Atlanta Braves fans headed to Truist Park soon won’t be able to avoid reminders of the fallout over the new election law that cost the stadium the chance to host the All-Star game.
The conservative voter-mobilization group helmed by former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler launched a digital billboard campaign Monday blaming top Democrats for Major League Baseball’s decision to move the event.
The billboards financed by Greater Georgia feature pictures of President Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams with the caption: “MLB’s All-Star Strike Out Squad.” The billboards will be on display at high-traffic areas around the Cobb County ballpark.
Since the league yanked the event in April in protest of sweeping new law, Georgia Republicans have claimed they’re under attack by a growing “cancel culture” to rev up supporters.
The election overhaul imposes new ID requirements for absentee ballots, curbs the use of ballot drop boxes, gives the GOP-controlled Legislature more say over how elections are run and shortens the election runoff window.
Abrams and other Democratic leaders have urged major events and conferences who are critical of the law to stay in Georgia and finance efforts to fight the restrictions rather than boycott the state.
”Kelly Loeffler was benched by the voters of Georgia after she struck out trying to buy a Senate seat,” said Seth Bringman, a spokesman for the Fair Fight Action voting rights group Abrams started. “She and her Republican team traded the All-Star game for voter suppression of people of color in Georgia.”
Loeffler started Greater Georgia shortly after she was defeated by Warnock in the January runoff to serve as the conservative counterweight to Fair Fight. She is among several prominent Republicans weighing a challenge against Warnock.
The Republican National Committee also is financing a baseball-themed billboard near the ballpark promising “Georgians will not forget” the backlash that led to the snub.
She has also pushed back on calls by former President Donald Trump and other Republicans to protest Major League Baseball’s decision by protesting America’s pastime.
The former senator, who recently sold her stake in Atlanta’s WNBA franchise, urged supporters to instead cheer the Braves to a World Series berth to force MLB to hold its championship event in Georgia.
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