John Lewis<moveon.help@list.moveon.org>
To
Dear MoveOn member,
Fifty-three years ago this month, I stood behind President Lyndon Johnson and watched him sign into law the Voting Rights Act.
I marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to help pass that law. I was physically beaten while advocating for its passage, and many of my brothers and sisters lost their lives fighting to give Black people the right to vote.
It is why I never take voting for granted, and why I was so shocked and disheartened to learn last week that my beloved state of Georgia was considering shutting down multiple polling places in majority-Black counties right before the midterm elections—when my state has the chance to elect Stacey Abrams, becoming the first in the nation to elect a Black woman governor.1
I marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to help pass that law. I was physically beaten while advocating for its passage, and many of my brothers and sisters lost their lives fighting to give Black people the right to vote.
It is why I never take voting for granted, and why I was so shocked and disheartened to learn last week that my beloved state of Georgia was considering shutting down multiple polling places in majority-Black counties right before the midterm elections—when my state has the chance to elect Stacey Abrams, becoming the first in the nation to elect a Black woman governor.1
I know why Republicans in Georgia are desperate to bar voters from the polls this November: They are terrified of Stacey Abrams.
Stacey has been running an inspiring, once-in-a-generation campaign, and people across Georgia—from big cities like Atlanta to small, rural farm towns—are flocking to her because of her message and because they want to elect a progressive leader that will truly represent all of Georgia.
It is no wonder that the secretary of state in Georgia—who just so happens to be Stacey's Republican opponent in this race—has been purging the voter rolls and playing every dirty trick possible in order to stop voters from giving Stacey the win that she deserves this November.2
Which is why I'm writing to you today with a simple request: Can you chip in $3 right now directly to Stacey Abrams' campaign to give her the fuel to fight back against these attacks?
Stacey Abrams is a force to be reckoned with, and when she becomes the next governor of Georgia, she will defend equality and justice just as fiercely as she now opposes the president's dangerous and divisive agenda. That's why the president has been attacking Stacey and why he was so involved in hand-picking her opponent.
But Stacey is not one to back down from a fight. She grew up in a family with very little and pulled herself up to become a Yale Law School graduate, the first-ever Black woman to lead a party in Georgia's legislature, and, now, the first Black woman to win the nomination for governor for a major party anywhere in America. She has spent her life advocating for equality, owns a small business that helps employ thousands of people in Georgia, and has registered hundreds of thousands of people in our state—significantly, people of color, the very same people that her opponent is trying to block from voting.3
When I think of Stacey, I see the continuation of the civil rights movement, and I refuse to allow the GOP to silence the voices of the very people that I fought for, that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought and died for, and that people like Stacey are fighting for today.
Many of my friends gave their lives for our right to vote. I think about them every time I go into a voting booth. We must never forget the sacrifice that so many made to get us here, and we must never, ever go back.
Stacey Abrams is the living embodiment of that powerful, blood-won truth, and it is on us to stand beside her and march with her toward victory.
Thanks for being a part of this.
–Congressman John Lewis of Georgia
Sources:
1. "Brian Kemp’s Bid for Governor Depends on Erasing the Black Vote in Georgia," Slate, August 17, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/48627?t=5&akid=214824%2E38417624%2EhrGwSg
https://act.moveon.org/go/48627?t=5&akid=214824%2E38417624%2EhrGwSg
2. Ibid.
3. "Meet Stacey," Stacey Abrams for Governor, accessed August 24, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/38531?t=7&akid=214824%2E38417624%2EhrGwSg
https://act.moveon.org/go/38531?t=7&akid=214824%2E38417624%2EhrGwSg
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