Michelle Obama has entered the 2022 midterm election. No, she isn’t running for office herself but she is ramping up her voting rights organization and calling out Republicans for allegedly suppressing votes. With an anticipated red tsunami on the horizon in the midterm elections this year, Obama and her When We All Vote have set a goal to register one million voters and fight for passage of voting rights legislation in Congress.

Obama penned a letter and ran it as an ad in the New York Times on Sunday. It is titled “Fight for Our Vote” and explains When We Vote has teamed up with other liberal activist organizations to fight alleged voter suppression at the hands of Republicans and red states. She tweeted out the ad and it is pinned at the top of her Twitter timeline.

In 2020, millions made their voices heard at the polls. But now, folks who oppose that progress are making it harder to vote. That’s why I’m asking you to join @WhenWeAllVote and 30 other organizations to turn out more voters and urge Congress to pass voting rights legislation. pic.twitter.com/hwgyyuTGy9

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) January 9, 2022

We know that Biden’s Build Back Better legislation is in deep doo-doo right now and unlikely to pass in the Senate, at least as long as Senator Manchin and his colleague, Senator Kyrsten Sinema hang tough. So, in order to have something to point to in the midterm elections, the push is on to pass voting rights legislation, which is code for federalizing elections. Democrats are using legislation to pave the way for a permanent Democrat majority in Congress. Thirty liberal groups are coming together to help. The plan includes voter registration drives, recruiting and training volunteers, and enlisting the help of “thousands” of lawyers.

The letter — which comes as Congress has yet to move on voting rights legislation at the federal level — was signed by 30 other civic engagement, voting rights and voter mobilization organizations including the NAACP, Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight Action, Voto Latino Foundation, NextGen America, LeBron James’ More Than A Vote and Rock the Vote.
“We stand united in our conviction to organize and turn out voters in the 2022 midterm elections, and make our democracy work for all of us,” Obama wrote in the letter.

The former first lady laid out a plan of action and said within the next year, When We All Vote and the coalition of other organizations will work to “recruit and train at least 100,000 volunteers” and “register more than a million new voters.”

Obama said the coalition will also enlist thousands of lawyers to protect American voters, work to educate Americans on how to ensure their vote is safe and encourage at least 100,000 Americans to call on their Senators in support of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, two proposed pieces of legislation that have stalled in the Senate as a result of the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome.

Michelle Obama is as divisive of a figure as her husband is and she fully blames Republicans for the failure of Democrats to win elections, or something. She referenced January 6 in her letter and noted alleged voting restrictions passed in state legislatures after the 2020 election. Democrats don’t have a problem with coming out against election integrity. There is even a reference to the days of Jim Crow (when Democrats were in charge of state governments in the South) because that is the standard talking point these days. It’s a reference Joe Biden can easily memorize so it’s a popular trope on the campaign trail for Democrats.

“Generations of Americans have persevered through poll taxes, literacy tests, and laws designed to strip away their power — and they’ve done it by organizing, by protesting, and most importantly, by overcoming the barriers in front of them in order to vote. And now, we’ve got to do the same,” Obama wrote.

Obama added: “We must give Congress no choice but to act decisively to protect the right to vote and make the ballot box more accessible for everyone.”

The filibuster is “getting in the way”, you see, so Obama’s group and others must pressure the Senate to pass the federal takeover of elections. What better way to get their message out than to team up with sore losers like Stacey Abrams and her group, which, frankly, has seen more success than Michelle Obama’s group has in voter registration drives? Abrams set the tone by refusing to concede the Georgia gubernatorial election in her last run and is now running again.

The coalition of groups signing on to Obama’s pledge was formed to bring together some of the largest voting rights organizations.
For its part, Fair Fight Action — the organization founded by voting rights advocate and Democratic candidate for Georgia governor Stacey Abrams — has worked to protect the right to vote in Georgia and across the country.

“Fair Fight Action’s work with dedicated voting rights activists throughout Georgia has led to enormous gains in voter registrations in our state — particularly among voters of color, who have helped spearhead advocacy for critical federal voting rights legislation to protect our democracy while also blocking Republicans’ most dangerous anti-voter proposals in state legislatures,” Hillary Holley, Fair Fight Action’s organizing director, told CNN.

“Now, with the GOP’s voter suppression campaign ramping up in state houses across the country, Fair Fight Action is proud to join with Michelle Obama and When We All Vote alongside other civil and voting rights organizations to fight back against Republicans’ anti-voter agenda. We’re ready to work with our allies to recruit new volunteers and keep organizing Americans to push for the Senate to pass new federal protections for voting rights at a time when we need them more than ever,” Holley said.

I suggest they organize in Delaware to demand more opportunities for that state’s voters to get out and vote. The red states that Obama specifically calls out in her criticism all have more ways to vote, like periods of early voting that Joe Biden’s home state does not.

“One year ago, we witnessed an unprecedented assault on our Capitol and our democracy,” she wrote. “From Georgia and Florida to Iowa and Texas, states passed laws designed to make it harder for Americans to vote. And in other state legislatures across the nation, lawmakers have attempted to do the same.”

Michelle Obama will have plenty of celebrities to help, as Democrats always turn to pop culture figures for support and messaging. Michelle made a guest appearance on the ABC television show Blackish last week which was to publicize When We All Vote and do a whole lot of fangirling for the former first lady. One of the show’s lead characters, Tracee Ellis Ross, is politically active and involved in Obama’s past efforts.

Activists like Michelle Obama think Americans are stupid. Elections are the purview of states. State legislatures pass election laws and local governments are tasked with running elections. That is pretty basic civics, something lacking in school curriculums today. Adding some celebrities and pop culture icons to the mix is right out of the standard Democrat playbook.