State Rep. Senfronia Thompson is among the Democrat legislators who abandoned their jobs in Texas to block election integrity bills in the ongoing special session. They are holed up in a posh hotel, spreading COVID and asking for care packages despite the fact that all of them are wealthy and powerful legislators.
If they didn’t think to bring underwear or enough salsa to get by (but they didn’t ask for chips?), that’s on them and the staffs they pay to do everything for them.
After her encounter Thursday with Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Thompson may wish she’d stayed in Texas. The South Carolina Republican asked Thompson a series of straightforward questions about what you need an ID to do in Texas and elsewhere — board a chartered plane as the Democrats did and get inside the U.S. House chamber where that hearing took place are among them — and how many people of various backgrounds support voter ID.
Watch.
Mace first asks how prevalent the need for ID is in Texas, which like most if not all states requires ID for renting an apartment, opening a bank account, and purchasing alcohol and tobacco products. She then zeroes in on the questions regarding elections that Thompson was either unprepared to answer or intentionally whiffed.
At the 4:10 mark, Mace asks Thompson if she knows the percentage of Democrats who support voter ID. Thompson admits she does not but says, “I don’t think it’s a whole lot.”
“Seventy-two percent,” Mace tells Thompson.
Mace asks Thompson if she knows the number of black and brown and African-Americans who support voter ID.
“No,” Thompson responds.
“Seventy-five percent,” Mace says.
Mace asks Thompson if she knows the number of Hispanics who support voter ID.
Thompson demurs.
“Eighty-one percent,” Mace answers.
Polls have consistently shown that Mace’s numbers are correct. Voter ID enjoys widespread support across all demographics, with Democrats in office — curiously — the only major opponents of it.
Why would that be?
Through questioning, Mace informs Thompson that Texas ranks 10th in the U.S. in black voter turnout. So it’s not lagging or oppressing the black vote in any way. This has also been true for years, as is the fact that voter ID has led to increases in minority voting rates. I wrote about that for CNN shortly after Texas conducted its first elections under voter ID.
Thompson seems to be unaware that her and her party’s arguments against election integrity bills such as the one they fled Texas to break quorum and slow down evaporated under Mace’s questioning.
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