Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) on Monday invoked his experience as a civil rights activist to urge citizens to vote in this year’s midterm elections.
“I have been beaten, my skull fractured, and arrested more than forty times so that each and every person has the right to register and vote,” Lewis tweeted.
“Friends of my (sic) gave their lives. Do your part. Get out there and vote like you’ve never voted before.”
Lewis, a longtime congressman, was one of the many activists to march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965 to advocate for expanded voting rights for African-Americans.
He suffered a skull fracture after Alabama state troopers confronted protestors in what is now historically referred to as “Bloody Sunday.“
{mosads}Lewis’s call comes about two weeks before the midterms, as the Democratic Party attempts to seize on opposition to President Trump to retake control of the House and possibly the Senate.
Polls have shown Democrats with a solid chance of retaking the House. A Washington Post/ABC News poll from Oct. 14 found that the Democrats have a 11-point lead over Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, although their lead has been shrinking.
Democrats need to flip 23 seats in order to regain the House majority.
Meanwhile, Republicans appear to have a greater likelihood of retaining control of the Senate. A forecast produced by FiveThirtyEight shows that the GOP has about an 80 percent chance of keeping a majority in the upper chamber.