A Coca-Cola boycott at the Capitol? It’s a real thing

Eight Georgia legislators have a message for one of the state’s iconic businesses: Things would go better without Coke or Coke Zero or Diet Coke or even Fanta.

The lawmakers — state Reps. Victor Anderson, Matt Barton, Clint Crowe, Stan Gunter, Dewayne Hill, Lauren McDonald III, Jason Ridley and Marcus Wiedower — demanded in a letter to Coca-Cola that it remove its products “immediately” from their offices.

Coca-Cola provides the drinks free of charge to state and federal lawmakers from Georgia, who typically offer them to visiting constituents.

That, however, is too high a price to pay for the eight state House members, apparently as bitter as Tab over Coca-Cola’s decision to join fellow Atlanta-based business giant Delta Air Lines in opposing the state’s new election legislation, Senate Bill 202.

The overhaul includes new ID requirements for mail-in ballots, curbs the use of ballot drop boxes, gives the Republican-controlled Legislature more control over local elections and bans outside groups from giving water and food to voters in line. It also expands weekend voting before general elections in some counties.

Delta has frequently found itself in the General Assembly’s doghouse for raising objections to legislation such as “religious liberty” bills. As a result, certain tax breaks for the airline often come and go like so many arrivals and departures. For example, following Delta’s denunciation of SB 202 as “unacceptable” and “based on a lie” of widespread voter fraud in November’s presidential election, state legislators attempted to rescind the airline’s tax break on jet fuel. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, however, never brought the measure up for a vote.

But this is less familiar territory for Coca-Cola.

The legislators suggested a way out for Coca-Cola, but it may not be easy. They advised the beverage maker to “read the bill, share its true intentions and accept their role in the dissemination of mistruths.”

If that happened, they wrote, “we would welcome a conversation to rebuild a working relationship.”

But will that relationship ever regain that lost effervescence?

JOHN SPINK/AJC 2020 The Coca-Cola Co.’s outspoken repudiation of Georgia’s new voting law as promoting voter suppression has produced a bit of a backlash among some Republican members of the state Legislature.