Michelle Obama is back in the spotlight, promising to register 1 million voters ahead of the midterms

Former First Lady Michelle Obama is once again in the political spotlight after publishing a letter on Sunday in which she vowed to register more than a million new voters across the country in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections – while also promising to organize at least 100,000 Americans in order to promote the Senate’s pending voting rights legislation.

Obama’s letter was published ahead of President Biden’s scheduled trip to Georgia where he will speak on what the administration views as Republican efforts to block the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

According to Politico, Biden is expected to voice his support for a filibuster carveout that could allow voting rights legislation to pass in the Senate.

Presently, election reform legislation is being held up by moderate Democrats who are reluctant to change voting rules in order to act unilaterally without bipartisan support.  

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said changing Senate rules is an "uphill fight," but he hopes 50 Democrats can come to an agreement if the GOP blocks voting rights bills in the 50-50 Senate.

"We want to reform the Senate, but that is something that should take some discussion maybe in a bipartisan way, but we cannot hold up voting rights until people come to a conclusion, if ever, on that reform," Schumer said on Tuesday. "We are engaged in active discussions right now."

Last week, Schumer said the Democrat-led Senate will bring a rules change to the floor for a vote by Jan. 17 if the GOP uses the filibuster to block the legislation.

"If Senate Republicans continue to abuse the filibuster to prevent this body from acting, then the Senate must adapt as it has before," he said. "Changing the rules, there's nothing new."

But in the letter, titled “Fight For Our Vote,” Obama also referenced the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“One year ago, we witnessed an unprecedented assault on our Capitol and our democracy,” she wrote. “From Georgia and Florida to Iowa and Texas, states passed laws designed to make it harder for Americans to vote. And in other state legislatures across the nation, lawmakers have attempted to do the same.”

The former first lady went a step further, however, and compared state voting laws to “poll taxes, literacy tests, and laws designed to strip away [Americans’] power,” saying that “we must give Congress no choice but to act decisively to protect the right to vote and make the ballot box more accessible for everyone.”

In addition to Obama, the letter was signed by multiple high-profile groups, including Vote.org, the NAACP and the National Urban League.