As Jan. 6 chair, Thompson builds on a lifetime of defending the vote

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) first landed in politics not to get votes but to get people registered to vote.

It’s a mission that brought him from signing up voters across rural Mississippi, to serving as mayor of the 521-person town where he still lives and travels every weekend, to the halls of Congress.

It has also stayed central to him as he leads the House investigation into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 — an effort that fundamentally sought to reject the will of voters whose rights he’s fought to protect.