DURHAM , N.C. — Stacey Abrams, one of the most vocal figures on voting rights in Democratic politics, took aim at North Carolina’s recent redistricting cycle Thursday night, describing maps enacted for the state’s legislative and congressional seats as among the most “egregious” in the country.
During a roughly hour-long conversation with political commentator and writer Melissa Harris-Perry at the Durham Performing Arts Center, Abrams said North Carolina outdid itself with the new maps passed by the Republican-led General Assembly earlier this month.
“I think you guys like going to court,” Abrams said to laughs from the audience, when asked what she thought of the maps, which are in place for the next decade, and already face two major legal challenges.
Previously, maps for state legislative districts have been struck down as unconstitutional twice in the last decade, most recently in 2019.
Both of the current lawsuits, one of which was filed by a group affiliated with former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder that was behind the successful challenge in 2019, accuse GOP lawmakers of gerrymandering. That’s the controversial practice of lawmakers drawing maps that shape electoral districts to include more of their own supporters and less of the other side’s supporters.
“Anytime politicians draw maps that do not reflect or respect the values or the intentions of the voter, and instead focus on the will and perfidy of the politician, it’s called a gerrymander,” Abrams said. “Or otherwise known as North Carolina’s maps.”
Now, the GOP holds a three-seat advantage in North Carolina’s congressional delegation, which includes eight Republicans and five Democrats. Under the new maps enacted, Republicans are expected to see their advantage widen to six, possibly seven seats, under a 10-4 or 11-3 composition.
With Democrats holding a slim, fewer than 10-seat majority in the U.S. House, North Carolina’s new maps have the potential to significantly influence which party controls the lower chamber after the 2022 midterm elections, The News & Observer previously reported.
“The fundamental problem with gerrymandering is that it not only locks in power for individual politicians, it skews the future for a generation of people,” Abrams said. “Every 10 years sounds like just enough time to not care.”
Questions about her future political ambitions
Abrams’s visit to Durham Thursday night was the final stop of a national speaking tour she launched in San Antonio, Texas, in September. Amid her appearances before audiences throughout the country, there has been growing speculation about Abrams’s future political ambitions, including whether she plans to challenge Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in 2022 after he defeated her in 2018.
Asked if she wanted to “make some news,” Abrams replied in between loud cheers: “I appreciate that, but no.”
Multiple controversies surrounded the 2018 gubernatorial race in Georgia, including Kemp’s decision not to recuse himself from overseeing the election while he served as secretary of state, and concerns that the removal of tens of thousands of voters from voter rolls was racially motivated, which led to Abrams acknowledging Kemp’s victory 10 days after Election Day but refusing to concede.
At the time, Abrams said she wasn’t conceding the race because doing so would mean “to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper.”
On Thursday, Abrams rejected the notion that her refusal to concede made her comparable to former President Donald Trump, or supporters of his who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and attempted to disrupt Congress’s counting of electoral votes and acknowledgment of President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
“My fight is for everyone who is legally eligible to be able to cast a ballot,” Abrams said. “Their fight is for no one who doesn’t agree with them to be able to do that.”
Jan. 6 was ‘repudiation of America’
Abrams also said an increase in disputes over voting rights has come at the same time as the electorate of eligible voters has grown more diverse.
“The more we saw the transition of our electorate from one of remarkable homogeneity, into the great diversity we’ve seen time and again, we have seen an incredibly fast-paced attempt to limit their voices,” she said.
Abrams said the main difference between her and Trump and his supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol was that she believes the right to vote is “sacred.”
“The other guys don’t believe that, and what January 6 was about was not who won the presidency, it was who got to be heard in the process,” Abrams said. “That was a repudiation of America and that is why it should not be countenanced, and that is why it annoys me I’m compared to those insurrectionist, treasonous traitors.”
