If you live in the United States, or even if you’re a political watcher from another country, you’ve heard how important the past Georgia senatorial election was to America. If you’re not familiar, on the same night as the presidential election (or presidential election week, as I’d like to call it) this past November, there were two senate seats open in Georgia. The state of Georgia has always been regarded as a red, Republican state since historically that’s the only way the country voted. That is, until January 5th, 2021. On January 5th, there was set to be a run-off between the four candidates from the presidential election a few months prior. Since neither race was won by a candidate by 50% or above, a runoff was required, meaning a brand new election.
Cut to January 5th, the run-off day, the entire country was holding its collective breath. The Democrats had won the presidential election with Joe Biden (thankfully) and all eyes were now on Georgia, the state that would determine the dynamic in the senate. Before January 5th, the senate was 48-50 in favor of Republicans. In order for anything to pass from Joe Biden’s long list of reforms and bills, there had to be at least a 50-50 Senate, in which case the Vice President steps in for the tie breaking vote, which we knew to be Kamala Harris.
On January 5th, David Perdue, the incumbent, was challenged by the youngest man and only Jewish man to ever run for office in Georgia, Jon Ossoff. The other race was Kelly Loeffler, a Republican appointed by the Governor following the resigning of Johnny Isakson. As the night went on, the anxiety in the air was palpable. Sooner or later, the CNN reports announced that most of the ballots left to be counted were mail in from counties that included cities like Atlanta, at which point the country was able to exhale and start to breathe again.
Knowing the rest of the ballots were coming from places like Atlanta, made it obvious that the rest of the votes were blue. For this, we have Stacey Abrams to thank. After losing the gubernatorial election in 2018, she started the Fair Fight, an organization that “[promotes] fair elections in Georgia and around the country, [encouraging] voter participation in elections, and [educating] voters about elections and their voting rights.” Abrhams also started the New Georgia Project, which when combined with Fair Fight, was able to register and mobilize over 1 million voters over the course of 3 years.
After founding Fair Fight, Stacey Abrams was able to mobilize the black population in Georgia that has been disenfranchised due to wide voter suppression, and registered thousands of people to vote. Her work for the past two years in Georgia came to fruition when the state became blue this past January, inevitably saving the Senate, and giving Joe Biden a chance to pass much needed reform and relief, especially during the pandemic.
If there’s anything Stacey Abrhams has taught us is that Georgia was never a red state, it was always blue. She’s always said on mobilizing voters that “…the message is not trying to persuade them to share Democratic values. Your message is to persuade them that voting can actually yield change.”
Stacey Abrams has been nominated for a Nobel Peace prize for her work to “promote nonviolent change via the ballot box”. If there’s anyone who deserves the award this year, it’s her.
View Stacey Ambram’s Responce to the State of the Union in 2019 here!
Read about voter disenfranchisement that’s still ongoing in the US here