Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum denounce Trump’s judicial pick for racist voting rights record targeting African-Americans
On Tuesday, Andrew Gillum and Stacey Abrams jointly called on Senate Republicans to contest President Donald Trump’s judicial pick based on his racist voting rights record.
Thomas Farr has been nominated by Trump to be a district judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
“When it comes to the trifecta of voter disenfranchisement — voter suppression, racial gerrymandering, and restriction of voting rights — Thomas Farr is, sadly, one of the most experienced election lawyers in the country,” Abrams and Gillum wrote in their statement.
“Superior courts have ruled against him in case after case, citing the surgical precision with which the policies he champions have targeted voters of color, especially African-Americans,” they added.
Gillum and Abrams also noted that North Carolina’s Eastern District, a majority Black community, “should be represented by a Bench that respects its diversity, not one that actively works to disenfranchise them.”
“We call on all U.S. senators who revere our democracy — who put that democracy above party loyalty — to reject this nomination and deny Thomas Farr the platform to continue his crusade against voting rights,” they added.
Other Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted Farr on monday for his “disenfranchisement of African-American voters.”
“The courts are supposed to be where we can find and seek justice. But Farr’s lifetime crusade is to disenfranchise African Americans and deprive them of their rights,” said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau. “He belongs nowhere near a bench of justice.”
Only one Republican, Sen. Jeff Flake said he intends to vote against Trump’s judicial picks until there is a vote on legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller.
