Subject: Fwd: NC Press Call
From: "Jefferson, Deshundra" <[email-masked]>
To: "Miranda, Luis" <[email-masked]>, "Paustenbach, Mark" <[email-masked]>, "Walsh, Tom" <[email-masked]>, "Walker, Eric" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2016 15:55:11 -0700

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Pratt Wiley <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>>
Date: April 26, 2016 at 6:37:39 PM EDT
To: "Jefferson, Deshundra" <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>>, "Walker, Eric" <[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>>
Subject: RE: NC Press Call

Here is the draft of my comments.  Deshundra has seen most of this (I added back the contrast between our litigation priorities from today’s statement).

What we’re witnessing in North Carolina is hardly unique to that state. Republican-controlled legislatures, particularly in presidential battlegrounds, are passing laws that target women, students, the elderly, and people of color. These voters represent the Democrat’s core constituency, and the majority of Americans.

It’s not hard to see that this is a part of a cynical political ploy to boast the Republican’s electoral success this fall.

Earlier this month, students at the Marquette University polling station faced two hour wait times to vote. Many still stood in line well after the polls official closed and the race was called. At the same time, a Republican Wisconsin Congressman bragged to reporters that the state’s restrictive photo ID law would help the GOP defeat Democrats.

In Texas, Senator Ted Cruz recently filed an amicus brief in support of Texas’ restrictive photo ID law. Cruz wears his opposition to voting rights as a badge of honor. In 2012, he voiced his opposition to a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. He also led the fight as Texas Solicitor General to limit voter registration efforts in communities of color, vigorously defending a discriminatory law against a civil rights lawsuit.

And we all remember just four years ago when the Pennsylvania Republican House Leader announced that the state’s restrictive photo ID law was ‘gonna allow Governor Romney to win the State of Pennsylvania.’

While Democrats have gone to court in Arizona to reverse the culture of discrimination and disenfranchisement, Republicans are going to court to defend laws designed to decrease voter turnout – because that is their only path to victory.

As mentioned by our distinguished speakers, the DNC and Democrats across the nation will not waver in defending the right to vote – the most fundamental of all of our rights.   And we support efforts like those the voting rights activists in North Carolina who plan to file an appeal in the Circuit Courts to overturn H.B. 589.

-          Pratt asks for any questions -

From: Jefferson, Deshundra
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 6:31 PM
To: Pratt Wiley; Walker, Eric
Subject: NC Press Call

I have to leave shortly so that I can make it home in time for media monitoring. Attached is the script that I sent Reps. Butterfield and Adams.

Eric – Pratt is working on his portion. Can you submit it through the approvals process?

[SigDems]<http://www.democrats.org/>Deshundra Jefferson, Southern Regional Communications Director
Democratic National Committee
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]> | (202) 863-8112