Nick Saban and Jerry West sign letter pushing Manchin to support Senate voting rights

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:

Dr. Sarah Parcak
@indyfromspace
Nick Saban being pro-vaccine, pro BLM, and now pro-voting rights is awesome. Respect, Coach Saban.

Yahoo Sports College Football
@YahooSportsCFB
Nick Saban and Jerry West are among five signers of a letter pushing West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin to support the Senate’s voting rights bill.

Saban and West endorsed Manchin’s 2018 re-election bid.

https://yhoo.it/3GEj1RS
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10:23 AM · Jan 18, 2022

https://sports.yahoo.com/nick-saban-and-jerry-west-sign-letter-pushing-west-virginia-sen-joe-manchin-to-support-voting-rights-bill-152633383.html

Alabama coach Nick Saban and NBA legend Jerry West are among five prominent West Virginia sports figures pushing Sen. Joe Manchin (D) to support the Freedom to Vote Act.

Manchin and Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have refused to support making a filibuster exception for the voting rights bill. A bill can be filibustered in the Senate if it doesn't have 60 votes; if the voting rights bill was exempt from the filibuster and Manchin and Sinema voted for it, the bill would pass a 50-50 Senate by virtue of a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.

The letter, also signed by former West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, and former Buffalo Bills linebacker Darryl Talley, urges “Congress to exercise its Constitutional responsibility to enact laws that set national standards for the conduct of Federal elections and for decisions that determine election outcomes.”

An excerpt of the letter is below. You can view it in full here. https://docsend.com/view/6f9g9kvwfm4w8862

Elections open to all Americans: Our democracy is at its best when all Americans are encouraged to participate. We support measures to provide voters with arange of opportunities to obtain and cast a lawful ballot, including robust in-person, early, and absentee voting options. We support the use of election security, equipment and record-keeping measures that are reliable and evidence-based, and clearly support the integrity of election processes.

Impartial conduct and score-keeping. Election administration and vote certification must be nonpartisan, professional and transparent. State legislators and other officials cannot apply or change rules, standards or procedures, prospectively or retroactively, in amanner that may nullify Federal election results by excluding voters or overruling voter choices.

*snip*

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Thank you, Nick Saban

Link to tweet

[Jose Garcia]

2. The letter makes no mention of the filibuster

[WarGamer]

3. If multiple chats with the POTUS haven't been effective...

A couple tweets are a waste of time

[dsc]

4. sports are huge in many places

of all of the boycotts that were put in over HB2 the one that broke the camel's back so to speak was NC losing the NCAA basketball tourneys.

[gratuitous]

7. Perhaps

But what can it hurt? Obviously, Sen. Manchin has made the political calculation that siding with the Republicans and their repressive tactics won't hurt him, so another politician isn't going to move the needle for him. But the public appeal of two popular sports figures (and Jerry West is still very big in West Virginia) might carry some weight that even the President can't swing.

[rpannier]

13. Saban and Manchin are close friends

Saban campaigned for Manchin in 2018
It may resonate more with Manchin than Biden did -- after-all Saban didn't lose West Virginia

[Demsrule86]

5. Unless the filibuster goes away for this bill, it won't matter. There are not enough votes...and

the filibuster is not mentioned here.

[underpants]

6. Saban and Manchin are old friends.

Grew up together in Fairmont WV.

[lapucelle]

8. What are they even talking about? Joe Manchin is an original co-sponsor of the Freedom to Vote Act.

We need either 10 Republicans or a carve out for the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation.

What we don't need are empty gestures from sports personalities and Yahoo sports news filtered through the twitter prism.

[Fiendish Thingy]

9. Manchin already supports the bill, letter should have focused on the filibuster. Nt

[tishaLA]

10. Nick Saban?!

That really shocks me.

[JanMichael]

11. I knew he was decent guy but I never liked the SEC ESPN cabal

But because of that knowledge that Saban is decent I rooted for them against Georgia which didn't work out. I didn't want to see two SEC teams in the final anyway.

All that said as long as Saban is coach of Alabama I will finally start rooting for Alabama year round in football. As much as it pains me.

Roll tide.

[rockfordfile]

12. Will those two democrats become un-American anti-voting pos?

Republicans have already proven that with their corruption with the coup attempt and fraudulent electors.