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Stacey Abrams talks controversy over MLB Allstar boycott

Abrams touched on the MLB's decision to move the Allstar Game from Cobb County to boycott Georgia's controversial election bill.

ATLANTA — Stacey Abrams has announced she will launch another campaign to become the nation's first Black woman governor.

Abrams faces the possible challenge of winning an election she already attempted in 2018, against current Governor Brian Kemp.

In a recent conversation with 11Alive, Abrams touched on her campaign, what she hopes to accomplish, and a few of the sharp criticisms thrown at her by opponents. 

One of the "controversies" she touched on was the MLB's decision to move the Allstar Game from Cobb County to boycott Georgia's contentious election bill, which increased ID requirements in the state and tightened limits on absentee voting, among other changes to the state's voting laws. 

Governor Kemp claimed that critics of the bill didn't actually understand the law, and that the MLB "caved" to criticism when they moved the All-Star Game.  

"MLB, Coca-Cola, and Delta may be scared of Joe Biden, Stacey Abrams, and the left, but I am not," he added, referring to the strong stances both companies' CEOs took in opposition to the law

When asked about the MLB's decision to move the event, and whether she felt she barred any responsibility for that decision, Abrams threw the criticism back at Gov. Kemp, insisting his leadership pushed business away while she fought to keep them.

"What I have done is twice now tried to keep jobs in Georgia when Brian Kemp sent them away. In 2019, after he signed that egregious anti-choice bill, that stripped away women's rights to choose, I was the one who had to talk to folks who were trying to pull their businesses out of Georgia, I was the leader of the anti-boycott movement," Abrams exclaimed. "And when he once again decided to look backwards and try to erase voting rights in the state of Georgia, I did the work of trying to keep jobs here, trying to keep businesses here, trying to keep the game here."

Abrams continued by saying she encouraged the businesses to stay, but at the end of the day, she "can't control what people decide to do."

"I can only control what I try to invest in, and that is making sure that we have a forward-looking vision for the state and doing the work possible. But in the end, if people want to say that the laws as they stand are not right. I cannot disagree," she explained.

Abrams added that "any company that spoke out against those bills, were doing the right thing," but she didn't agree with pulling the Allstar game from Cobb County. 

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