2020 presidential candidate Seth Moulton blamed the 2018 loss of Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on gerrymandering.
Moulton made the claim after the Supreme Court ruled that claims of partisan gerrymandering cannot be heard by federal courts on Thursday.
“Make no mistake: the partisan gerrymandering SCOTUS just allowed is also racial gerrymandering—a modern-day Jim Crow. Just look at what happened with Stacey Abrams last cycle in Georgia,” he tweeted.
Abrams lost to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp by almost 55,000 votes.
Make no mistake: the partisan gerrymandering SCOTUS just allowed is also racial gerrymandering—a modern-day Jim Crow. Just look at what happened with Stacey Abrams last cycle in Georgia. https://t.co/x2kIgBNAw9
— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) June 27, 2019
And while we’re at it, we need to abolish the electoral college. Because the American people should choose our next president (and therefore our Supreme Court Justices), not an outdated institution that counts some votes more than others. https://t.co/U8puUKu7MP
— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) June 27, 2019
Moulton’s tweet has been heavily criticized by those claiming that gerrymandering has no effect on state-wide races.
“Pretty simple actually,” Matt Corridoni, Moulton’s campaign press secretary, told the Washington Examiner. “Gerrymandering leads to voter suppression and low turnout in congressional districts that has an impact on statewide tallies.”
In the 2018 midterms, 3. 9 million Georgia voters participated, out of the 6.4 million who are registered. That made it the highest rate for a midterm election year in recent history, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
63% of registered voters participated in the 2016 election, 43% participated in 2014, and 45% participated in 2010. Around 2.1 million people voted with early ballots, up from 954,000 people in 2014.
