Stacey Abrams On Why We Still Need The Voting Rights Act

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "Stacey Abrams On Why We Still Need The Voting Rights Act"

Podcast: What A Day
Host: Jane Coaston
Guest: Stacey Abrams
Date: May 14, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into the critical importance of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Calais, which gutted a crucial section of the Act. Host Jane Coaston talks to Stacey Abrams, longtime voting rights advocate, to explore how the decision impacts minority voters, the history and persisting threat of race-based voter suppression, and the path forward for protecting American democracy.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Supreme Court's Dismantling of the VRA

• Background context: Louisiana v. Calais led to states redrawing voting maps, weakening black and Latino voting power.
• The Court maintains that gerrymandering is about politics, not race—a distinction both Coaston and Abrams challenge.
• Jane highlights how quickly political arguments shift to racial demographics, revealing underlying motives.
  • [01:28] Jane Coaston: “Notice how he shifts pretty quickly from political ideology to race.”

2. The History of Opposition to Voting Rights

• Abrams draws a historical throughline: opposition to the VRA has always been about preserving power.
  • [02:12] Stacey Abrams: “There is a cohort that has never wanted the Voting Rights Act because it diluted their power, particularly in the South.”
• The tactics have evolved, but the intention remains the same: suppress, dilute, and fracture communities of color.

3. The "Race-Neutrality" Fiction

• Justice Alito's argument that "things have changed" is called out as fiction and a cover for racial animus.
  • [03:21] Stacey Abrams: “They pretend race neutrality to disguise what is very clearly racial animus.”
• Historically, poll taxes and literacy tests were “race-neutral” on their face—but clearly targeted Black voters.
  • Abrams offers a memorable analogy about the Second Amendment: if you believe one person is at risk, protections must remain in place.
  • [04:31] Stacey Abrams: “If we believe that they will ever use race to deny access to the right to vote, then we have not achieved the ends of the 15th Amendment, which means we still need the Voting Rights Act.”

4. Partisan Gerrymandering as Proxy for Racial Suppression

• Republican defenses claim this is about party, not race—Abrams calls this a familiar and intentional smokescreen.
  • [05:44] Stacey Abrams: “They are using partisanship as a proxy to attack race. And we know it because we've seen them do it before.”
• Supreme Court decisions (Shelby v. Holder, Branovich, Russo v. Common Cause) have incrementally enabled this shift.
• Context matters: Laws can be written to seem neutral but designed to disproportionately affect minority groups.

5. Strategic Implications and Long-Term Plans

• Despite “big tent” rhetoric, recent GOP actions have alienated Black voters and other minorities by targeting their representation.
  • Abrams explains the GOP's strategy hinges on apathy and disengagement among Black voters, and the manipulation of census counts to entrench power.
  • [07:59] Stacey Abrams: “What they are counting on is not only the expansion they saw in 24, but...fewer and fewer Black people are voting.”
• The threat is longitudinal: The real fight is leading up to 2030, when census manipulation could have profound, lasting effects.

6. How to Respond: Building Power and Will

• The VRA was not a gift but a hard-won victory—today’s struggle must build on that history.
  • [10:14] Stacey Abrams: “If we do nothing, they win. But we have won before...We can defeat them again.”
• Organizing, coalition-building, and showing up in elections and the courts is crucial.
• Abrams emphasizes this is a national fight, not just a regional one—the fate of the South affects all states.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On race-neutral pretexts:
  [03:21] Stacey Abrams: "They pretend race neutrality to disguise what is very clearly racial animus."

• On the continuing need for the VRA:
  [04:31] Stacey Abrams: “If we believe that they will ever use race to deny access to the right to vote, then we have not achieved the ends of the 15th Amendment, which means we still need the Voting Rights Act.”

• On partisan vs. racial gerrymandering:
  [05:44] Stacey Abrams: “They are using partisanship as a proxy to attack race. And we know it because we've seen them do it before.”

• On the threat and the opportunity:
  [10:14] Stacey Abrams: “If we do nothing, they win. But we have won before...We can defeat them again.”

• Final call to action:
  [11:41] Stacey Abrams: “We can fight back and we can win.”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00 – 01:51: Intro, context on SCOTUS decision, opening the conversation with Stacey Abrams
• 01:51 – 03:21: The history of resistance to the VRA and patterns of suppression
• 03:21 – 05:08: The myth of “race neutrality” and its real intentions
• 05:08 – 07:26: Partisan gerrymandering argument and its racial realities
• 07:26 – 09:59: Implications for party strategy and participation
• 09:59 – 11:55: The path forward—organizing, vigilance, hope

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Conclusion and Resources

Stacey Abrams frames the struggle for voting rights as not only ongoing but existential—requiring not just policy or legal fixes but renewed public will and organizing. She spotlights the importance of national solidarity, learning from history, and the necessity of continuing to fight, innovate, and build coalitions. The episode closes with gratitude for Abrams’s work and encourages listeners to check out her podcast, “Assembly Required,” for further action steps and organizing insights.

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For more from Stacey Abrams:
Listen to her on “Assembly Required” (YouTube, Crooked Media).

— End of content summary —

Transcript

[Stacey Abrams]

Foreign

[Jane Coaston]

May 14th. I'm Jane Coastin, and this is what a Day. The show that sees you, a person who also listens to a lot of true crime podcasts. You're very busy right now and yet you've decided to take a break and catch up on the news. I salute you. On today's Show, Vice President J.D. vance announces steps to take more steps to prove steps are being taken in the administration's anti fraud initiative. And the effort by Senate Democrats to halt the Iran war continues to go nowhere. But let's start with voting and race. We've talked about how the Supreme Court's ruling in Louisiana versus Calais dismantled a critical portion of the Voting Rights Act. Since then, a bunch of states, largely in the south, have moved to redraw their voting maps and they're eliminating majority black voting districts. The Supreme Court seems to believe that states are creating districts based on politics, not race, because it's fine if lawmakers protect their party seats. But to me and everyone else, including Republicans, it seems pretty clear that's not true when it comes to drawing districts. Here's South Carolina Republican Representative Ralph Norman speaking on Newsmax.

[Commercial Announcer]

Jim Clyburn, I like him personally, but he does not represent the rest of South Carolina, which is conservative. His district is 40, close to 47% African American and then 41% with 6% makeup of Hispanics.

[Jane Coaston]

Notice how he shifts pretty quickly from political ideology to race. Norman's numbers are, it should be noted, slightly incorrect. But talk about making my point for me. There are not many people who have done more for the rights of black voters in the south than Stacey Abrams. So I had to talk to her about the racist implications of Louisiana versus Calais and where we go from here. Stacey, welcome back to what a day.

[Stacey Abrams]

It is always a pleasure to see you, Jane, even if the world is burning around us.

[Jane Coaston]

Well, when you put it like that. Yeah. Speaking of, in the past year, we have seen multiple states redraw their congressional maps diluting black and Latino voting power. You have been fighting against voter suppression for decades. Did you see this coming?

[Stacey Abrams]

Yes, we know what they've been intending to do for 60 years. There is a cohort that has never wanted the Voting Rights act because it diluted their power, particularly in the South. And that faction has joined with the authoritarian regime that understands that the only way to seize political power and to hold dominion in the United States is to fracture and suppress the pluralistic part of our pluralistic democracy that requires that you suppress, dilute, crack and eliminate the voting rights of communities of Color as a precursor for going after everybody else.

[Jane Coaston]

The Voting Rights act was passed to prevent discriminatory voting practices, voting practices that were obscene for decades. But last month, a Supreme Court decision, as you know, gutted Section 2 of the VRA. And Justice Alito essentially said, the Voting Rights act worked and we're good now. He wrote, quote, as this court has recognized, things have changed dramatically in the decades since the passage of the Voting Rights Act. What was your reaction when you read that?

[Stacey Abrams]

That this was a fiction and that he understood very explicitly what he was doing. And much as they did in the 1890 Mississippi Constitution, as Andrew Johnson did when he became the President of the United States, they pretend race neutrality to disguise what is very clearly racial animus. And we know that race neutrality was the pretext for the voting laws that passed during Jim Crow. Every one of the voting laws were technically race neutral.

[Jane Coaston]

Right. It's just, oh, if your grandfather could vote, oh, can you pass this test? Anyone could pass that.

[Stacey Abrams]

Exactly. The. They use racial context to pretend racial neutrality to achieve racial animus. That's been the pattern in this country for centuries now. We're not talking decades. We're talking centuries. It's been more than 200 years of this. And I think it's really important that as we hear the narrative about colorblindness and race neutrality, that if we're going to use that notion of then. And I'm borrowing this from someone I saw on TikTok, well, why do we need the Second Amendment? A lot of people own guns now. We've got all these laws. We no longer need the protection of guns. The Second Amendment is no longer necessary because people have all the guns they need. If we believe that any one person is at risk because of the potential to seize power, which has been the raison d' etre of Texas, of Louisiana, of Mississippi, of Alabama, of Georgia, of Tennessee, if we believe that they will ever use race to deny access to the right to vote, then we have not achieved the ends of the 15th Amendment, which means we still need the Voting Rights Act.

[Jane Coaston]

So something I thought was interesting, not interesting.

[Stacey Abrams]

Good.

[Jane Coaston]

Was that the defense that you're hearing from some Republicans, including Republican Senator Tim Scott, who is African American, is that this is partisan gerrymandering, which is somehow not against the law and not racial gerrymandering, and that, you know, it has nothing to do with race, it's just about Democrats and Republicans, which is like. I mean, I want to hear your thoughts on it. Because at a moment in which the rights of marginalized groups are under threat. Again, it is almost impossible to untangle race from politics. And we keep seeing it over and over and over and over and over

[Stacey Abrams]

again, the notion that it's just partisan. We talk about the Shelby beholder decision in 2013. We talk about the Branovich decision in 2021 that also diminished the Voting Rights Act. But we don't talk about Russo versus Common Cause. That's the Supreme Court case, the interceding one that said that partisan gerrymandering was perfectly fine because they've been planning this and they laid the breadcrumbs perfectly. First you weaken pre clearance. Then you say, oh, as long as it's partisan, it's fine. Then you weaken the responsibility to prove that there was racial animus. And now you get to a place where you. You have to be a psychic to know that it was racial animus, not a detective. And show. You have to show the intent, not the outcome. But the reason this matters is that they've done this before. When the Jim Crow laws came into place, context mattered. They had literacy tests because black people prior to Jim Crow were prohibited from learning to read. They knew that it would only affect a certain community. You had poll taxes because the enslaved did not have monies. The formerly enslaved still were part of an economic system that did not give them full access. And then to make sure it didn't hurt the wrong people, you had, as you mentioned, the grandfather clauses that said, well, all of these things don't count as long as your grandfather could vote before the Civil War. Well, what they're using now instead of a grandfather clause is partisanship. It is a fiction. They know that race is the strongest predictor of political leanings in this country, especially in the South. They are using partisanship as a proxy to attack race. And we know it because we've seen them do it before.

[Jane Coaston]

And I think to me and to a lot of other people, the invective that we've been hearing from Republicans over the last couple of days of the last couple of weeks, going after Bennie Thompson, going after African American electeds like Jim Clyburn. If I'm a black Southern voter, I. I see this and I know what they're doing. And I think Republicans had really talked themselves into creating this big multiracial tent in 2024, a tent that has collapsed. Do you think this will also ultimately backfire on Republicans?

[Stacey Abrams]

It will if we take advantage of our numbers. What they are counting on is not only the expansion they saw in 24, but they're counting on the regression that we've seen actually over the last few years, fewer and fewer black people are voting. Based on the percentage that we have in the population. You are seeing a retrenchment, and it's slow. But what they're counting on are the people who've never registered, the ones who registered and voted but didn't get what they needed, the ones who voted and are now being shifted around so they believe that the math works in their favor. If they can get to 28 and change the rules again, and if they can get to 2030 and change the census. So they know that this isn't a permanent solution. It's part of their plan. And I think that's the most important part for us to understand. This isn't about winning the midterms in 26. This isn't just about winning Congress in 28. This is about holding all of the power so that in 2030, they can do what they tried to do in 2020, which is change the census. If the count is wrong, they then the rest of the rules don't matter. And so we have to think about this longitudinally as well. There are enough people of color who share political values. There are enough people of color and white people who have common interest that if we actually organize, if we show up in the ballot box, if we show up in the courts, if we show up in community, we absolutely can fight back. And if we remember this is a national fight, not a state by state fight, you cannot abandon the South. We have to recognize that what they're doing in the south is designed to hurt people in Massachusetts, in Illinois, in Oregon, because if they can take out 60% of black voters, they also can take all of the electoral votes that come along with all of those states. And the Sun Belt is where power is moving. They know it, and they're trying to freeze that power right now. So we have to seize that power right now.

[Jane Coaston]

Yeah. I think that goes to my final question, which is that the Voting Rights act itself was a result of years of organizing and struggle. People died to get that passed. Now it's been significantly watered down. Where do we go from here, Stacey? What can we do?

[Stacey Abrams]

The reason the Voting Rights act was so critical was that it made manifest the promise of the 15th Amendment, which said that the right to vote would not be impinged upon due to race. They are now trying to leverage every tool they can to take it back. And if we do nothing, they win. But we have won before. We defeated slavery. Slavery was not just Abraham Lincoln. It was abolitionist. It was organizing. It was the work of the Underground Railroad. We didn't just defeat Jim Crow with the civil rights movement, and it was a civil rights movement that took decades, but it took all kinds. We can defeat them again. But part of what we have to believe is that the tools that could have helped us, when they are removed. That does not mean we lose. That just means we have to find another way to recreate that tool. We have to find another way to get to the end. Because if they know 2030 counts, so should we. If they know 2028 matters, so should we. If they know that the midterms count, so should we. We have the numbers. We have to have the will. And we cannot be lulled into the complacency of their meanness, into believing we've already lost. That's why I created 10 steps campaign. That's why I'm so delighted to be working with Vote Save America and organizations across this country. We can win, but we have to work harder than they will. And they know that this is existential. They know that by 2046 this is a majority minority country. And they've got to do everything they can in this next decade to make certain that that doesn't matter. We can fight back and we can win.

[Jane Coaston]

Stacy, as always, thank you so much for joining me.

[Stacey Abrams]

Thank you for having me.

[Jane Coaston]

That was my conversation with Stacey Abrams. She's the host of Crooked Media's Assembly Required. Good news. You will not hear anything about Samuel Alito for the rest of the show. If that's something you're into, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Life is a journey. Some days feel good and others feel overwhelming. Whatever's keeping you up at night, it's easy to feel like you have to figure it out all on your own. But you don't. You deserve real support and real care. This Mental Health Awareness Month, take the time to get help to make the path ahead a little easier. BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the US and BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences and their 12 years of experience and industry leading match fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first time. If you aren't happy with your match, switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored recommendations. You don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10% [e-mail] wad that's betterhelp.com wad this podcast is brought to you by WISE, the app for international people using money around the globe. When it comes to sending money abroad, many providers claim to offer free fees and competitive rates. But don't be fooled. This can be code for inflated exchange rates. With the WISE account, you can send, spend and receive money in over 40 currencies without ever having to worry about hidden fees. Sending pounds across the pond. Most transfers arrive in 20 seconds or less. Spending reals in Rio. The wise travel card gives you the mid market rate on every purchase. No costly markups on your bill. Getting paid in dollars for your side gig. Avoid hidden fees and get the real exchange rate every time. With 24. 7 access to live support, your international transactions with WISE are quick, transparent and safe. Plus, WISE runs over 7 million daily checks to catch and prevent fraud. 15 million people already trust WISE to manage their money internationally. Be Smart, Get Wise My husband and I have used WISE when we've traveled all over the country and it's been a total game changer. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com Terms and conditions apply

[Stacey Abrams]

with VRBoCare. Help is always ready before, during and after your stay. We've planned for the plot twists, so so support is always available because a great trip starts with peace of mind.

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[Jane Coaston]

Here's what else we're following today. Head of Lines Today's vote will be the Republicans seventh seventh opportunity to support our resolution to withdraw our troops from hostilities with Iran and stop the economic fall. Fallout from this historic blunder looks like we're going to need an eighth try. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke before Senate Republicans blocked Democratic legislation that would halt President Donald Trump's Iran war. But three Republicans broke with their party and voted against the war. Alaska sounded early some Rakowski, Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky the legislation ultimately failed to advance 49 to 50. And there's news in health care, but not the news any of us have been hoping for.

[Stacey Abrams]

We're announcing that the federal government is

[Jane Coaston]

deferring $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements from the state of California. Vice President Vance announced on Wednesday new steps in the Trump administration's initiative to root out fraud in federal health programs. His latest target. California officials said the administration is also imposing a six month freeze on some new Medicare enrollments and warning states to investigate fraud or risk losing funding. The Trump administration has lost in court more than 10,000 times in ice detention decisions, according to a new Politico analysis released on Wednesday. In response, a Justice Department spokesperson said, that's great. Now the American people can see how judges are putting personal policy preferences ahead of proper interpretations of the law. Weird how hundreds of judges, including judges Trump himself appointed, all have the same, quote, personal policy preferences. Trump is in China to strike big business deals, but lawmakers are worried about one potential investment from China electric vehicles. Michigan Democratic Senator Alyssa Slotkin recently introduced a bipartisan bill to ban Chinese EVs. She says the high quality, inexpensive vehicles could decimate the US Auto industry and may have technology that could spot on drivers and scan their surroundings. Crooked Media's Matt Berg spoke with Slatkin about the bill on Wednesday.

[Stacey Abrams]

I think the president is desperate for a deal of any kind. I think he needs China's help resolving the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and he's willing to give almost anything to end the war that he started.

[Jane Coaston]

Trump's public agenda for his China trip doesn't mention the EV issue. The State Department is suspending a pricey bond requirement for some World cup fans headed to the U.S. the department imposed the requirement last year for countries that it said had high rates of people overstaying their visas and other security issues. But on Wednesday, it announced that people from five countries that have qualified for the World Cup Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tunisia, and who have already bought tickets for the tournament, are exempt from the payment. The bond waiver is a rare loosening of immigration requirements under the Trump administration. So who's actually behind it? According to U.S. officials who spoke to the Associated Press, FIFA had requested the waiver. Guess I didn't want to refund all those tickets. And that's the news. Before we go, a big thank you to Stacey Abrams for joining us on the show today. If you want to hear more from Stacey, make sure to check out Assembly Required her latest episode is all about voting rights, what we can do in the courts, at the ballot box and in our community to build the movement today and make our elections more fair. Watch assembly required Every Tuesday on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, get ready for a Very Shark Girl Summer and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just about how great white sharks are showing up in big numbers off the coast of Southern California, which apparently means the waters are getting healthier. Like me, Water Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and [e-mail] subscribe I'm Jane Coston and I plan to have a Very Shark Girl Summer myself. Constantly moving sandpaper like skin and never ever changing for 400 million years. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily Foer, Erica Morrison and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdoch and Jordan Kanter. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America east.

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[Jane Coaston]

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