'Rigging the Game': Stacey Abrams Kicks Off Campaign to Fight Voter Suppression

By Martin Pengelly, Guardian UK

20 August 19

Abrams, a potential Democratic nominee for vice-president, says African American voter suppression has ‘gone underground’

tacey Abrams is a potential Democratic nominee for vice-president in 2020. She is also now the leader of a national campaign against voter suppression and intimidation which she launched on Saturday in Georgia, where last year she lost a controversial race for governor.

The former Georgia House minority leader kicked off Fair Fight 2020 at an elementary school in Gwinnett county, near Atlanta. Gwinnett turned Democratic in elections which saw Abrams’ narrow defeat by Republican Brian Kemp gain national attention.

Kemp was Georgia’s secretary of state, which meant he oversaw his own race. Abrams, with others, filed a lawsuit alleging serious flaws within the overall process.

On Saturday, she told her audience: “Gwinnett proved that you are the future. But … we are still mired in a past of voter suppression. And voter intimidation. And mistakes made. But we are going to correct those mistakes in 2020.”

Speaking to ABC’s This Week in an interview broadcast on Sunday, she said: “We have a right to vote in the United States that is afforded to eligible American citizens but we have seen over the last 20 years a constriction on who has the right to use that right.

“We have seen it through voter ID laws. You can’t get on the rolls. And if you get on the rolls you can’t stay. You may not be able to cast your ballot, because they close your precinct or they change the rules. That’s rigging the game.”

Voter suppression against African Americans, a constant of US history since Reconstruction, has she said “gone underground. It’s no longer hoses and laws that say you cannot vote, it is this insidious nature that says it’s race neutral, that we’re just putting in these laws in place for everyone, but we know it has a disproportionate effect on the communities that have long been marginalized.”

In the 2016 presidential election, the first after eight years under the first black president, black turnout fell for the first time in 20 years. Abrams was asked how she would make sure black voters turned out in 2020.

“Good candidates give you a reason to vote but good government makes certain you can cast that vote,” she said. “And what I take exception to is that we do not have people in government who are living up to their obligations. In fact, they are thwarting the will of the people by denying them access. And that’s just wrong.”

Abrams’ announcement this week that she would not run for president gained striking attention for a politician who has not held national office. She also said she was open to being running mate to any Democratic nominee.

On ABC, she said: “For each position that I’ve applied for … I’ve made certain that it’s the right job and I’m the right person and it’s the right time. And when I looked at this current crop of candidates running for the Democratic nomination, I think they’re extraordinary.

“And I think voter suppression is an intrinsic problem that is bigger than just Georgia. Georgia was emblematic of it and certainly was a singularity in terms of how grotesque the process was, but we’re not alone.

“And so for me, the decision not to run for president was one of saying, ‘Where could I do my best work?’ and that’s making certain that we set up voter protection teams across the country.”

Abrams said combating voter suppression was “fundamental to tackling issues” her interviewer cited as more important to Democrats: the economy, gun control, climate crisis and abortion among them.

“The ability to vote is how you tackle climate change,” she said. “We can’t have climate change legislation simply by wishing it.”

In Georgia on Saturday, Abrams said: “What we’re going to do through Fair Fight 2020 is we’re going to fight back. But we’re fighting early. We’re doing this now. We’re not waiting until we have a nominee. Because no matter who the Democratic nominee is, they’re going to win Georgia.”

She added: “I’m going to use my energies and my very, very loud voice to raise the money we need to train those across the country in our 20 battleground states to make sure Donald Trump and the Senate take a hike, and we put people in place who know what we need to have in the United States of America.”

Debate continues about the best kind of candidate to run against Trump next year. Former vice-president Joe Biden leads national polling and surveys of black Democratic voters, ahead of candidates including two African Americans, senators Kamala Harris, of California, and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

“Vice-President Biden is a known quantity,” Abrams told ABC. “He’s been a part of the national conversation for decades.”

Asked if she was concerned by some of the 76-year-old’s comments and past positions on race, she said: “I think, if you listen to the whole of what Joe Biden says, it is consistent with Democratic values, and always has been.

“I think we lose out if we spend so much time focusing on missteps or malapropisms, and not focusing on the content. And, right now, every Democratic candidate, I think, is talking about the right things. And that is protecting America, renewing America, and ensuring that we are restored in our values and in our standing in the world.”

Trump, she said, is “a racist”.

“But, more importantly, he does not value Americans, and he does not value humanity. And that should be more disturbing to everyone than the title that we prescribe to him.”