BRUNSWICK, ME – Today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) released a statement in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In his statement, which comes days ahead of planned Senate votes on voting rights legislation, Senator King calls for the Senate to carry forward the civil rights legend’s work by taking action to defend ballot access for all Americans.

“All across the country, the massive legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is being honored today as Americans of all backgrounds pause to remember and celebrate Dr. King’s leadership, fortitude, and skill. But this day is about more than the man; it is about his cause, and the cause of all who marched with him.

“Dr. King and his fellow Civil Rights Movement leaders raised their voices and put their bodies in harm’s way in order to help America fulfill its most fundamental promise: that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these rights, he believed, was the right to vote. Dr. King once called voting ‘the foundation stone for political action’; now, we need political action to defend this sacred foundation.

“This week, we have an opportunity to honor Dr. King not only in word, but in deed. Let us come together and carry his work forward by passing commonsense voting rights protections supported by a bipartisan majority of Americans nationwide.” 

Senator King is committed to increase voter trust and promote access to the ballot for all registered voters. In October 2021 he delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor urging action on voting rights , stating that we are currently “at a hinge of history” that will determine the future of the American experiment in self-government. He has recently made the argument for these bills in op-eds for the Boston Globe and TIME.

In addition to the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, Senator King cosponsored the For the People Act and Senator Jon Ossoff’s (D-Ga.) Right to Vote Act, which would establish a first-ever statutory right to vote in federal elections — protecting U.S. citizens from laws that make it harder to cast a ballot.