When President Joe Biden said he would “strongly support” pro baseball players boycotting the upcoming All Star Game in Atlanta over Georgia’s new voting restriction law, some of the most surprised people were the very Democrats who helped turn Georgia blue.
“I absolutely oppose and reject any notion of boycotting Georgia,” freshman Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “In fact, economic growth is driving much of the political progress we have seen here. Georgia welcomes the world’s business.”
Georgia's other freshman Democratic senator, Raphael Warnock, didn’t respond to a request for comment, but Democrats on the ground in Georgia were more than happy to set the President of the United States straight.
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People like Teri Anulewicz, the Democratic state representative for southern Cobb County—home to the Atlanta Braves’ ballpark where the All Star game is slated for July—said she understood the frustration with the recently signed GOP bill imposing sweeping voter restrictions.
But Anulewicz said a boycott would only harm the very people whom Biden and congressional Democrats have to thank for their success so far in Washington. “We have the American Rescue Plan because of Georgia voters,” she said, referring to the $1.9 trillion COVID stimulus bill that passed under the new Democratic Senate majority in March. “The Georgia voters who helped get Sen. Warnock and Sen. Ossoff elected are the same Georgia voters most vulnerable to the economic effects of a boycott.”
Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan, whose district also includes Truist Park, told The Daily Beast that losing the game would cost people money.
“They work, and that impacts people all the way down the food chain,” he said.
A vocal opponent of the GOP voting restrictions bill, Jordan said she can see why Biden isn’t happy about the legislation. The bill, after all, is fueled by—and fuels—conspiracies that Biden did not win Georgia fairly in 2020, and it’ll make it harder for Democrats to win in the state going forward.
But, she said, so would MLB players boycotting the All Star game in Georgia.
“What people need to do is, if they care about the state or people in the state, and want the politics in this state to change, they need to help us change the politicians who are in charge,” said Jordan. “You can’t do that by walking out and leaving.”
White House spokesperson Chris Meagher said Biden was “not dictating” that the league move the All Star Game. “He was saying he’d support that decision if that’s what they decided,” Meagher said. “But it is his belief that this law is an atrocity designed to prevent people from voting.”
Biden’s openness to a boycott, and Georgia Democrats’ rejection of it, comes at a moment when every corner of the party is saddened and outraged over the swift passage in Georgia of S.B. 202—the bill clamping down on voter access in the state. Democrats are asking themselves how they can stop these efforts, and the deterring effect of boycotts could be an important tool.
Democrats and voting rights advocates have appealed to corporate America to register their disapproval and put pressure on the Republican governors and lawmakers pushing for these sorts of bills. And these tactics could be an especially potent strategy in Georgia, home to a number of Fortune 500 companies, from Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines to Home Depot and UPS. Delta, in particular, is under fire: the company has financially supported the Republicans who backed S.B. 202 and said it “worked” on the bill. Facing subsequent criticism, CEO Ed Bastian called the legislation “wrong” and “based on a lie.”
The GOP-led legislature responded by stripping the company of a valuable tax break.
Democrats like Ossoff have floated an alternative for corporations and labor forces that want to show their solidarity with Georgia voters: cut off Georgia Republicans from financial support. And Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic candidate for governor credited with laying the groundwork for the party’s huge 2020 win, laid out the rationale in a USA Today op-ed on Thursday.
“Corporations eager to prove their good faith can do so by putting their resources to good use. Rather than financing state legislators pushing these anti-democratic bills, refuse to fund their efforts,” wrote Abrams. “I ask you to bring your business to Georgia and, if you’re already here, stay and fight. Stay and vote.”
The All Star Game presents a complicated situation. The league’s high-profile players, not just its leadership, are considering the boycott. And the executive director of the MLB Players Association—the labor union for pro ballplayers—said last week that members were “very much aware” of the voting laws steaming through Georgia’s legislature. He said the players association looked forward to a discussion about whether to move the game. Meanwhile, the league’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, said he is soliciting feedback from teams and players about the situation.
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, one of two Black managers in the entire league, said last week that he would “certainly” consider boycotting the event based on S.B. 202.
“As we get to that point and we know more, I will make a better decision,” said Roberts. “But I do think that if it gets to that point, it will certainly be a decision I have to make personally.”
In his comments to ESPN, Biden seemed to allude to comments from people like Roberts in supporting the idea of a boycott. “The very people who are victimized the most are the people who are the leaders in these various sports, and it's just not right," the president said. "This is Jim Crow on steroids, what they're doing in Georgia and 40 other states."
Georgia Republicans, for their part, have slammed Biden for these remarks. Appearing on Fox News on Thursday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said it was “ridiculous.”
But there is precedent for these sorts of boycotts—and they have been effective.
When North Carolina Republicans passed the so-called “Bathroom Bill”—restricting the rights of transgender people in the state—corporations and sports leagues responded with a boycott campaign and put pressure on the state to repeal the legislation. The National Basketball Association withdrew its All Star Game, scheduled for Charlotte in 2017, and the legislation was overturned later that year.
It’s that history that has voting rights activists perhaps nodding their heads more to Biden than Abrams on this particular issue.
Cliff Albright, co-founder of the group Black Voters Matter, argued it was the boycott position, not the one Abrams described, that led to the defeat of the bathroom bills. “Family can disagree on some nuances sometimes,” said Albright.
But the bathroom legislation moved slowly in North Carolina. The Georgia voting bill moved lightning-fast, and there’s resignation among Democrats that they had virtually no window to build a pressure campaign. The state’s legislative session ended late Wednesday night. No further formal action on S.B. 202 is possible until the chambers meet again next year, as one Georgia Democrat noted to The Daily Beast.
For now, there’s a strong desire among voting advocates to keep the focus on federal action. And Democrats think the most pro-active way to combat local legislation is with Congress passing two bills: H.R. 1, a sweeping bill that aims to rework the nation’s election system, and H.R. 4, a restoration of the Voting Rights Act. Both bills have the strong backing of Biden and congressional Democrats, but will not pass in the Senate unless the party gets rid of the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation.
“The sense is the horse is kind of out of this barn,” said Andrea Young, the director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, “and the most helpful thing to Georgia would be a federal Voting Rights Act.”
“The All Star Game, some big events, are an important opportunity to make the point,” Young continued. “But it’s probably not going to change anything in Georgia right now.”
And that’s why Democratic activists are so forceful about federal legislation.
Albright summed it by saying he was thankful Biden indicated his support for moving the All Star Game. “But from him, I need a little more,” he said. “I need President Biden to use the full force of his office to get H.R. 1 and H.R. 4 passed.”
