Sen. Sanders calls out Manchin, Sinema by name ahead of Senate vote on Voting Rights legislation

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is appealing to Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kristen Sinema (D-AZ) to vote with their party when voting rights legislation finally comes to a vote on the Senate floor.

Sanders, in a Tweet this weekend, asked the two holdout Senators specifically whether they would vote for the bill and override the filibuster.

“As the voting rights bill finally comes to the floor of the Senate, there is only one vote which will really matter,” Sanders wrote. “Will 50 Democrats vote to override the filibuster, protect American democracy and pass the bill, or will Manchin and Sinema vote with the GOP and let the bill die?”

Democrats will work to combine two voting rights bills, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Voting Rights Act, and pass the legislation in the Senate in a vote that is currently scheduled for this Wednesday. In order to pass the bill, Democrats would need the votes of everyone in their party and the votes of ten GOP senators.

The GOP is expected to block the legislation, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says will prompt him to force a vote on changing the rules of the Senate.

“Members of this chamber were elected to debate and to vote, particularly on an issue as vital to the beating heart of our democracy as this one, and we will proceed,” Schumer said in a scheduling meeting last week. “And if the Senate Republicans choose obstruction over protecting the sacred right to vote, as we expect them to, the Senate will consider and vote on changing the Senate rules.”