Democratic leader Stacey Abrams on Sunday called Georgia GOP lawmakers’ efforts to place restrictions on election laws are “racist.”
When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” if Abrams agreed with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in calling their attempts “racist,” said she “absolutely.”
“He called this effort by Georgia Republicans ‘racist, plain and simple,'” Tapper said.
“I do absolutely agree that’s it’s racist,” Abrams said. “It is a redux of Jim Crow, in a suit and tie.”
Republican lawmakers in Georgia recently introduced a slew of bills that would place would impose new restrictions that include absentee voting and end early voting on Sundays, a day when Black churchgoers often head to the ballot box as part of “Souls to the Polls” voting drives, as Insider’s John Dorman previously reported.
The proposed bills follow the victories for Democrats in Georgia as President Joe Biden won a first since 1992 over former President Donald Trump and Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won the 2021 runoffs, giving Democrats control in the Senate.
“Instead of celebrating better access and more participation, their response is trying to eliminate access to voting for primarily communities of color,” Abrams, who is credited for being a key player in turning Georgia purple, said on State of the Union. “And there’s a direct correlation between the usage of dropboxes, the usage of in-person early voting especially on Sundays, and the use of vote by mail and the direct increase in the number of people of color voting.”
State of the Union (@CNNSotu) March 14, 2021
Last month, Abrams’s voting rights group, Fair Fight Action, wrote to Republican lawmakers about the proposals last month stating how they could have “devastating consequences” on voting in the state.
When asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday if she would run for governor of Georgia in 2022, Abrams said her “focus is on making sure we have elections in 2022,” adding that Republicans are “trying to make certain that people of color and young people cannot participate fully in our democracy, which is the least patriotic thing that I can imagine in this moment.”
“I’m focusing on our democracy, and I will make other decisions after we have gotten that work done,” Abrams said.
