweet spot on voting rights on policy, but he can’t change the politics of Washington. As soon as Manchin rolled out his proposal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell [tossed](https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/18/politics/mitch-mcconnell-joe-manchin/index.html) a bucket of ice water on it, saying Republicans still won’t put new federal curbs on what traditionally have been state affairs, and won’t support his plan. McConnell’s allies fell in line, sensing the merits in denying Biden a win at this point and reinforcing every toxic [instinct](https://time.com/6049812/republicans-january-6-commission/) of The Big Lie. Absent 10 Republicans [siding](https://newrepublic.com/article/162796/manchin-voting-rights-gerrymandering-reform) with Democrats to open the door to an actual vote, the GOP can threaten a [filibuster](https://time.com/5946162/filibuster-reform-senate/) and [shut down](https://time.com/5932616/why-mitch-mcconnell-is-filibustering-to-protect-the-filibuster/) the Senate. So even though Manchin found a voting rights plan that is popular with voters on both sides, only lawmakers wearing blue jerseys are willing to stand with him. If all of this sounds familiar, it should. It’s close to the pattern that’s been playing out for months on bipartisan and popular criminal-justice [efforts](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-drugs-sentencing-cocaine/2021/06/21/cd0c5e26-d2dc-11eb-ae54-515e2f63d37d%5Fstory.html) that have drawn a [broad](https://time.com/5955411/biden-police-reform/) and [powerful](https://time.com/5483697/criminal-justice-reform-senate-passes/) coalition of backers. It’s the same dance with an infrastructure bill, whose details are also expected to emerge as soon as today. (Early signs suggest about $580 billion in new spending, although with almost two dozen Senators drafting the outline on legal pads, Post-It notes and magic markers, it’s become something of a muddle.) Washington is also looking nervously at an Aug. 1 deadline to increase the federal credit card’s limit on red ink, a must-pass transportation bill by Sept. 30 and a raft of expiration dates through the summer and fall for COVID-19 relief programs up for renewal. Each is politically inert, broadly popular, but nonetheless far from guaranteed. Lawmakers here in Washington respond to one thing above all else: power. So much energy in this town is spent chasing and defending it that it’s amazing that anything unrelated to that race ever gets finished. So when considering why GOP lawmakers are not even listening to their base’s support for the voting-rights package, it’s worth remembering that something can be simultaneously [popular](https://time.com/5949316/lgbtq-proections-equality-act/) but not agenda-setting. Until there is a cost for inaction, Republicans aren’t going to bend. At least until there is an appreciable threat to their power. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter._](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/politics?source=dc%5Farticle) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6074743/democrats-congress-voting-manchin/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6074743/democrats-congress-voting-manchin/"},"headline":"Democrats Bring Popular Efforts to the Senate. Why They Keep Dying","datePublished":"2021-06-22T15:26:16.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T01:09:17.000Z","description":"Senate Democrats attempted to begin the debate over a massive voting-rights package. Along a party-line vote, Republicans blocked even the first steps on the measure","url":"https://time.com/6074743/democrats-congress-voting-manchin/","keywords":["The D.C. 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