Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has escalated her rhetoric against Republican-controlled states redrawing congressional maps to solidify GOP power, calling the practice "evil incarnate" in remarks made to the Guardian's new podcast Stateside with Kai and Carter.
Abrams framed the redistricting push as something far darker than typical partisan gamesmanship. "They are not just rigging the game," she said. "They are not just cheating. They're kneecapping the players. They are taking out the opposition. That's not fair. That is not right. That is not American."
The timing of the redistricting surge is significant. Within two weeks of the Supreme Court's decision in Louisiana v Callais, which effectively dismantled key protections of the Voting Rights Act, multiple Republican-led states moved aggressively to redraw maps in ways that eliminate majority-minority districts.
Abrams characterized the broader challenge as existential, not simply electoral. "This is not just cheating so Republicans can beat Democrats," she said. "This is cheating so that authoritarians can dismantle our systems so they don't have to compete ever again." She described the current moment as a shift toward "competitive authoritarianism," where democratic institutions are weaponized from within.
She drew a personal connection to the stakes involved. Her nieces and nephews, she noted, represent "the first generation to lose civil rights during their lifetime since Reconstruction." The Voting Rights Act, while imperfect, had functioned as "a cheat code to overwhelm voter suppression," she said, and its weakening leaves vulnerable communities exposed.
Tennessee offers a stark example of how the Callais decision is playing out on the ground. The state's ninth congressional district, which encompasses Memphis and was the last majority-Black district in the state, has been carved into three separate pieces, each containing roughly a third of the city's Black voters. All nine of Tennessee's congressional districts now lean Republican.
Rather than surrender to this reality, Abrams outlined a two-pronged response. The first involves continued litigation, even in cases likely to fail. She cited historical precedent: "Long before we got Brown v Board of Education, we had Plessy v Ferguson, we had Dred Scott. Fighting in the courts is how we build the record, but it's also how we build the muscle memory for why we fight and how we sharpen and refine our arguments."
The second strategy targets the fragmented districts themselves. By splitting the Black population across three districts, the GOP inadvertently created what Abrams called "three new opportunities." The goal becomes voter registration and turnout growth in each of those fractured areas, turning a defeat into a chance for expansion.
Abrams emphasized demographic inevitability as justification for urgency. By 2046, the country will become majority-minority, a fact she said Republicans clearly understand given their rapid response to Callais. "The numbers are on our side," she asserted. "We've got to remember the reason for the urgency, the reason for the speed."
She pointed to Hungary's recent election as a cautionary tale and a model. Hungarian voters ousted Viktor Orbán, a Trump ally who had governed authoritatively for 16 years, through exceptionally high turnout and the election of Péter Magyar. "Hungary pulled it off," Abrams said. "But we don't have 16 years to wait."
Author James Rodriguez: "Abrams has shifted from a losing candidate's grievance to a fighting voice on democracy itself, and she's no longer waiting for the courts to solve this one."
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