--- title: Oprah Winfrey Responds to 'Racist Robocalls' in Georgia description: Oprah Winfrey responded late Monday to reports of "racist robocalls" targeting Georgia voters in the lead-up to mid-term elections canonical: https://time.com/5445808/oprah-winfrey-response-racist-robocalls/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-06T06:37:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:53:07.025Z article:section: Politics og:title: Oprah Winfrey Responds to 'Racist Robocalls' in Georgia og:description: The racist recordings target gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams og:url: https://time.com/5445808/oprah-winfrey-response-racist-robocalls/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6dd32d8d096c4aee/69893e5422fb854cf5e2712a/gettyimages-1056086736.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Oprah Winfrey Campaigns With Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Stacey Abrams og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Oprah Winfrey Responds to 'Racist Robocalls' in Georgia twitter:description: The racist recordings target gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6dd32d8d096c4aee/69893e5422fb854cf5e2712a/gettyimages-1056086736.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Oprah Winfrey Responds to 'Racist Robocalls' Targeting Stacey Abrams in Georgia ## Video: Oprah Supports Stacey Abrams for Georgia Governor in Rare Campaign Appearance [Watch (HLS stream): Oprah Supports Stacey Abrams for Georgia Governor in Rare Campaign Appearance](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/82gNLf2e.m3u8) (2:50)  _Published 2018-11-01. In a rousing speech in the Republican-leaning suburbs of Atlanta, Oprah Winfrey urged voters on Thursday to make history by backing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in next week’s election._ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 6, 2018 6:37 AM UTC  Oprah Winfrey and Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams at a town hall style event at the Cobb Civic Center in Marietta, Georgia on Nov. 1, 2018. Oprah Winfrey and Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams at a town hall style event at the Cobb Civic Center in Marietta, Georgia on Nov. 1, 2018.Jessica McGowan—Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 6, 2018 6:37 AM UTC Oprah Winfrey responded late Monday to reports of “racist robocalls” targeting Georgia voters in the lead-up to mid-term elections. The offensive automated phone call uses derogatory language to refer to Winfrey and Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for Georgia governor. Winfrey has campaigned for Abrams, the former minority leader for her state’s House of Representatives. “I heard people were making racist robocalls in my name, against Stacy Abrams, who I am 100% for in Georgia,” Winfrey said in a video shared to her Instagram account. “I just want to say, Jesus don’t like ugly. And we know what to do about that: Vote.” A voice heard in the [offensive recording](https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/11/06/stacey-abrams-racist-robocall-oprah-response-ac360-sot-vpx.cnn), which was aired on CNN, told listeners: “This is the magical negro, Oprah Winfrey, asking you to make my fellow negress, Stacey Abrams, governor of Georgia.” According to the Hill, the calls [surfaced last week](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/414703-abrams-targeted-by-racist-robocall-in-georgia) and are believed to have originated from a video podcasting site that has been [labeled as white supremacist](https://www.adl.org/blog/the-road-to-power-idaho-outfit-behind-rash-of-racist-anti-semitic-robocalls) and anti-semitic by the Anti-Defamation League. The website, TheRoadToPower.com, was [also behind](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/andrew-gillum-racist-robocall%5Fus%5F5bcf47a2e4b055bc9485320d) a racist attack against Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, according to the Huffington Post. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5445808/oprah-winfrey-response-racist-robocalls/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5445808/oprah-winfrey-response-racist-robocalls/"},"headline":"Oprah Winfrey Responds to 'Racist Robocalls' Targeting Stacey Abrams in Georgia","datePublished":"2018-11-06T06:37:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:53:07.025Z","description":"The racist recording was reportedly backed by a white supremacist podcast site","url":"https://time.com/5445808/oprah-winfrey-response-racist-robocalls/","keywords":["2018 midterms","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6dd32d8d096c4aee/69893e5422fb854cf5e2712a/gettyimages-1056086736.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6dd32d8d096c4aee/69893e5422fb854cf5e2712a/gettyimages-1056086736.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Oprah Winfrey Campaigns With Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Stacey Abrams","caption":"Oprah Winfrey Campaigns With Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Stacey Abrams","creditText":"Jessica McGowan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2018-midterms/","name":"2018 midterms"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5445808/oprah-winfrey-response-racist-robocalls/","name":"Oprah Winfrey Responds to 'Racist Robocalls' Targeting Stacey Abrams in Georgia"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Oprah Supports Stacey Abrams for Georgia Governor in Rare Campaign Appearance","description":"In a rousing speech in the Republican-leaning suburbs of Atlanta, Oprah Winfrey urged voters on Thursday to make history by backing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in next week’s election.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/82gNLf2e/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-11-01T18:35:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/82gNLf2e.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5445808/oprah-winfrey-response-racist-robocalls/","duration":"PT2M50S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5445808/oprah-winfrey-response-racist-robocalls/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```