Last night, the people of Alabama rejected the politics of bigotry and hate and elected a progressive Democrat to the U.S. Senate. It was an historic night and a powerful reminder that Democrats can win anywhere in 2018.
But before we can take a break and celebrate our victory, we have a problem: Republican leaders are planning to wait until January to seat Doug Jones — after we vote again on their tax plan.
This is an outrage. Doug opposes this plan to give massive tax breaks to the top 1% and strip health care from millions of Americans. He should get to vote on it.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said just a few weeks ago that we should “let the people of Alabama make the call” in this race. Well, they did — now Republicans need to give that will a voice in the Senate.
So much is at stake in Washington right now — from the tax bill, to net neutrality, to the urgent issue Doug mentioned in his victory speech: the ongoing fight to save health care for nine million lower-income kids.
There is no reason other than craven political opportunism to delay seating Doug and that’s why we need to put pressure on the Republicans today before they get away with this:
Last night was a tremendous victory in the fight for the best of who we are as a country and if we continue to do the hard work over the next year, I believe next holiday season we’ll be celebrating a Democratic and progressive Congress.
Thanks for all you do.
Kamala Harris
U.S. Senate, California