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U.S. Rep. Chip Roy voted against 17 of 18 pro-democracy bills included in Common Cause's analysis.
A new analysis from the watchdog group Common Cause gave two of San Antonio’s five members of the U.S. House and both of Texas' U.S. senators failing grades for their commitment to upholding American democracy.
For its biannual Democracy Scorecard, Common Cause reviewed the positions of members of the House and Senate on 18 separate pieces of legislation concerning voting rights, ethics and the influence of money on politics.
The majority of Texas’ representatives, starting with its Republican senators, fared poorly. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz both received grades of zero out of 15 possible points on the scorecard, meaning that they took anti-democracy positions on every piece of legislation they could.
The scores for San Antonio’s congressional delegation were mixed.
Democratic Reps. Joaquin Castro, Henry Cuellar and Lloyd Doggett all took pro-democracy positions on a significant majority of the 18 bills on which House members were graded. Doggett, who is running to represent the Austin area exclusively next year under a new congressional map, received a perfect score.
The Alamo City area’s two Republican representatives scored significantly worse, however. Rep. Tony Gonzales took just two pro-democracy positions of the possible 18, while Rep. Chip Roy took just one.
"In many states, officeholders are deciding on matters that present a choice between a fundamental belief in democracy or authoritarian rule; between you and me having power in our vote and voice, or others taking that away from us," Common Cause said in its latest scorecard.
The group continued: "How our elected representatives serve in office determines whether we move toward a more perfect union, see more rights stripped from different communities, or lose our democracy altogether."
Perhaps the most significant pro-democracy bill on Common Cause's scorecard, the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, designed to expand voting rights, remains blocked by Senate Republicans.
The United States, as a whole, is currently characterized by Würzberg University’s Democracy Matrix as a “deficient democracy.” Democracy in certain individual states faces even more duress, according to the ranking.
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