OPINION A hearing about voting becomes a hearing about Stacey Abrams instead

Stacey Abrams has not declared her candidacy for Georgia governor in 2022, but in an extraordinary hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Abrams attacked Gov. Brian Kemp's signature voting law, filleted the state Republicans lawmakers who helped pass it, and drew more fire from GOP senators than a presidential contender.

Abrams was one of seven witnesses at the hearing provocatively titled, Jim Crow 2021: The Latest Assault on the Right to Vote. Other witnesses included Georgia's U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, Georgia House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, and Dr. Carol Anderson, chair of African American studies at Emory University.

At the beginning of the hearing, it seemed like Georgia itself was on trial, or more specifically the Republican-led Georgia Legislature, as Democrats made it clear they have decided that Senate Bill 202, the state's new election law, was dishonest in its origins and malicious in its intent.

Why are states like Georgia making it harder for voters to exercise this fundamental right? asked Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, the chair of the committee.

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