Kemp Blasts Home Depot Boycott Over Voting Law As 'Unfair'

ATLANTA, GA — Gov. Brian Kemp shot back Tuesday at an announced boycott of Georgia-based Home Depot over the state’s election law, calling the protest “hard to comprehend.”

“They (Home Depot) did not ask to be in this political fight, it’s unfair to them, to their families and their livelihoods to be targeted,” Kemp said Tuesday at the state Capitol.

The governor’s comments came in response to a Home Depot boycott announced Tuesday by Georgia religious leaders who say they believe the retailer has been “indifferent” to their concerns.

“We want these companies to speak out publicly against this legislation, to use their lobbying resources to fight voting restrictions in other states and to publicly support federal legislation to expand voting rights," said Bishop Reginald Jackson of the Sixth Episcopal District of AME Churches in a statement earlier this month contemplating boycotts.

Kemp, on the other hand, said that a boycott would only hurt families in Georgia and eventually throughout the country. Painting the boycott as part of a national “unconstitutional takeover” of state-run elections, Kemp also took aim at his likely Democratic challenger in the next general election, voting-rights activist Stacy Abrams.

“The insanity needs to stop,” Kemp said. “The people that are pushing this, that are profiting off this like Stacey Abrams and others, are now trying to have it both ways, and you in the media are letting them do that.”

Kemp also took a swing at Major League Baseball for moving the All-Star Game from Atlanta, noting that its home state of New York had voting laws more restrictive than Georgia’s.

Although Kemp said that opponents were “not telling people the truth” about how Senate Bill 202 expanded voting opportunities, the facts are a bit more complicated.

Republican lawmakers in Georgia quickly passed the bill — without bipartisan support — in the shadow of January’s special election that sent Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both Democrats, to the U.S. Senate. That followed a November general election that many Republicans believe without basis was stolen from former President Donald Trump. Last week, at least 10 local GOP committees voted to censure Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for not overturning Trump’s loss, according to Atlanta news station WAGA-TV.

In fact, Georgia’s new voting law continues to offer absentee voting, no excuse required, and a longer deadline than most states to request an absentee ballot, although it reduces the request time from the November election. At the same time, Georgia becomes one of only four states that require submitting a driver’s license or other ID number to vote.

The bill also allows the state to take over what it considers to be troubled local election operations, exactly what Kemp criticizes the federal government for trying to do with proposed legislation. Fulton, Cobb and Gwinnett — metro Atlanta counties that turned blue in the last general election — drew the most scrutiny in November, even though no meaningful voter fraud was discovered after multiple audits.

See Gov. Brian Kemp's complete news conference on his Facebook page.

Read an analysis of Georgia's voting law from Georgia Public Broadcasting.

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