- Senator James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, wrote a letter of apology to his black voters on Thursday for originally planning to vote against the candidacies of presidential voters in Congress.
- Lankford was part of a group of Republican senators who wanted to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential race and demand a commission to investigate unspecified electoral irregularities.
- Lankford abandoned his plan to do so after the January 6 Capitol insurrection, but acknowledged that his actions caused “a storm of suspicion” among black communities in his state.
- “What I didn’t realize was that all the national talk about states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan was seen as casting doubt on the validity of votes coming from predominantly black communities like Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit,” he wrote.
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Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma wrote a letter on Thursday, apologizing to his black voters for planning to challenge the electoral votes of several states and calling for the creation of a commission to investigate alleged irregularities in the 2020 election.
In a statement released shortly before the joint session of Congress on January 6 on the state’s Electoral College votes, Lankford and a group of other senators led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas announced their formal objection and demanded the appointment of a committee to conduct a “1 day emergency audit”.
When Congress was able to return to the session after a violent pro-Trump uprising on Capitol Hill, which interrupted Lankford by giving a speech at the Senate floor, Lankford ended up not voting to support the objections raised to the votes of Arizona and Pennsylvania. Cruz’s senators practically abandoned their attempt to demand a commission.
In the letter, addressed to “my friends in North Tulsa,” Lankford began by observing and highlighting the next 100th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa massacre in June 2021. He also expressed regret for his actions.
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“When I announced my support to an Electoral Commission to spend 10 days auditing the results of the 2020 Presidential Elections, it was never my intention to deprive any voter or state … I want to strengthen the confidence that all Americans have in their electoral system so that everyone be encouraged to vote and know the subjects of your vote “, he wrote.
Lankford continued: “But my action to ask for more electoral information caused a storm of suspicion among many of my friends, particularly in black communities across the state. I was completely taken aback, but I also found a blind spot. What I didn’t I realized it was all the national talk about states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan, casting doubt on the validity of votes coming from predominantly black communities like Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit “.
He added: “I can assure you that my intention to give a voice to oklahoma who had doubts was also never an intention to lower the voice of any black American. As a United States senator who represents almost four million oklahoma, I am committed to hearing from everyone oklahoma, answering questions and facing our challenges to fight for a more perfect union. In that case, I should have recognized how what I said and what I did can be interpreted by many of you. I deeply regret my blindness to this perception, and for that I am sorry. “
As Lankford suggested in his letter, much of the rhetoric of the Trump campaign and its post-election legal actions focused on predominantly black communities – even in cities like Philadelphia, where Trump won a larger share of the vote than in 2016.
Throughout the 21st century, conservative lawmakers and activists have raised false and exaggerated allegations and filed lawsuits, as did the Trump campaign, for widespread electoral fraud or electoral fraud in downtown and urban communities to justify the voting restrictions that impact the most. immediately the same communities.
Even in 2021, black voters in many communities across the country still face disproportionate barriers to accessing the right to vote, including longer waiting times to vote and fewer polling places available, and obtaining the necessary identification to vote. They also deal with greater chances of being removed from the electoral roll and less reliable US delivery.
Read the full text of Lankford’s letter here >>