MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — Georgia’s Republican governor on Saturday stepped up his attack on Major League Baseball’s decision to pull this summer’s All-Star Game from the state in response to a sweeping new voting law, saying the move politicized the sport and would hurt minority-owned businesses.
Gov. Brian Kemp spoke along with Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, also a Republican. He has previously criticized MLB’s decision. The game will now be played in Denver. Kemp noted at Saturday’s news conference that Denver has a much smaller percentage of African Americans than Atlanta. And he said MLB’s move has injected politics into the “great American pastime.”
“People shouldn’t have to go to the game and worry about if they’re sitting next to a Joe Biden supporter or a Donald Trump supporter,” he said. “They ought to be able to go to the game, cheer for their team just like if you’re in church worshipping.”
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has said he made the decision to move the All-Star events after discussions with individual players and the Players Alliance, an organization of Black players formed after the death of George Floyd last year, and that the league opposed restrictions to the ballot box. A MLB spokesman said the league had no immediate additional comment Saturday.
Several groups already have filed suit over the voting measure.
It expands weekend early voting, but limits the use of ballot drop boxes, makes it a crime to hand out food or water to voters waiting in line and gives the State Election Board new powers to intervene in county election offices and to remove and replace local election officials.
Democrats have assailed the law as an attempt to suppress Black and Latino votes, with Biden calling it “Jim Crow in the 21st Century.”
Carr and Kemp blasted that comparison.
“This made up narrative that this bill takes us back to Jim Crow — an era when human beings were being killed and who were truly prevented from casting their vote — is preposterous,” Carr said.
“It is irresponsible, and it’s fundamentally wrong.”
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