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The young black woman emerging from the Ebenezer Baptist Church parish building in Atlanta has a clear opinion of the president. “I expected Joe Biden to win clearly,” he says. “I want the orange baboon out of the White House. With that you can quote me!” But then he doesn’t want to give his name.
Ebenezer Baptist Church is not just any church. Martin Luther King worked and preached here as a pastor. Raphael Warnock is the current pastor and also the Democratic candidate for the Senate. He garnered the most votes from 21 candidates on Tuesday. Because he clearly lost the outright majority, there will be a runoff in January.
Amy is a reserved elderly woman who works in the church gift shop. He would never refer to the president as an “orange baboon,” but he does not hide the fact that he despises Donald Trump. “He questioned the validity of the elections before they ended,” he says. “What president does that?” Amy is not surprised that Trump wants to legally challenge the Georgia election. “He’s been saying that for months.”
As she says that, the votes in the state are still being counted, and with each passing hour, the lead of the incumbent American president shrinks. Georgia’s 16th electorate could end up going to the Democrats, it would be the first time since 1992.
Fight against voter suppression
Georgia holds a special position among the undecided states that decide the outcome of the presidential elections. Almost a third of the population are African American, more than in almost any other country. Big cities like Atlanta or Savannah have black mayors.
At the same time, Georgia has so far been viewed as deeply conservative. Republicans currently provide the governor and both senators in Washington. Trump won in 2016 by almost five percentage points.
This year, Georgia is the only state, other than Arizona, where Democrats have been able to attack decades of conservative supremacy. That suits black voters, too. “It’s a good sign Democrats are equal this time,” Amy says. “It shows that we have managed to mobilize more voters than usual.”
Stacey Abrams, the country’s most famous Democrat, had previously pointed to another factor that speaks for her party this time. Since the end of the Civil War, Georgia whites have been highly successful in preventing blacks from voting. In the 2018 gubernatorial election, which Abrams narrowly lost, Republicans hit tens of thousands of voters due to the smallest irregularities in the electoral roll.
“We make sure that mass voter suppression is not possible,” Abrams said on Election Day at a rally in front of a few dozen supporters outside Atlanta. “We will not allow the election to be stolen again.” If Warnock wins in January, he will be the first African American Georgia will send to the Senate.
More conservative than Attila the Hun
For Democrats, the near result is a sign that they have mobilized voters and prevented fraud. The explanation on the other side sounds a bit different.
The Republican version of events can be found on Kelly Loefflers’ Facebook page. Loeffler is the incumbent senator, she also made it to the second round of the January elections. She calls herself “more conservative than Attila the Hun” and boasts of having voted “100 percent” for Donald Trump.
In a Facebook comment, Sheriff Randy Shirley congratulates Kelly Loeffler on her success and assures her of the support of other colleagues, also against the “massive fraud” with postal ballots taking place in Georgia. It is the story of Donald Trump that he has been repeating for months without any proof. If you lose, it is due to fraud.
Shirley is the sheriff of Stephens County, a rural area in northeast Georgia. On the phone he no longer wants to talk about massive electoral fraud. He only referred to information from CNN and other media. It would be “a miracle” if the outcome of the elections in Georgia and the country depended on electoral fraud.
So is everything clear? The sheriff doesn’t want to be understood that way. “Of course there is fraud in Fulton County,” he says. That is the case with all elections. How big is it? “Only the people who sit in the polling stations know.”
The state remains divided
Fulton County is the county to which most of Atlanta belongs. It is a Democratic stronghold. With tight election results, every vote counts. Senate candidates are already preparing for the second round. Warnock, the successor to Martin Luther King, speaks in a statement about improving health insurance, reforming the social system and fighting voter suppression. Loeffler says, “Now the real war begins.” Now you face one of the most radical Democrats in the entire country.
The second race for the Senate could also be extended. Republican David Perdue and his challenger Jon Ossoff are in a melee race. Although Perdue is a bit ahead, if he doesn’t get more than 50 percent of the vote, there is also a runoff here. The election campaign between Republicans and Democrats would not end in any way, it would be completely concentrated in Georgia.
Whatever the outcome, Georgia will remain bitterly divided. In this sense, the state does not have a special position.
