Seth Moulton Claims Stacey Abrams Lost Due to ‘Partisan Gerrymandering’

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) believes Stacey Abrams lost the Georgia governor’s race last year because of “partisan gerrymandering.”

Moulton, who is running for president, issued a broadside against the Supreme Court on Thursday for deciding in a 5-to-4 vote that federal courts lack jurisdiction on gerrymandering cases. The decision effectively affirmed electoral redistricting was a political issue best left to Congress and state legislatures, instead of unelected judges.

Moulton disagreed, saying it was “absurd and un-American” for the Supreme Court to decide political issues were beyond its purview. He further challenged his fellow White House candidates to support a “New Voting Rights Act” that includes ending gerrymandering, automatic voter registration, and paid time off for voting, among other ideas.

This is absurd and un-American. Every presidential candidate should commit to running on a New Voting Rights Act. That means:

– Ending gerrymandering
– Ending voter suppression
– Automatic voter registration
– Statehood for PR and DC
– PTO for voting
– Nat'l holiday for e-day https://t.co/L0zA08fxtu

— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) June 27, 2019

He followed up his initial statement by claiming the Supreme Court was, in effect, sanctioning “racial gerrymandering” through its decision. To stress his point about this “modern-day Jim Crow,” Moulton invoked Abrams’ defeat in Georgia.

“Make no mistake: the partisan gerrymandering SCOTUS just allowed is also racial gerrymandering—a modern-day Jim Crow,” he said. “Just look at what happened with Stacey Abrams last cycle in Georgia.”

Make no mistake: the partisan gerrymandering SCOTUS just allowed is also racial gerrymandering—a modern-day Jim Crow. Just look at what happened with Stacey Abrams last cycle in Georgia. https://t.co/x2kIgBNAw9

— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) June 27, 2019

Moulton made similar remarks at a CNN town hall this month when he claimed that Abrams would be governor “if this country wasn’t racist.”

Unlike those prior remarks, however, Moulton’s statements on gerrymandering were easy to prove inaccurate. Governors in Georgia, like all states across the U.S., are not elected by legislative district, but rather by a statewide popular vote. In Abrams case, she lost statewide to now-Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) by more than 54,000 votes, well out the margin required by Georgia law to trigger a runoff. Despite the rout, Abrams and her allies on the left have refused to acknowledge defeat.
Moulton’s remarks are only the most recent in a long line of such defenses, the most prevalent of which were claims of voter suppression at the hands of Kemp, who was Georgia’s chief elections officer, during the campaign. Those claims, though, were proven inaccurate, especially as registration and turnout increased under Kemp’s tenure.

Like Moulton, other Democrats running for president, including South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), have claimed Abrams should be Georgia’s duly elected governor.

Abrams, for her part, has only pushed that notion, at times even claiming she “won” the election outright. In June, Abrams claimed Breitbart News thinks she’s “delusional” for such assertions.