“They helped me—so informative, and it was just such a good exchange back and forth. It was very respectful,” said Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia. “I don’t think anybody changed positions.… We’re just learning where everybody’s coming from. We’re learning where everybody’s position is.”
Manchin’s virtual meeting with NAACP President Derrick Johnson, National Urban League President Marc Morial, the Reverend Al Sharpton and others came just days after he publicly voiced his opposition to a sweeping voting rights bill known as the For the People Act, which is expected to come up in the Senate later this month.
Most legislation requires 60 votes for passage in the Senate because of the existing filibuster rule—a tall hurdle as Democrats have a razor-thin 50-vote majority. Most key priorities have been unable to drum up enough support from Republicans for passage. Some Democrats have pushed for the end to the filibuster, but Manchin has been a persistent roadblock—repeatedly asserting that he’ll never vote to end it, even if that means that Democrat-backed bills won’t be passed.
Manchin, who oversaw elections as West Virginia’s former secretary of state, penned an op-ed that ran in his local newspaper over the weekend, explaining his opposition to the For the People Act, describing it as too partisan.
“This more than 800-page bill has garnered zero Republican support,” he wrote in The Charleston Gazette. “The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen.”
But Manchin described a cordial meeting on Tuesday with the civil rights leaders and said he expects there will be more meetings in the future.
“We’re gonna continue our conversations,” Manchin said. “We need to continue conversations and to learn more.”
In a joint statement released after the meeting, the leaders of the civil rights groups that met with Manchin again voiced support for the For the People Act, as well as the separate John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which Manchin said he could support if it becomes bipartisan.
“The two voting rights bills are a top priority and essential to protect the freedom to vote,” they wrote in their statement. “There continues to be an unprecedented partisan wave of state legislative proposals that are aimed at denying the right to vote—particularly for Black and Brown people.”
The For the People Act, which has already passed the Democrat-controlled House, seeks to reverse some of the state-level legislation that Republican lawmakers have pushed following the 2020 election cycle. Among other provisions, it would require states to allow same-day voter registration and extend early voting and vote-by-mail opportunities.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, named for the late Georgia congressman, seeks to shore up components of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that have been challenged in court.
Update - 6/8/21 - 12:40 p.m. EST - This story has been updated with additional information
