Just this afternoon we’ve seen two developments on a possible Jan 6th Commission. The House GOP will formally ‘whip’ the vote, i.e., they’ll use the party apparatus to get all their members to vote no. This seems more than anything to be a signal to Donald Trump from McCarthy and Scalise that they are all-in to protect him. Does anyone GOP member not know what’s expected of them from Trump, McCarthy and Scalise? Of course not.

At the same time, TPM alum Sahil Kapur reports that Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) seems to be in support of the bill. Rounds isn’t a Senate fire breather. But he’s not a Romney/Murkowski type either.

For a few years now, I have covered voting rights closely for TPM. Needless to say, the developments around ballot access and representation are moving more quickly than ever. The stakes have only gotten higher in the wake of President Trump’s election reversal crusade and the restrictive laws that have flowed from it. So we’re happy to announce that we’re launching a weekly voting rights newsletter — The Franchise — that will go right to TPM members’ inboxes every Monday.

In it, I’ll keep you up to speed on the state-by-state voting rights battles, as well as the national trends I am seeing in the war over the ballot box. There’s a lot of noise out there, so I am hoping to distill things down in a way that makes it easy to understand just how and where democracy is under attack across the country. I always appreciate reader feedback, so don’t be shy, particularly if something is happening in your neck of the woods that’s worth a mention in The Franchise. And thanks for reading!