Major League Baseball (MLB) recently gained national attention for an issue unrelated to baseball: boycotting the state of Georgia. The league decided to relocate its annual All-Star Game and Draft out of Atlanta in protest of the state’s newly-signed voting reform law.
Democrats spearheaded a wide-ranging misinformation campaign about the law, likening the reforms to “voter suppression” and “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” In reality, the bill increases accessibility to the ballot box, and the new location for the game, selected by the league, has stricter voting laws than the Peach State.
Led by Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), House GOP lawmakers took note of all of this in a scathing letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who fell for the Democrat lies about the bill.
“MLB’s decision to insert itself in Georgia’s election laws was based on inaccurate and politicized information. Although Democrats and some woke corporate elites like to claim that the new Georgia law constitutes ‘Jim Crow 2.0’ and ‘voter suppression,’ these claims are false and unfounded,” the letter reads. “While MLB has criticized Georgia, it has raised no similar concerns about the election laws in Colorado, the new location of the All-Star Game, or in New York, the state of MLB’s headquarters—even though those states have more restrictive election laws than Georgia. For example, Georgia’s new law provides 17 days of early voting while Colorado has only 15 days. New York, similarly, only provides early voting ten days before the election and does not allow for no-excuse absentee voting. With respect to voter identification—which partisan advocates cited as a particular concern about Georgia’s new law—Colorado, like Georgia, requires voter identification for in-person voting and first-time mail-in voters”
?? #BREAKING: @Jim_Jordan, @RepJamesComer, and @CongressmanHice blast Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball for moving the All-Star game from Atlanta, Georgia. pic.twitter.com/cNHZYjfUSE
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) April 23, 2021
The league’s tone-deaf move will ultimately cost Georgia an estimated $100 million in lost revenue due to the canceled events. Republicans naturally criticized the league’s decision, which was based on a false narrative about the law’s reform measures.