After the MLK holiday, activists gathered in Washington DC calling for the passage of federal voting rights legislation. Among them are students who have been on a hunger strike in support of the Freedom to Vote Act. They are part of a nationwide #hungerstrikefordemocracy. Todays guests are from Un-PAC, a nonpartisan youth-led organization that is working to get The Freedom to Vote Act passed. Brandon Ortega, a student at Arizona State University who has participated in the national hunger strike, and Adrien Horton, an Un-PAC organizer. We spoke with them while they were in Washington DC as part of the actions calling for the passage of the John Lewis Act. We spoke just before all 50 Republican senators used the filibuster to end debate on the bill, stopping it from advancing. All 50 Republicans and two Democrats, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, subsequently voted to preserve the filibuster.
