Progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman (DN.Y.) was arrested along with more than two dozen other activists outside the US Capitol as they protested for voting rights just a day after senators failed to pass key voting rights legislation .
Thursday Bowman joined youth activists demonstration near the Capitol. The Capitol Police said they a total of 27 people were arrested.
Many young people were on a hunger strikealong with religious leaders, some more than a week, other from January 6by demanding federal voting rights legislation. Youth activists ended their strike on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Senate Republicans Violate Voting Rights Act, Freedom to Vote: The John R. Lewis Act.
In the subsequent vote, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and Kirsten Sinema (D-Aris.) voted against their fellow Democrats’ efforts to change the piracy rules to pass the law with a simple majority, effectively blocking the voting rights legislation from passing.
Young activists organized youth political group Un-PAC, the release says they “will not forget which of our senators stood up for democracy and which stood aside when it collapsed.”
A spokesman for Bowman’s office said in a statement that they would be providing further updates on the MP’s arrest “as they are collected.”
Earlier this week, other activists were also arrested during a demonstration outside the Capitol, the United States is demanding that lawmakers pass a law on voting rights, including several Black reverends and Latosha Brown co-founder of Black Voters Matter.
Voter restrictions disproportionately deter low-income, youth, black, and Hispanic voters from voting.
Republicans have repeatedly blocked voting rights legislation in the Senate. At the state level hundreds of Republican-led measures moved forward to restrict access to voting, and some have already become law in several states, including Georgia, Texas, Arkansas and Arizona.
AMENDMENT: Those arrested on Thursday did not include religious leaders on hunger strike – they were among the activists arrested earlier this week.
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