Texas could face sports, corporate backlash against its election law proposals

Major League Baseball’s decision to pull its All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to the state’s new election laws is a warning shot to Texas lawmakers considering “voter integrity” legislation of their own.

According to MLB officials, corporate leaders and civil rights activists, the election law signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp discriminate against minority residents and are designed to suppress their ability to vote. Among other things, the Georgia laws essentially ban mobile voting centers, reduce the time frame for requesting an absentee ballot, require strict ID requirements for absentee ballots and make it illegal for election officials to mail absentee ballots to all voters.

One provision makes it a crime for anyone other than an election worker to provide food or water to a person standing in line to vote. The law is a public relations nightmare for Georgia Republicans, given that long lines at polling places in communities of color are routine occurrences.

“I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”

Officials from crporate America and the major sports leagues are mindful of the 2020 social justice movement that emerged after a Black man — George Floyd — died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck. Chauvin’s murder trial is entering its second week.

If they are not careful, Texas GOP leaders could put a bullseye on the Lone Star State. And they could already be missing out on a major sporting event.

The election bills in the Legislature will likely result in Texas not getting MLB’s 2021 “Midsummer Classic” that Georgia booted. Last year the brand new Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers, was the site of National League playoff games and the World Series. It would have made sense for the stadium to be in the mix for the relocated All-Star Game, but Major League officials won’t risk placing the famed exhibition in a state that approved controversial voting legislation.

Texas election law proposals could cause other problems.

The liberal group Progress Texas is calling on the NCAA to move 2022 tournament games out of Texas. Early round games are set for Fort Worth and San Antonio.

“Since Texas Republicans insist on pushing Jim Crow voter suppression efforts, the NCAA basketball tournament should insist on pulling next year’s first and second round games out of Fort Worth and San Antonio,” said Ed Espinoza, executive director at Progress Texas. “The NCAA can join American Airlines, Dell, Microsoft, and Southwest Airlines and send a message to Texas lawmakers: we won’t stand for voter suppression.”

In 2016, the NCAA removed basketball tournament games from North Carolina because of a “bathroom bill” law that critics say discriminated against transgender residents. The following year, Texas lawmakers were pressured by business leaders and others to scrap their bathroom bill proposals. Republicans contended the proposals were about security.

“If they take basketball out of North Carolina, they can take football and other sports out of Texas,” Espinoza said.

Texas Republicans will argue that their election proposals aren’t like those in Georgia.

Last week the Senate approved a bill that would limit early voting hours, restrict the amount of voting machines available at countywide polling places and take power over election administration away from local officials.

It would also create more steps for people with disabilities to vote by mail. Currently, people with disabilities check a box on their application to vote by mail designating that they are qualified to do so because of their disability. The bill originally had a provision requiring these voters to provide proof of their disability from the Social Security Administration, the Department of Veteran Affairs or a physician.

Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, said Senate Bill 7 is meant to protect election integrity. He said it is not part of a national effort to limit voting rights and noted that he had filed a similar bill two years ago.

“I’m not the one trying to make this a national debate,” Hughes said. “I’m talking about Texas.”

But Hughes’ comment could ring hollow to business leaders and sports leagues that are being pressured to stand up to voter suppression.

If the bill becomes law, it will be hard to convince sports leagues to have tournaments, championship games or Super Bowls in Texas.

The situation in Georgia has become so alarming that Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia House minority leader, who lost a controversial 2018 race to Kemp, is urging businesses not to boycott the state. The notion that boycotts hurt the residents in a state you’re trying to help with such actions could be embraced by companies that don’t like the law but still want to do business here.

To critics, the effort to change Texas election laws is unnecessary.

Unlike Georgia, where Democrats flipped the state for Joe Biden and two Democratic Senate candidates, Texas is still controlled by Republicans who were dominant in 2020. They maintained control of the Texas House, returned incumbent John Cornyn to the Senate and gave Donald Trump a presidential contest victory over Biden, who won the White House.

But the problem for Texas lawmakers is that many of their base voters believe the conspiracy theories advanced by Trump, including the former president’s contention that the election was stolen because of rampant fraud related to mail-in ballots.

Polls show that in proposing the election laws, Republican lawmakers are responding to their constituents. A survey by The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler revealed that election reform was the top legislative issue for Texas voters.

So “voter integrity” legislation is designed to mollify Republican base voters still angry about Biden’s victory. It’s the same song in Republican-controlled states across the country.

But Texas Republicans should consider that these laws could not only make it harder for some residents to vote but also hurt professional sports franchises, colleges and numerous businesses.

That was the argument the state’s business elite used against the 2017 Texas proposals on where transgender residents could use the bathroom.

Now we’ll see how Texas business leaders and sports franchise owners approach the Texas election bills that could soon be law.