A group of Republican legislators in Georgia want Coca-Cola products removed from their offices after the company's CEO criticized the new election reforms signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp (R).
In a letter addressed to Kevin Perry, the president and CEO of the Georgia Beverage Association, eight lawmakers from the state House on Saturday accused the Coca-Cola company of spreading misinformation about Georgia elections law and caving to "out of control cancel culture."
"Your company has made the conscious decision to perpetrate a national dialogue which seeks to intentionally mislead the citizens of Georgia and deepen a divide in our great State," the lawmakers wrote. "We have the responsibility to all of Georgia not to engage in those misguided intentions nor continue to support corporations who choose to."
The letter was signed by GOP state Reps. Victor Anderson, Clint Crowe, Matt Barton, Jason Ridley, Lauren McDonald III, Stan Gunter, Dewayne Hill, and Marcus Wiedower.
Some Georgia Republican state legislators are removing @CocaCola products from their statehouse offices after the A… https://t.co/kbiTII19qK— Greg Bluestein (@Greg Bluestein)1617492895.0
On March 25, Gov. Kemp signed a sweeping election reform bill into law that would require absentee ballots to be verified with a photo ID and expand early voting for primary and general elections, among other changes. Democrats including President Joe Biden and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams have claimed the new law will make it harder for people to vote, particularly minorities and working-class Georgians. Biden falsely claimed that the new law "ends voting hours early so working people can't cast their vote after their shift is over," a claim refuted by experts who note the law does not change Election Day voting hours and actually expands opportunities to vote early.
Republicans have also faced backlash over the law from several corporations, including Coca-Cola, and prominently the Major League Baseball Association, which pulled its All-Star Game out of the state because of the new law.
Last week, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy told CNBC the law was "unacceptable." He released a statement on behalf of the Coca-Cola Company "to be crystal clear and state unambiguously that we are disappointed in the outcome of the Georgia voting legislation."
Quincy asserted that some measures of the bill "would diminish or deter access to voting."
"Given Coke's choice to cave to the pressure of an out of control cancel culture, we respectfully request all Coca-Cola Company products be removed from our office suite immediately." the lawmakers wrote in response. "Should Coke chose to read the bill, share its true intentions and accept their role in the dissemination of mistruths, we would welcome a conversation to rebuild a working relationship."
The Georgia runoff election that will decide the partisan fate of the U.S. Senate tipped towards the Democratic challengers late Tuesday evening.
With 98% of the vote counted, Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler garnered 49.5% of the vote, falling short of the 50.5% of the vote for Democrat challenger Rev. Raphael Warnock.
NBC News and the Decision Desk projected Warnock the winner of that election.
Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff garnered 50% of the vote with a margin of a few thousand votes over Republican incumbent Sen. David Perdue, who also received 50% of the vote.
Democrats celebrated in anticipation of votes that were left to be counted from heavily Democratic districts.
At one point in the evening it was reported that the vote counting in Chatham County had halted and that officials had gone home for the night.
Later, that report was clarified by Georgia's statewide voting implementation manager Gabriel Sterling, who said that officials counted the votes they had received but that some absentee votes were still outstanding.
Chatham County didn't just stop. They completed the counting of everything they have in. That includes Election Day… https://t.co/kj36yCh1jK— Gabriel Sterling (@Gabriel Sterling)1609906875.0
Kelly Loeffler addressed a crowd of supporters and encouraged them despite the election being too close to call.
"It's worth it for this election to last into tomorrow. We're gonna make sure every vote is counted, every legal count will be counted, and I'm not going to stop working!" said Loeffler to a cheering crowd.
Warnock also addressed the election in a live videoconference and appeared to claim victory.
"We were told that we couldn't win this election," said Warnock. "But tonight we proved that with hope, hard work and the people by our side, anything is possible. May my story be an inspiration to some young person who is trying to grasp and grab hold to the American Dream."
Ossoff released a statement late into Wednesday morning predicting a victory for the Democratic challenger.
"When all the votes are counted we fully expect that Jon Ossoff will have won this election to represent Georgia in the United States Senate. The outstanding vote is squarely in parts of the state where Jon's performance has been dominant," he said.
If Democrats are able to win both seats of the runoff election, they would gain 50 seats in the U.S. Senate. Any vote split evenly in the Senate would be decided by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
CBS News Special Report: Warnock takes lead over Loeffler; Ossoff-Perdue race a toss-upwww.youtube.com
If passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp, SB 355 would make Georgia the sixth state to ban the use of ranked-choice voting in elections.
Sen. Colton Moore is asking Gov. Brian Kemp to convene the Georgia General Assembly to probe Fulton County's indictment of Donald Trump.
Georgia Republicans passed a bill prohibiting local election offices from working around state law to use private funding to conduct elections.
A committee in the Georgia Senate passed a bill that seeks to prohibit election offices from using private funding to conduct elections.
DeKalb County recently announced it had received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence.
'The challenged practices violate neither the constitution nor the [Voting Rights Act of 1965],' wrote Judge Steve Jones.
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