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Oliver Laughland in Warner Robins, Georgia and Sam Levine in New York have this report for us this morning on the second round of the Georgia Senate.
While James Brown’s classic funk Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud pulsed through the mobile sound system, Cliff Albright headed up a steep road, yelling into a mic trying to get people out of their doors.
“Let’s all go,” he said. “Black voters matter every day, everywhere.”
Albright and other members of the organization he co-founded, Black Voters Matter, proudly walk through these central Georgia neighborhoods. And for good reason.
Turnout here in Houston County skyrocketed in the 2020 election. And while the county, firmly Republican for decades, stayed in the red, Joe Biden slashed the margin by more than 6%. It’s due in large part to months of organizing here to mobilize the county’s black voters, who make up about a third of the population.
It was also the subsequent vote counts, from voting by mail here in Houston County, that helped propel Biden beyond Trump to change the state of Georgia. A fact that many people in these communities celebrate with deep pride.
“We work a lot here,” Albright said, as he handed out literature, face masks and an invitation to a drive-in party for the evening’s US Senate debate. “It has been all year, because we say that black votes matter 365. We work not only around the elections, but also on issues.”
As early voting begins Monday in Georgia’s crucial Senate second-round election, organizers like Albright, critical players in efforts to change status from Republican to Democrat for the first time since 1992, are gearing up yet again. for other elections.
Black and minority organizers, who for years have been pushing to turn this state’s rapid demographic diversification into a more progressive policy, are being called back to secure two Senate seats that would effectively hand Democrats control of the US legislature.
Albright is optimistic that the communities he has worked to mobilize for will engage again and predicts, indeed, an increase in participation.
“Now there are people who have seen Georgia change, when before they believed their vote might not matter. And what you’ve seen is, you know what, if we go out in record numbers, we can change the state. So some people who may not have done it in November, who now want to be part of it, “he said.
As Trump continues to undermine the outcome in Georgia and the election in general, Albright believes the president’s unfounded claims of widespread fraud, significantly targeting many communities of color across the country, will serve as additional motivation.
“The fact that he [Trump] he is here trying to sign us up, to take away our votes, I think that will generate even more enthusiasm, “he said. “If Trump continues to act like a fool, it will backfire.”
Read more from Oliver Laughland and Sam Levine’s report here: Democrats Again Seek Black Voters to Win Georgia Elections and Take the Senate
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