Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) is receiving blowback for support of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) boycott of the Peach State, over the newly-passed voting law. The league elected to protest the legislation signed by Governor Brian Kemp (R-GA), that ramps up voter identification requirements while expanding accessibility to the ballot box via early voting.
While even his Senate counterpart, Jon Ossoff (D-GA), and voting activist Stacey Abrams opposed the boycott, Warnock said he “respects” the league’s decision to protest the “unjust law.”
“Businesses and organizations have great power in their voices and ability to push for change, and I respect the decision of the players to speak out against this unjust law,” Warnock said in a release. “It is not the people of Georgia or the workers of Georgia who crafted this law, it is politicians seeking to retain power at the expense of Georgians’ voices. And today’s decision by MLB is the unfortunate consequence of these politicians’ actions.”
The MLB’s decision to move the location of the All-Star game will ultimately harm small businesses in Georgia the most, as Republicans have noted repeatedly. The decision is estimated to cost the state $100 million in lost revenue, per a Georgia tourism official.
National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Rick Scott (R-FL) took note of Warnock’s “out-of-touch” support of the boycott, noting that the new senator helped cost his state millions in “jobs and opportunities.”
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“It takes a special kind of ‘out of touch’ to openly root for the people you represent to suffer economically for personal political gain,” Scott said. “In the midst of a pandemic, when the tourism industry of Georgia is suffering, the MLB’s All-Star Game offered a golden opportunity to rebuild. Senator Warnock and his allies just set that opportunity ablaze and cost his state $100 million worth of jobs and opportunities.”
Republicans have come together to blast the decision made by the league, aimed at appeasing woke activists; Kemp has made it clear that Republicans in Georgia will not bow to the outrage-driven narrative about the legislation.
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