Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on Saturday issued a sharp criticism of the Major League Baseball’s decision to withdraw the All-Star Game from the state because of the new law that restricts voting, arguing that the change would bring an economic blow to the Georgians.
Kemp, a Republican, framed the battle for voting rights in Georgia as a fully-fledged Democratic party, rather than a civil rights effort to protect access to the polls as Republicans try to place new limits on voting across the country.
“Yesterday, the Major League Baseball gave in to the fear and lies of liberal activists,” Kemp said at a news conference, accompanied by the state’s Republican attorney general, members of the Republican Party and grassroots activists. “In the middle of a pandemic, the Major League Baseball put the wishes of Stacey Abrams and Joe Biden ahead of the economic well-being of Georgian workers who relied on the All-Star Game as payment.”
The governor seasoned his speech with conservative slogans such as “cancel the culture”, emphasizing how Republicans are trying to make access to voting a sensitive issue that they can involve in the cultural debates that animate the party’s base.
Kemp, who is preparing to run for re-election in 2022, has been struggling to re-enter the good graces of Republican voters after becoming a central political target of former President Donald J. Trump because of his refusal to help Mr. Trump annulled the results of the state elections last year. A former Georgian state secretary who has his own record of decisions that made it difficult for state residents to vote, he is again a key voice for the Republican Party leading the issue.
On Saturday, he repeatedly tried to paint the league’s decision as being led by Stacey Abrams, the voting rights defender and former Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, who is likely to challenge Kemp again next year.
Ms. Abrams, one of the most prominent criticisms of Georgia’s voting law, rejected calls for sports leagues and corporations to boycott the state. She said on Friday that she was “disappointed” with baseball officials for canceling the All-Star Game, but that she was “proud of her position on voting rights”.
In defending the law in Georgia, Kemp highlighted two democratically controlled states, New York and Delaware, and compared his voting regulations with the new law in Georgia. These states do not offer as many early voting options as Georgia, but neither have they passed new laws that impose restrictions on voting.
“In New York, they have 10 days of early voting,” said Kemp (in fact, New York has nine). “In Georgia, we have a minimum of 17, with two more optional Sundays in our state. In New York, you have to have an excuse to vote absent. In Georgia, you can vote absent for any reason. “
Kemp’s press conference came after a week of television appearances in which he firmly defended the law, arguing that it broadens access to voting because of an extra Saturday required for early voting. He and other Republicans denounced criticism of the law as a political game by state and national Democratic leaders. (The New York Times revised the voting law and found 16 main sections that can make it difficult to access voting or nonpartisan administration of elections.)
The decision to move the All-Star Game was the first major statement by a leading organization or company since Georgia passed its voting law, and came amid a growing chorus of corporate statements denouncing the legislation after it had already been signed.
Delta and Coca-Cola, two of the state’s largest corporations, ended weeks of silence on Wednesday, severely claiming they were against the law.
“I want to be very clear,” said James Quincey, chief executive of Coca-Cola, on Wednesday. “The Coca-Cola Company does not support this legislation, as it makes it harder for people to vote, not easier.”
Large companies and the Major League Baseball have faced pressure to take action from black executives, Black baseball players and religious leaders who wanted to see major American institutions take a stronger stand against Georgia’s voting law, as well as similar Republican efforts now advancing in states across the country.
Kemp challenged Major League Baseball to consider what could happen if the Atlanta Braves made it to the playoffs.
“What are they going to do if the Braves make it to the playoffs?” he said. “Are they going to change the damn playoff game?”
And he said that further changes in events or boycotts would not lead him to reconsider the law or support any adjustments to it.
Promising that he “was not wavering,” said Kemp, “to anyone who is thinking that any kind of snowball effect will have an effect on me, it will not.”