Campaign

Stacey Abrams on racist robocall: Makes people feel ‘their votes don’t count’

by Emily Birnbaum - 11/05/18 10:00 AM ET

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D) on Monday expressed concern that a racist robocall targeting Georgians, as well as what she called “voter suppression efforts” by her Republican opponent, could make people feel “their votes don’t count.”

Abrams during ABC’s “Good Morning America” said the best antidote to intimidation tactics is to “actually turn out and engage.”

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Abrams if she is concerned the racist scare tactics will work, referring to the robocall.

“What I’m concerned about is that [Republican candidate Brian Kemp’s] overarching architecture of voter suppression, of ostracization, of demeaning and dehumanizing people, that that can cause people to think that their votes don’t count, which is why we’ve been so aggressive about telling people the best antidote to his antics is to actually turn out and engage,” Abrams said.

FULL INTERVIEW: @staceyabrams to @GStephanopoulos on @BrianKempGA: “What I’m concerned about is that his overarching architecture of voter suppression…that can cause people to think that their votes don’t count.” https://t.co/HNPvsCuJmY pic.twitter.com/qZci7iwIhD

— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 5, 2018

Stephanopoulos asked Abrams if she accepts her the remarks from her opponent, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, denouncing the racist robocall.

“I think it’s a little late for him to repudiate racist remarks,” she said.

A racist robocall paid for by a white supremacist group dialed up an unknown number of Georgia voters last Friday. The group, TheRoadToPower.com, is a video podcasting site that has been called white supremacist and anti-Semitic by the Anti-Defamation League.

A voice in the call pretends to be Oprah, the talk-show host who stumped for Abrams in Georgia earlier this week.

“This is the magical negro, Oprah Winfrey, asking you to make my fellow negress, Stacey Abrams, the governor of Georgia,” the call begins, according to recordings.

“Years ago, the Jews who own the American media saw something in me – the ability to trick dumb white women into thinking I was like them,” the voice continues. “I see that same potential in Stacey Abrams.”

The robocall compares Abrams to a “poor man’s Aunt Jemima” who “white women can be tricked into voting for, especially the fat ones.”