DOJ Sues Georgia Because HR.1 Is Truly Dead

The Department of Justice is suing Georgia over its election reform bill. Ironically, it does so after Stacey Abrams embraced much of the legislation. Joe Manchin clearly used Georgia’s provisions as a model for his compromise plan in the Senate. Stacey Abrams endorsed the voter purges, photo ID for voting, the early voting scheme Georgia uses, and Georgia’s absentee ballot plan — all of those are in Manchin’s plan.

The reality is DOJ is suing because the For the People Act is dead. First, there’d be no need to sue if that law passed. But, and most importantly, the DOJ would not need to sue if Biden had aggressively pushed HR. 1.

The Biden team knew HR.1 was not going to pass and spent no political capital on pushing it. Progressives are now furious and the DOJ will be used to show Biden cares. The entirety of the lawsuit is political. The press will give it some credibility. But the DOJ did not have to sue. Stacey Abrams already is as did multiple outside progressive groups who will now be overshadowed. Hilariously, DOJ lawyers will be more likely to steer a conservative legal path and many of the progressives’ most outlandish claims will now fall by the wayside, depriving them of outrage donations.

The ramification is clear — Abrams will be sidelined as the DOJ takes over the case and the press coverage focuses on Merrick Garland. Brian Kemp and Chris Carr, Georgia’s Governor and Attorney General, will get maximum spotlight on the defense side. That helps both of them with the Republican base and will probably help their national fundraising.

This is a win for Biden because it shows the progressives that he cares. It is a bigger win for Brian Kemp who now gets to head into re-election telling Trump voters that he is fighting Biden for Georgia and its election integrity. Abrams, however, gets sidelined having already now ceded she will embrace photo ID and voter purges, two things she has long claimed were instruments of voter suppression.