Lawmaker calls new Texas voter purge the 'last stand' of right-wing Republicans

Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D) is pointing to the Republican's latest move to purge voters and use law enforcement to against voting rights activists as an indicator of their election fear.

MSNBC's Jose Diaz-Balart reported that the Justice Department is being asked to intervene after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had law enforcement raid homes of those affiliated with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) after they questioned access to mail-in ballots.

Paxton claims the raids are "part of a state voter investigation." However, some are calling it voter intimidation, Diaz-Balart said.

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Gutierrez said that the move was paired with legislation to purge anyone who hadn't voted in the last election after registering to vote. He said that affects about 1 million Texans.

"So if you've registered to vote in the past, and you didn't vote in the last couple of elections for whatever reason, let's just say you decided to stay home, you now cannot vote in the future, and you need to re-register," he said.

"This is just another way they have made it much harder to vote in Texas. Texas is truly the last stand for these right-wing Republicans, and they've allowed Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Paxton, and [Lt. Gov. Dan] Patrick (R) to frame the national narrative rather than to solve the problem that's been ailing us here in Texas."

The real problems, Gutierrez said, are issues like "child health care and health care in general. Mass shootings that you and I have talked about, like what we experienced in Uvalde. All of the failures in Texas have been under the helm of a 30-year Republican control. And they don't want to let go of that."

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