DECATUR, Georgia (AP) – Stacey Abrams, who built her national reputation by advocating for the right to vote, calls on Congress to take action on federal voting rules as the Democrat submits a second bid to To become Georgia’s governor.
Senators including Georgia Democrat Raphael Warnock, Abrams’ close ally, have argued in recent days that the Senate must revert to federal electoral standards despite previous setbacks.
In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Abrams said senators would have to override Republican opposition to new federal election guarantees by weakening the law-blocking filibuster to allow the bare majority of Democrats to pass new rules. Otherwise, Abrams said, more republican-dominated state parliaments across the country will put election restrictions, as was the case in Georgia this year.
See: Amid the outcry, the Georgia governor signs a voting restriction bill
From the archives (March 2021): Suffrage is stepping up as the partisan battleground, with Democrats pushing HR 1 and Republicans changing state-level electoral procedures
Also (March 2021): Raphael Warnock says Republican efforts to change electoral practice in Georgia and other states represent Jim Crow’s revanchism
President Joe Biden, who spent four decades in the U.S. Senate and long-standing fervent defender of the Chamber’s traditions, this week signaled a shift in his thinking about the filibuster.
In response to a question from ABC News’ David Muir during a broad interview, the president supported a filibuster spin-off of voting rights for the first time, similar to nominations for the Bundesbank and later for the Supreme Court. A bipartisan agreement was also reached that month to suspend the filibuster and allow Democrats to lift the federal debt ceiling without Republicans having to vote in favor of the measure.
“Starting in January, when the legislature comes back into session in 2022, we will see a whirlpool of voter suppression laws. I understand the resistance to the complete disassembly of the filibuster. But I believe there is a way to restore the Senate to a functioning body so that things like the defense of democracy can actually take place. “
Abrams narrowly lost to Republican Brian Kemp in 2018 after becoming the first black woman to ever become a major party candidate for governor. She claims that Kemp used his position as foreign minister to unfairly tip the balance in his favor, for example by removing voters from the lists. Kemp, who accused the Democrats of hacking after experts later discovered that it was planned securities tests of voting systems and reports of potential system vulnerabilities, denies wrongdoing.
Abrams’ loss and reaction, including the formation of a new voting group called Fair Fight, brought her to national prominence among Democrats.
From the archives (November 2018): Georgia Kemp Accuses Democrats of Hacking; Abrams rejects claim as a distraction
Plus (January 2020): An election security expert says the publicly exposed server in Georgia was reportedly hacked
This year, Republicans in Georgia passed a new electoral law that, among other things, shortens the days it takes to request a postal vote, shortens early voting before runoffs, and limits mailboxes.
Democrats fear this will detract from their growing strength in Georgia, where President Joe Biden won the state’s 16 votes and then Warnock and his Democratic colleague Jon Ossoff won runoffs in January, handing their party control of the U.S. Senate.
See: Georgias Perdue sued the loss of the Senate seat to Ossoff a year ago
Republicans argue that the law is fair to everyone and was necessary to restore confidence in the state’s elections after fraud allegations by then-President Donald Trump ignited many GOP voters. These claims have been debunked and repeatedly rejected by the courts.
Abrams insists she can still win the elections in Georgia next year even if the new law is not changed. “I will do everything in my power to ensure that these new, onerous voter suppression laws are not effectively preventing voters from exercising their right to vote,” she said. “And yes, there is absolutely a way to win.”
Abrams said the path is going in a different direction than traditional Southern Republican policy, but trying to improve the prospects of those who do not have fair opportunities today.
“This is a state on the verge of greatness. But we have high income inequality; we have low graduation rates in relation to our capacity; we have a broken public health infrastructure system, ”Abrams said. “But we also have the opportunity, with good leadership, to invest in our churches, in all of our churches across the state.”
Republicans are mobilizing against this approach, saying that it would undermine freedom and the economy in Georgia, and that Abrams is only using Georgia as a stepping stone for the presidential run. Despite saying that she would like to become president one day, Abrams promises to serve a full term as governor.
In a raging attack on Kemp, Abrams argued he failed to realize the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic and callously refused to expand the Medicaid health insurance program to include poor adults.
“Leadership means leadership. It’s not about guessing, and more importantly, it’s not about shedding responsibility by saying that everyone will just find out, “Abrams said. “If we wanted a system that everyone understands, we wouldn’t have to choose the governor.”
Kemp claims struck the right balance between health and the economy during the pandemic. He noted that he had avoided unpopular bans and that Georgia currently has a record low unemployment rate.
But with former Senator David Perdue challenging Kemp in the Republican primary, the Georgia Governor 2022 contest may not be a rematch between Abrams and Kemp. Abrams said Thursday that she would focus on her campaign and said she did not know enough about Perdue to evaluate its bottom line.
“I don’t really know what it is and I’m someone who pays a lot of attention to politics,” Abrams said.
From the archives (March 2021): “One step backwards”: Coca-Cola joins the top employer Delta of Atlanta in order to break up the new electoral fringes in Georgia as undemocratic
Even though the polls on Biden and the Democrats have worsened from this summer, Abrams believes she can still win. She said that’s partly because Georgia is different, with a population on the verge of largely non-white, and because her approach is different, with a focus on “a Georgia,” where she says, ” I will speak to every church and “I will have plans for every church.”
Republicans claim, however, that Abrams will never get past the tide of anti-democratic sentiment, hoping to lure home breakaway white suburbanites as well as driving away some African American, Latin American and Asian voters.
Abrams preaches patience to these churches.
“Winning an election is not about magic,” she said. “Voting is not magic. It’s medicine. It takes time, it takes effort, it takes continuous investment. “
The terrain Abrams is fighting on could change in other ways in the coming months. Congress is considering creating a workaround to provide health coverage to more people in states that have refused to extend Medicaid to poor adults.
The expansion of Medicaid services has been the focus of democratic campaigns in Georgia for a decade. Abrams said she would celebrate if Congress expanded Medicaid, but said Georgia will still have a high uninsured rate and a troubled public health system.
The US Supreme Court could pave the way for Georgia to ban abortions after six weeks of gestation. The law passed in 2019 is currently on hold in an appeals court. Abrams called it a “Forced Pregnancy Bill”.
“I will do everything in my power to ensure that no woman is forced to risk her family, herself, or her life just to satisfy the political whims of a conservative man who never had to make that decision. ” She said.
