In the 2018 midterm elections, there were a wave of Democratic victories across the United States — except in the Georgia gubernatorial race, where then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp eked out a narrow winning margin over opponent Stacey Abrams after a whole round of widely concerning apparent voter suppression issues surrounding the voting process. Now, as Abrams continues to keep her message going even in the absence of winning a spot as Georgia’s chief executive, she’s launching a national initiative to help Democrats shore up their voter protection plans ahead of the 2020 elections.
The initiative is a national version of something Abrams launched in Georgia following her defeat and will now be known as Fair Fight 2020. She’s announcing the plan during a speech to the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades in Las Vegas. As The Washington Post explains, Abrams will “focus on helping Democratic Party leaders and activists in 20 states to immediately begin building systems to make sure their voters have minimal problems casting ballots and that those ballots are counted.”
Abrams’ campaign manager turned Fair Fight chief executive Lauren Groh-Wargo shared:
‘Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight are uniquely situated to bring together the disparate parts of the Democratic Party around ensuring that we have the most robust, thoughtful voter protection operation in battle ground states for 2020 — and that work has to start this year.’
A whole host of issues that hit the Georgia gubernatorial race in which Abrams competed included irregularities in ballot counting systems, closed polling places, large numbers of people just abruptly removed from the voter rolls, and the like. Topping it all off — as Georgia’s then-Secretary of State, eventual victor Brian Kemp had the final say over state elections processes themselves. He eventually resigned from the position, but he only did so after declaring victory over Abrams and preparing to transition into the governorship.
Although Republicans like to point fingers at the left for supposed voting irregularities, in reality, the record of Republicans presiding over and administering dubious at best voting situations goes well on from there. In the 9th Congressional District in North Carolina, voters are there preparing for a whole new election that’s been called after it came out that Republican operatives had illegally intervened in the absentee ballot voting process, filling in some and transporting some in circumstances in which it was forbidden. A whole host of criminal charges have already been handed down in that situation, and investigations are ongoing.
In Georgia, the state version of Fair Fight has joined a lawsuit against the state of Georgia alleging that the voting rights of people of color and other Georgians were violated during the 2018 elections with the various blocks that the Republican leadership put up. Just this May, a judge ruled that the lawsuit could go forward, and it remains ongoing.
In 2020, there’s a lot at stake, as Democrats struggle to unseat Donald Trump and what one leading presidential contender recently called his “campaign of terror” against marginalized groups that has already wrought death via a recent anti-immigrant shooting and could see more soon.
Featured Image via screenshot
