Texas attorney general Greg Abbott claims Eric Holder and the Obama administration are “using the Voting Rights Act for partisan, political purposes” by pushing the state to seek preapproval for changes to its voting laws. Holder asked a court to require Texas to go back under “pre-clearance” status following last month’s Supreme Court decision that struck down that provision of the law.


Abbott said that Holder’s requirement was the latest in a string of efforts by Democrats to flip the solidly red state to a blue one. Along with the president’s national field director visiting the state for that purpose, Abbott also pointed out that the Department of Justice is working with and joining Texas’s Democratic party in a lawsuit against the state under the Voting Rights Act.


“This is an affront to that Supreme Court decision; it’s a direct assault on the United State Constitution,” he said on Fox News this morning.

Holder announced his plans at the National Urban League conference yesterday, claiming the state’s laws discriminated on the basis of race. Abbott, who recently announced his candidacy for Texas governor, immediately responded to the news on Twitter, vowing to “fight Obama’s effort to control our elections.”