Oprah stumps for Abrams in Georgia: We have power that ‘cannot be suppressed’
Oprah Winfrey on Thursday stumped for Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D), telling the cheering crowd that their votes will not be “denied” amid allegations of voter suppression in the state led by Republicans.
“Every single one of us has something that, if done in numbers too big to tamper with, cannot be suppressed and cannot be denied,” Oprah said in the midst of an impassioned call to vote during the midterm elections.
“The one place where we’re all equal — where is it?” the legendary former talk show host asked. “It’s at the polls.”
Abrams and her allies have accused her Republican opponent, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, of suppressing the votes of minorities in the state, citing a report that 53,000 voter registration applications are on hold in Georgia. Seventy percent of the stalled applications are reportedly from black voters.
The applications are being held due to the state’s “exact match” law, which passed last year. The law requires an applicant’s information to match exactly what is listed by the state’s Department of Driver Services or the Social Security Administration.
Oprah during the event also denied reports that she might run for president in 2020.
“I want to make it very clear to all the press, everybody, I’m not here because I’m making some grandstand because I’m thinking about running myself,” Oprah said. “I don’t want to run. I’m not trying to test any waters.”
“Don’t want to go in those waters,” she added.
Most of Oprah’s stump speech was a meditation on the moral imperative to vote. She appealed directly to female voters, telling them that women fought hard to get the right to vote in 1920.
“If you’re a woman — let me just talk to the women for a minute,” she said. “You need to recognize, it hasn’t even been 100 years since we even had the right to vote, since we were considered a piece of property.”
Oprah: “I’m here today because of the men and because of the women who were lynched, who were humiliated … for the right, for the equality at the polls. And I want you to know that their blood has seeped into my DNA and I refuse to let their sacrifices be in vain.” (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/mWMwTjIeok
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 1, 2018
She said that Georgia voters “can’t be influenced by propaganda and fear.”
“I’m here today to support a change-maker,” Oprah said, referring to Abrams, who would be the first African-American woman elected governor in U.S. history. “She’s a woman who dared believe that she could change the state of Georgia. She is dynamic, she is so inspired and inspiring, she’s both.
“And bodacious,” Oprah said. “She’s a Georgia warrior woman.”
After Oprah finished up the speech, the crowd began chanting, “You get a vote and you get a vote and you get a vote,” a reference to Oprah’s famous chant as she doled out presents to the audiences during “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
The speech was followed by a Q&A between Abrams and Oprah, both of whom referenced their upbringing in Mississippi. They discussed a wide range of issues, from education to the last meal Abrams cooked.
Oprah mentioned that she has also been knocking on doors in support of Abrams in Georgia this week.
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“This is a tight race in Georgia and there are tight races all over the country that depend on all of us giving honor to our greatest democratic right and privilege,” Oprah said.
Recent polls have shown Kemp and Abrams neck-and-neck, with Abrams leading by 1 point.
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