AOC tells Black voters of voting rights rollbacks at MLK’s church: ‘No president can strip it away!’

The New York congresswoman — and rumored 2028 presidential candidate — sought to encourage parishioners at Ebenezer Baptist Church as Black voters grapple with last week’s Supreme Court ruling that drove a dagger in the heart of the Voting Rights Act.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., excoriated President Donald Trump and Republicans over the swift redistricting that is threatening to eliminate Black leadership and representation across the U.S. South, telling a Black church congregation, “We are not going back!”

While delivering remarks at Ebenezer Baptist, the former Atlanta church of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on Sunday, the New York congresswoman — and rumored 2028 presidential candidate — sought to encourage congregants as Black voters grapple with last week’s devastating Supreme Court ruling that drove a dagger in the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“I don’t take lightly the peril that we are facing just one week after the Voting Rights Act was gutted,” said Ocasio-Cortez, who was invited to speak by Ebenezer’s senior pastor, U.S. Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock. “And in the days since, we have learned why the Voting Rights Act existed as the maps in Tennessee and Louisiana across this country, as the Supreme Court, to the reverend’s point in Virginia, overturned the maps 10 to 1, to literally draw Black Americans out of power.”

The 36-year-old progressive lawmaker added, “We are living in terrifying times, but we are people of faith, and our faith is the foundation that gives us the courage to fight in the face of overwhelming odds.”

Ocasio-Cortez drew on the legacy of Dr. King, telling Ebenezer parishioners, “Like Dr. King, baptized in this Church on this hallowed ground, who believed in the audacious idea that maybe this country could maybe live up to the promises we made in our founding documents, I’m here today, brothers and sisters, with a simple message: We stand together, and we are not going back!”

As theGrio previously reported, the Supreme Court’s April 29 ruling making it harder for Black voters to prove racial discrimination in voting laws has resulted in a wave of southern states redrawing their congressional maps to dilute Black voting power. As a consequence, nearly two dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus could lose their seats in this November’s midterm elections.

AOC delivered a message of unity and sent a direct message to Trump and his MAGA party: “What happens to Georgia, happens to New York. What happens to Tennessee, happens to California. What happens to Louisiana, happens to all of us, Ebenezer, because this is America. We are not divided by state. We are united by our humanity and common citizenship.”

She added, “Because no man can grant us our humanity. No law can erase it, no king, no system, and no president can strip it away! Because it is not given by man — it is ordained by God!”

Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez, who is running for her fifth term in office, is rumored to be considering higher office — though it is unclear whether that will be for the U.S. Senate in 2028 or the U.S. presidency. Responding recently to the speculation of a run for the White House, AOC did not confirm or deny.

“They assume that my ambition is positional,” she told David Axelrod at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics on Friday. “They assume that my ambition is a title or seat, and my ambition is way bigger than that. My ambition is to change this country.”

The New York lawmaker continued, “Presidents come and go. Senate [and] House seats, elected officials come and go, but single-payer healthcare is forever,” she added to cheers. “A living wage is forever. Workers’ rights are forever. Women’s rights. All of that. When you aren’t attached. When you haven’t been like fantasizing about being this or that since the time you were seven years old, it is tremendously liberating.”

The congresswoman added, “Because I get to wake up every day and say, ‘How am I going to meet the moment?’”