Major League Baseball announced on Friday that it would move this year’s All-Star game and baseball draft out of Georgia. It came in response to the state’s new law that overhauls voting, one that critics argue is tantamount to voter suppression.
“In the middle of a pandemic, Major League Baseball put the wishes of Stacey Abrams and Joe Biden ahead of the economic wellbeing of everyday Georgians who were counting on the All-Star game for a paycheck,” said Georgia Governor Brian Kemp last week. “Georgians and all Americans should know what this decision means. It means cancel culture and partisan activists are coming for your business. They’re coming for your game or event in your hometown. And they’re coming to cancel everything from sports to how you make a living. And they will stop at nothing to silence all of us.”
Other companies, including Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola, have called the new voting laws unacceptable after local civil rights groups pressured them to speak out against the legislation.
More than 170 corporations — including Uber, Dow, and Estee Lauder — have signed a letter urging lawmakers nationwide to make voting easier and more accessible. Some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, are calling for a boycott of these companies.