We lost. But I am not defeated.

Well, this latest battle for voting rights is over... for now.

I am frustrated. I am sad. I am angry.

But I am not defeated. In fact, I am hopeful.

And let me tell you why.

Earlier this week, we honored the life's work of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. And it was his life's work. It was in 1955 that he led the Montgomery bus boycott. In 1960, he was arrested at the lunch counter sit-ins in Atlanta. In 1963, he led the protests in Birmingham against Bull Connor – and gave his I Have a Dream speech at the March on Washington.

And in March 1965, he declared on the steps of the Alabama state capitol that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." And then, in August of that year, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.

Change does not come in a single season. Victories that sustain are not easy.

The arc of the moral universe may bend toward justice, but it only does so when the people demand it and we work together to bend it.

I have fought for over a decade to fix our broken Senate. I have insisted that the Senate must debate issues great and small with passion and logic, evidence and argument; but that when we are done debating, we must vote. And whichever side marshals more support shall have won the debate and worked their will.

We did not win that fight today. But we are closer than we have ever been. When I started this fight over a decade ago, I was dismissed or humored. I was told that I was wrong. I was told that we could not and should not change the Senate.

Today, 48 Senators voted to reform the Senate and protect our democracy.

Tomorrow, we begin the fight to find two more.

We've got to do everything in our power to find them in Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

To defend our democracy and protect the right of all Americans to vote, we will do as much as we can, in all the ways we can, for as long as we can. And we will bend the arc toward justice.

I appreciate your partnership in this fight, more than you shall ever know.

Thank you.

Onward.

Jeff