Harris warns SCOTUS likely to gut VRA, calls SAVE America Act a ‘poll tax’

By Brentin Mock

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 10: The Reverend Al Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network (NAN), sits for a ‘fireside chat’ with former Vice President Kamala Harris and a potentiual future presidential candidate on on April 10, 2026 in New York City. The 2026 annual convention of NAN brings politicians, civil rights leaders, community advocates, and others together for four days of discussions and panels. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The U.S. Supreme Court is going to “kill” Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), said former Vice President Kamala Harris today at the National Action Network (NAN) convention in New York.

Harris also called the SAVE America Act, President Donald Trump’s voter suppression bill, a “poll tax.”

If Section 2, the VRA’s most powerful remaining provision, was struck down, it would weaken minority voting power and make it harder to stop racial discrimination in elections.

Harris shared her prediction in a fireside chat with NAN president and founder Al Sharpton. SCOTUS is expected to rule on whether Section 2 will be upheld later this year in the Louisiana v. Callais case.

“[Conservatives] have been doing the work for years of building a Supreme Court that is configured as we now have it,” said Harris. “They’re about to make a decision on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and I am sad to say, I do believe they are going to kill it. That will mean that the legal tool that we have to be able to litigate in court what are clearly racist-influenced laws to prevent certain people from voting, we’re going to lose” it.

The NAN convention has served as a perennial stop for Democratic presidential hopefuls since it first started under Sharpton – himself once a presidential candidate – thirty-five years ago. Among the other luminaries who spoke at this year’s convention were Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and former U.S. Sec. of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

Asked by Sharpton if she will run for president again in 2028, she said, “I might.”

In her chat with Sharpton, Harris criticized the SAVE America Act, calling it “in essence, a poll tax,” given its mandate that voters show documentary evidence of citizenship through a passport or birth certificate in order to register.

She also brought up the FBI’s recent seizure of 2020 election ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, saying it signaled that Trump was looking to obstruct voter access in upcoming elections.

“Tell me something – in Fulton County, when they sent those federal agents to come and get the ballots, did they take the 2024 ballots? Nope,” said Harris. “So not only is the intent to obstruct clear, the hypocrisy, again, as always, abounds.”

Harris told the audience that they would need to check their voter status regularly – not just on the day they go to vote – to make sure they haven’t been purged from rolls. She also implored voters to regularly check to make sure their polling locations haven’t been changed.

“Part of this shell game they’ve been playing includes closing the place where your mother and your grandmother always voted,” said Harris. “So that on Election Day she’s going to that local elementary school to find out it’s not a polling place any longer. So let’s do some of the work right now.”