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Protecting The 'Infrastructure Of Our Democracy': Beto O'Rourke Marches For Voting Rights

Published August 3, 2021 at 1:11 PM EDT
Beto O’Rourke, former Democratic congressman and presidential candidate, speaks at a rally for voting rights in Texas at the Capitol in Austin, Texas on July 31, 2021. Hundreds of people packed the steps of the Texas Capitol as a protest rally which began Wednesday and ended Saturday with participants marching up to the doors of the Texas Capitol building. (Acacia Coronado/AP)
Beto O’Rourke, former Democratic congressman and presidential candidate, speaks at a rally for voting rights in Texas at the Capitol in Austin, Texas on July 31, 2021. Hundreds of people packed the steps of the Texas Capitol as a protest rally which began Wednesday and ended Saturday with participants marching up to the doors of the Texas Capitol building. (Acacia Coronado/AP)

More than 100 state lawmakers from across the country are in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to rally for federal legislation to protect voting rights.

They are there alongside their Democratic counterparts from Texas, who fled a Republican-led special session pushing new restrictions on voting in the state fueled by false claims of rampant voter fraud in the election.

The demonstration at the U.S. Capitol follows a 27-mile “March For Democracy” that ended over the weekend at the Texas Capitol. Among those who participated was former Texas Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke.

He speaks with Here & Now‘s Jane Clayson about what’s at stake.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.