Ambassador Randy Evan’s Confirmation: It’s About Time, But for the Left It’s Not About Facts

Today former RNLA Chair Randy Evans was finally confirmed to be Ambassador to Luxembourg after his nomination first was announced last September. The delay in confirming Ambassador Evans was part of the Democrats' general obstruction of President Trump's nominees.

The stated reason for the delay and opposition to Ambassador Evans was stated by Senator Bob Menedez on the Senate Floor today:

I oppose Mr. Evans nomination . . . my concerns center around his tenure on Georgia’s state election board from 2002-2010 . . . In March of 2005 Georgia passed a controversial new law requiring voters to show a photo ID. . . Multiple voices accused the Board of a deliberate attempt to mislead voters and possibly suppress minority turnout. 

The problems with this are numerous.  The Board of Elections of Georgia is bipartisan.  Ambassador Evans was hardly acting alone.  Is Senator Menendez saying the Members of the Commission who were appointed by the Georgia Democrats of working to “suppress minority turnout?” Ambassador Evans was merely working in a bipartisan fashion with the Democrats to implement a law pasted by the Georgia legislature.  It was the duty of all commissioners.

Second, the numbers tell a very different story on “voter suppression.”  In the 2008 election in Georgia, African-American turnout was up an amazing 7.5%.  And it was not just 2008 when President Obama was first on the ticket, as the Atlanta Journal Constitution stated in 2012 on the voter ID law:

Turnout among black and Hispanic voters increased from 2006 to 2010, dramatically outpacing population growth for those groups over the same period. . . .

Elections data reviewed by the AJC show that participation among black voters rose by 44 percent from 2006 — before the law was implemented — to 2010. For Hispanics, the increase for the same period was 67 percent. Turnout among whites rose 12 percent.

It was expected that African American turnout would spike in 2008, when Barack Obama became the first person of color to win the presidency. And it did rise to historic highs in Georgia.

Black participation fell in 2010, as it did for all demographic groups. Still, a far greater share of black voters turned out in 2010 than in 2006, showing that Obama was not the only factor driving turnout.

It is incredible that Democrats used a bipartisan commission’s work as an excuse to oppose Ambassador Evans.   Does anyone believe they would have opposed one of the Democrats on that Georgia Election Commission at the same time if they were nominated by Hillary Clinton? 

The larger issue is the terrible games that Democrats are playing with nominations.  The Democrats also opposed the first openly gay Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, for a similar length of time.  He was finally confirmed less than a month ago.  America needs its Ambassadors and Democrats need to accept that Trump won and stop attacking worthy nominees.