South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg was supposed to be the smart and mature 2020 Democratic candidate. We can kiss that notion goodbye following the mayor’s embrace this week of the conspiracy theory alleging that the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race was stolen from erstwhile Democratic candidate and ongoing charity case Stacey Abrams.
“Stacey Abrams ought to be the governor of Georgia,” Buttigieg said during an address Thursday at the Democratic National Committee’s African American Leadership Summit in Atlanta.
He added, “When racially motivated voter suppression is permitted, when districts are drawn so that politicians get to choose their voters instead of the other way around, when money is allowed to outvote people in this country, we cannot truly say we live in a democracy.”
Abrams lost the race in 2018 to Georgia’s then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp by a margin of about 55,000 votes (48.8% to 50.2%). Since that time, the defeated gubernatorial candidate and her allies in politics and media have incessantly cried foul, claiming without evidence that voter suppression tactics cost her the governor’s mansion.
They claim, for example, that Kemp is responsible for Democratic county governments choosing to consolidate their polling places — something he had no power over in his former position as secretary of state. In fact, he is on the record opposing many of these consolidation decisions. They claim, without evidence, that Kemp and his cohort are responsible for creating long lines on Election Day. They also claim, without evidence, that Kemp is personally responsible for Election Day mishaps, including a shortage of extension cords for voting machines at a polling station in Gwinnett County. (The extension cords were found eventually.)
There is no evidence to support the assertion that votes were suppressed in the 2018 Georgia governor’s race. In fact, all available voting data points in the opposite direction.
An estimated 3.9 million votes were cast during last year’s midterm election, compared to the 2.5 million votes cast in the previous 2014 midterm elections. For further reference, roughly 4.1 million votes had been cast in Georgia during the 2016 presidential election, up slightly from the 3.9 million votes cast in 2012. Turnout was up at presidential levels, clearly very high for a midterm.
Abrams lost a close race fair and square. Nevertheless, this stupid “stolen election” narrative persists. Add Buttigieg to the list of politicians who can’t accept elections their party loses. What difference is there between what the mayor said Thursday evening and the sort of nonsense President Trump danced with during the 2016 presidential election? There isn’t any.
