Days after eight Republican lawmakers requested complimentary Coca-Cola products to be removed from their office suite, several social media users started pushing the claim that the company's products were being removed from all state-owned buildings in Georgia.
"Georgia removing Coca cola products from all state owned venue's. Good job GA!," wrote one user.
Coca-Cola offers nearly 4,000 drink options and has 500 different brands under its banner. These include Sprite, Fanta, Schweppes, Minute Maid, Dasani, Powerade, Honest Tea as well as Vitaminwater.
Company's Opposition to Georgia's New Voting Laws
Days after Coca-Cola joined a bid by U.S. companies to challenge the state of Georgia's new voting restrictions and called the law unacceptable, a group of eight Republican lawmakers penned a letter to Kevin Perry, president of the Georgia Beverage Association, asking for the removal of all Coca-Cola products from their office suite.
Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a voting rights bill into law last month that dramatically restricts early voting access and mail-in voting, which became a partisan touchpoint from Republicans who tried to get Donald Trump's loss to Joe Biden overturned. Additionally, the bill makes it a crime to give people waiting in line food and water.
The bill was passed through the GOP-controlled state legislature and comes after Biden became the first Democrat to win the state since 1992. That was followed up by a Democrat sweep in dual Senate runoff elections in early January, which gave control of the Senate to the Democrats.
Coca-Cola Issues Statement
However, Ann Moore, a spokesman for the Atlanta-based beverage giant has confirmed that the claim is false."We have not removed our products from all state buildings, Moore said in a statement obtained by Reuters. "There was one office suite of Georgia legislators who asked to have our products removed."
Moore added that the beverages are complimentary and offered "to lawmakers to provide their constituents with when they visit their representative's offices." She confirmed that as of April 16, Coca-Cola complementary products have been removed from the one suite only.
Therefore, we can confirm that while Republican lawmakers did request Coca-Cola products be removed from their suite, the products are not being removed from all state buildings in Georgia.
