AUSTIN, Texas — Hundreds, maybe even thousands, are expected to descend on the state Capitol next week after a three-day march to Austin from Georgetown.
It’s called the Moral March for Democracy.
Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke is teaming up with civil rights leaders to lead this Selma-style march to Austin.
Organizers are drawing inspiration from Martin Luther King Junior’s 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. in his fight for voting rights.
Some goals of this march are to demand Congress to end the filibuster, pass the federal voting bill, the For the People Act, and raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
The march will begin at 8 a.m. Wednesday in Georgetown and end on Saturday at the Capitol ahead of what they’re hoping will be a massive rally in Austin.
O’Rourke will be marching alongside anyone who decides to join.
They’ll start at 8 a.m. each day, covering 7 to 8 miles. And at night, he says they’ll be camping out or sleeping wherever they find shelter.
“We just want to make sure we have the chance to make the point about how important this fight for democracy is,” O’Rourke said. “And whatever form we arrive in when we finally get to the Capitol, I would love it if there were thousands of our fellow Texans there, and joining us in this fight for the right to vote. There’s nothing more fundamental, nothing more important in what we like to think of as the worlds greatest democracy than each of us having an unabridged right to cast our ballot, make sure that it’s counted. And know that our voice is heard. And that’s what we’re rallying and marching to do.”
O’Rourke is wanting Congress to pass the federal voting bill hoping it will stop the state voting bills here in Texas from moving forward.
However, Republicans trying to pass those bills say they will protect future elections, making it easier to vote but harder to cheat.