Sen. Cruz: Defeating the Corrupt Politicians Act is a ‘Victory for the American People’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today delivered remarks on the Senate floor following his vote against Democrats' radical S.1 legislation, or the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act,' which failed to advance in the Senate. Read excerpts of his remarks below.

WATCH: Sen. Cruz: Defeating the Corrupt Politicians Act is a Victory for the American People

"I rise today to celebrate a win for the country. Today, the United States rightly failed to advance the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act,' meaning that this bill will not come to the Senate floor for a final vote. This is a huge win for the citizens of the United States. This is a huge win for democracy, and it's a huge win for the integrity of our elections. The ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' is the most dangerous legislation we've considered in the Senate in the nine years I've served in this body. It's an attempt by Senate Democrats at a brazen power grab. It's an attempt by Democrats to federalize elections and to ensure that Democrats won't lose control for the next 100 years. This bill isn't about protecting the right to vote. It's precisely the opposite. It's about taking away the right to vote from the citizens and giving it instead to the corrupt politicians in Washington who want to stay in power.

"The ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' would strike down virtually every commonsense voter integrity law adopted by states across the country. Thirty-six states have adopted voter ID laws, a reasonable and commonsense step to protect the integrity of elections that over 70 percent of Americans support and over 60 percent of African Americans support. In fact, recent polling now shows support for voter ID at over 80 percent, thanks no doubt to the relentless assault on voter ID mounted by Senate Democrats. The ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' would repeal the vast majority of these voter ID laws. Likewise, 31 states prohibit ballot harvesting, the corrupt practice of paying political operatives to collect other people's ballots. So what would the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' do? It would strike down all of those laws in 31 states and would mandate ballot harvesting nationwide."

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"Not only that, many states have reasonable restrictions on felons and on criminals voting. What does the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' do? It strikes all of those down and instead mandates that all felons should be allowed to vote. Murderers, rapists, and child molesters are all allowed to vote because Democrats have made the cynical calculation that if millions of illegal aliens are allowed to vote, and millions of criminals and felons are allowed to vote, that those individuals are likely to vote Democrat, and Democrats want to stay in power.

"The bill also prevents states from correcting voter rolls and from removing people who passed away. You can't go in when someone is dead and say dead people shouldn't be voting. No, this bill mandates leaving the dead people on the rolls, another step designed to invite fraud. Moreover, the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act' is welfare for politicians. This bill is designed to give hundreds of millions of dollars every year to corrupt incumbent politicians to keep them in power. It matches for contributions under $200, six-to-one federal funds so that the members of this body would receive collectively over a billion dollars in federal funds to stay in power. That's great; if you're a corrupt politician who wants to prevent a challenger from ever defeating you and if you want to prevent the voters from making a different choice, then you flood them with federal funds to make it so you can't beat corrupt incumbents. But that's not what you do if you want to protect the right to vote. This bill is brazen."

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"Mr. President, you're a sophisticated political player. I want you to ask for a second in a close election, in the weeks before the election, if the Senate Majority Leader had the ability to launch investigations from the Federal Elections Commission, to bring prosecutions from the Federal Elections Commission, to sue the political opponents of the majority, how much would that invite abuse? I understand right now Democrats are in power of both houses of Congress and the White House. Power can be intoxicating. But I do want to point out it wasn't that long ago, Mr. President, you and I were both in this body four years ago when there was a Republican president and a Republican House and a Republican Senate. You didn't see the Republican majority try anything as brazen as the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act.' You didn't see a Republican majority trying to rig the game, trying to change the rules so that Republicans could never be defeated in the next election. You didn't see the Republican majority trying to turn the Federal Election Commission into a partisan weapon."

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"Democracy is too important for that, and the kind of cynical, racial demagoguery we've seen around this bill while ignoring the substance of it, and I will point out, the media has been eager to ignore the substance of it. The media says should we protect the right to vote? Yes, we should protect the right to vote. This bill takes away your right to vote. This bill is designed to prevent the voters from choosing to throw the bums out, the most fundamental right of any voter to throw the bums out whether they're one side or the other side. We the people have sovereignty, and this bill, the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act,' was designed to take that power from the people and give it to the politicians in Washington. Today was a victory. It was a victory for the American people, a victory for democracy. It was a victory for the Constitution and a victory for the rule of law."

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