Jaime Harrison: SCOTUS Ruling Used the ‘Poison of Jim Crow’ to Weaken the Voting Rights Act

During a Thursday appearance on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison reacted to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Arizona law that bans ballot harvesting and a policy that throws out ballots cast by voters in precincts in which they do not reside.

Harrison described the decision as “a kick to the gut.” He argued the ruling used the “poison of Jim Crow” to prevent minorities from enjoying “the same voting rights that other Americans have.”

“This was a kick to the gut. It really was,” Harrison said of the ruling. “And I think Justice Kagan, in her dissent, put it perfectly. In essence, what the court did when they made their decision, they poured old poison into new bottles. We know the poison of Jim Crow. We know what has happened in the past, in terms of how minorities in this country have not always enjoyed the same voting rights that other Americans have.”

He continued, “And we know that Justice Roberts, this isn`t his first bite at the apple. Shelby was his first bite at the apple, and this has been a lifelong dream of his — to chip away at the Voting Rights Act. But you know what … we`re not going to sit around wringing our hands, crying into some handkerchiefs. We have to mobilize, and we have to fight. We got to get people registered to vote. We got to educate them on why it is important to vote. We got to mobilize them. And then, we are going to protect every damn vote that we can, that we will at the ballot box. And that’s what we have to do.”

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