Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp dismissed the corporate backlash to the state’s new election integrity law, saying he’s “glad to deal with it.”
“If they want to have a debate about the merits and the facts of the bill, then we should do that,” Kemp told CNBC on Wednesday.
Facing boycott pressure from radical left-wing activists, a few major companies based in Georgia have slammed Kemp and state legislators for passing the bill, which they claim restricts voting rights.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian published a statement criticizing the legislation, and Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy demanded that Congress pass “federal legislation that protects voting access and addresses voter suppression across the country.”
“This legislation is wrong and needs to be remedied,” Quincey told CNBC on Wednesday.
“We will continue to advocate for [changes], both in private and now even more clearly in public,” he added. “We all have a duty to protect everyone’s right to vote, and we will continue to stand up for what is right in Georgia and across the U.S.”
In response, Georgia Republicans voted to strip Delta of the tax breaks it receives in the state.
Bastian, however, doubled down in his response, insisting that he was “not going to respond” to the Georgia state House’s retaliation.
“This is something that’s more than money, this is about protecting the voices of our people,” he told CBS News on Thursday.
“Here in Atlanta, we’ve got a very, very large black employee base,” he continued. “Almost universally, they are hurt by the law and the legislation that was enacted.”
Kemp said these businesses ought to research what the bill actually says.
“I would encourage these CEOs to look at other states that they’re doing business in and compare what the real facts are to Georgia,” Kemp said.
Democrats have tried to argue the election integrity law reduces voting hours and rolls back early voting, but several election experts have confirmed that the law actually does the exact opposite.
