Former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams suggested during a Monday appearance on CNN’s “New Day” that Republicans can only win elections with voter suppression.
Abrams, who blamed voter suppression for her 2018 loss against Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, told CNN host Jim Sciutto that increasing voter turnout hurts Republicans. “When we create access to the right to vote for eligible citizens, more people participate, and Republicans do not know how to win without voter suppression as one of their tools.”
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Republican-led state legislatures across the country have long backed tougher voting requirements due to concerns about voter fraud. Georgia, for example, has one of the nation’s strictest voter ID laws according to an October study conducted by University of Utah professor Baodong Liu. (RELATED: Karl Rove Says Stacey Abrams Is ‘Misleading Or Uninformed’ On Georgia Absentee Ballot Request Numbers)
“Do you see that effort ticking up again after this cycle in state legislatures around the country, where frankly Republicans have an enormous advantage, and if so, what are you going to do about it?” Sciutto asked Abrams.
“We are going to do what we’ve been doing, which is we are going to work to mitigate voter suppression,” Abrams replied. “You’re absolutely right. When voter suppression was put on its heels in the 2020 election, through the work of Fair Fight 2020 and other organizations around the country, we saw voters turn out in record numbers and in record composition in Michigan, in Wisconsin, in Pennsylvania and Arizona, here in Georgia.”
Abrams’ voting rights group FairFight raised nearly $35 million through the end of November, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Democratic voter registration efforts have ramped up ahead of the highly anticipated Jan. 5 Georgia Senate runoffs that could decide which party controls the Senate.