Southern Dems rally behind Atlanta for 2024 convention after previously supporting MLB All-Star Game boycott

Southern Democrats are asking President Biden to bring the 2024 Democratic National Convention to Atlanta after previously supporting a Major League Baseball (MLB) boycott of the city over Georgia’s electoral reforms.

The MLB famously relocated its 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver over Republican-led voting reforms in Georgia that Democrats characterized as racist. The move was widely supported by Democrats, including President Biden, who repeatedly described the voting reforms in the state as “Jim Crow 2.0.”

But the Democrats’ narrative about the law hasn’t stood the test of time, as Georgia smashed voting turnout records in several elections last year.

Now, Southern Democrats are pleading with Biden and the DNC to come to Atlanta.

President of the United States Joe Biden and Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris speak about the need to pass legislation to protect voting rights at Atlanta University Center Consortium on the grounds of Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia.
(Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

WHITE HOUSE MUM ON WHETHER BIDEN REGRETS CALLING GEORGIA ELECTION LAW ‘JIM CROW 2.0’ AFTER RECORD EARLY VOTING

“The Democratic Party should immediately select the city of Atlanta as the site of its 2024 presidential nominating convention,” read Monday’s letter to Biden, which is signed by Democrats in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

“While some pundits might argue that there is no correlation between a convention site and partisan performance in the ensuing election, holding the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta will have effects that reverberate far beyond Georgia’s borders,” they argued. “Selecting Atlanta in the aftermath of the 2022 election cycle will send a message to the base of our party that we will never take you for granted; that we see you, we respect you, and we are counting on you to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”

“Equally important as these tactical imperatives, selecting the city of Atlanta will offer our nation a vision of America at its best,” they continued. “Atlanta served as the cradle of America’s civil rights movement. It stands as a beacon of LGBTQUIA+ rights in the Deep South. As the cultural and economic hub of Black America, the city embodies the American Dream in the 21st Century. A nominating convention in the city of Atlanta will provide you with a backdrop that reflects your personal values and embodies your vision for America.”

“So, as we look forward to 2024, we have many choices to make as Democrats. But in our opinion the first choice is very clear,” they concluded. “Let’s nominate Joe Biden in the very building where over 40,000 Georgians cast their ballots – the deciding ballots for Georgia’s 16 electoral votes – for him in 2020.”

View from the outside of Truist Park during the National League Wild Card Series game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Atlanta Braves on October 1, 2020, at Truist Park in Atlanta, GA.
(Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The president was among many Democrats last year who criticized Georgia’s Republican-passed Election Integrity Act as a right-wing attempt to suppress Black votes.

In a March 2021 statement, Biden referred to the legislation as an “attack on the right to vote” containing provisions that “effectively deny the right to vote to countless voters.”

“This is Jim Crow in the 21st century,” Biden said. “It must end. We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act.”

Biden’s Department of Justice also filed a lawsuit against Georgia over the law, though the DOJ and the White House have not provided and update on the status of the legal action.

Among the Election Integrity Act’s changes were preventing government agencies from mailing applications unsolicited, requiring the use of driver’s licenses or some other form of photo ID instead of signature-matching to verify identity in absentee ballot applications, and codifying ballot drop boxes into law. It mandated precincts hold at least 17 days of early voting and left in place no-excuse absentee voting, while shortening the window to apply for ballots to 67 days. 

Signs that encourage people to vote are seen outside a polling station on November 29, 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia.
((Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images))

A new poll by the University of Georgia showed 0% of Georgia’s Black voters had a “poor” experience casting a ballot in the midterm elections in November. Just over 72% of Black voters polled said the experience was “excellent” and 23.6% said the experience was “good.”

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Additionally, almost 99% of voters said they had no issues casting a ballot and 95.3% of voters said they waited less than 30 minutes.

According to the poll, which was answered by 1,253 Georgia residents who say they voted, 84.1% of Black voters said they strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement that it is “easy to cast a ballot in the state of Georgia” compared to 15.9% who disagreed or didn’t know.

Fox News Digital’s Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.