This fight for the two senate seats in Georgia is a fight for everything. Imagine a world without Mitch McConnel running the show in the senate. Imagine that. And let’s make it happen.
Lots of good information below – if you’re interested in learning more about Georgia and the organizing that helped turn Georgia blue.
I learned that Stacey Abrams is sharing some of the money that comes in to Fair Fight with some of the smaller organizations that have been on the ground for years – the ones that helped turn Georgia blue. So fo folks who specifically want to give to organizers, that’s one more reason to give to Fair Fight rather than giving directly to the campaigns themselves. Or want to do both!
Fair Fight provided a link to their events. There are two new events: a training for both phone and text banking and one for phone banks for the coming weekend.
? Make a Difference in the Georgia Runoff Elections
Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight are distributing some of their donations to organizations on the ground that need help. So donating to Fair Fight is a great choice if you really want to make a difference.
Donate to GASenate.com (donations split evenly between Ossoff, Warnock, and Fair Fight)
Fair Fight Georgia Volunteer request form.
Phone bank into Georgia with Fair Fight.
Stacey Abrams thanked these organizations for the win on Nov 3.
- New Georgia Project
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta (AAAJ – Atlanta)
- Black Voters Matter
- Georgia Democrats
- GALEO
*You can learn about these organizations below.
The New Georgia Project is a nonpartisan effort to register and civically engage Georgians. It was founded by Stacey Abrams in 2010.
Georgia’s population is growing and becoming increasingly diverse. Over the past decade, the population of Georgia increased 18%. The New American Majority – people of color, those 18 to 29 years of age, and unmarried women – is a significant part of that growth. The New American Majority makes up 62% of the voting age population in Georgia, but they are only 53% of registered voters.
Phone bank into Georgia with the New Georgia Project.
Learn more about The New Georgia Project.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta (AAAJ – Atlanta)
Protecting the civil and human rights of Asian Americans in Georgia and the Southeast. We defend, protect, and advance the rights of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Native Hawaiians and other immigrants at all levels of government.
Learn more about AAAJ – Atlanta.
Our goal is to increase power in our communities. Effective voting allows a community to determine its own destiny.
Donate and text bank for Georgia with Black Voters Matter.
Learn more about Black Voters Matter.
Georgia Democrats
Learn more about the Georgia Democrats.
GALEO’s mission is to increase civic engagement and leadership of the Latino/Hispanic community across Georgia.
Take Action. Get Involved!
Warnock Volunteer request form.
GA Runoff Interest Form – fill this out if you want to help with the runoff
Jon Ossoff Campaign – get started here
Ossoff Upcoming Virtual Field Training
Volunteer for Georgia with Vote Save America.
Write postcards for Georgia with the Georgia Postcard Project.
Write postcards for Georgia with Postcards to Voters.
Write postcards for Georgia with Postcard Patriots.
Write letters to Georgia with VoteFWD.
Donate!
Balloon Juice for Fair Fight
Jon Ossoff, Georgia Senate Runoff! (starting at 311,771, hoping DougJ can do a new BJ thermometer for the recount) and YES, this includes the 2018 race.
Raphael Warnock, Georgia Senate Runoff! (starting at 27,997, hoping DougJ can do a new BJ thermometer for the recount)
Some Great Resources
How to help in Georgia (from Sam Wang)
Georgia Runoff Information Sheet (crowd sourced)
Toolkit for BIPOC & Civic Engagement GOTV for GA Runoff Election
Mobilize Events for the Georgia Runoff
Please let me know if you guys come across any great resources.
President-Elect Joe Biden Live
rikyrah
Come on, Georgia???
rikyrah
Sent my first donation to the Rev. On Friday?
Baud
@rikyrah:
Donated to both today.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Excellent!
I love this ad and some days I watch it when I need cheering up.
Nelle
Slightly off topic, but on the GOTV topic. We had our final GOTV meeting last night (Zoom, of course) for Urbandale, Iowa. Fourteen precincts, divided into neighborhood turfs. There were 177 turf leaders, with the goal that we would reach out to every registered Dem three times between June and November. My turf had about 78%of their ballots verified (absentee and early voting) before election day. And we got one poll worker and one poll watcher to volunteer. A retired couple took it upon themselves to organize all of this . Amazing. What are they doing now? Trying to figure out how to improve for next year’s municipal elections.
WaterGirl
I learned earlier this week that Stacey Abrams is sharing some of the money that comes in to Fair Fight with some of the smaller organizations that have been on the ground for years – the ones that helped turn Georgia blue. So fo folks who specifically want to give to organizers, that’s one more reason to give to Fair Fight rather than giving directly to the campaigns themselves. Or want to do both!
WaterGirl
@Nelle: Perpetual organizing. That’s what we need to do. I wonder if there is a patron saint of perpetual organizing?
WaterGirl
My (wild-ass) guess is that we either win both seats or neither, but that we do not split. And I actually believe that we can really win both of them. It seems like anyone who understands the stakes would understand that we need to win both.
Do you guys agree? Or do you think we might get one without the other?
Capri
The large amount of outside money that went to many of the senate candidates in the states we were trying to flip was used against them in ad.s. The line being that coastal elites are parachuting in tons of money in order to push their socialist agenda. For that reason I’m giving to Fair Fight, but not the candidates themselves.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
There might be some normies who like the idea of splitting the difference and voting for one of each party. Could make a difference in a close election.
ETA: Assuming the normies don’t cancel each other out.
Cheryl Rofer
@WaterGirl: The more Trump and McConnell do their thing, the more I think we’re going to get both of those seats.
Chief Oshkosh
@WaterGirl: There are many reasons we could get one without the other. Perdue is the OTP (outside the perimeter) Senator and is old-school Georgia asshole. Perfect fit for OTP. It’s a miracle we’re in a runoff there. Loeffler is fundamentally an outsider. It’s amazing that she beat Collins, but she’s running for the ITP Senate slot, so maybe she picked up a lot of ITP female votes. It’ll much tougher for her to win ITP votes, though, and OTPers, especially OTP males, don’t really like her. These considerations would lead to a Perdue/Warnock outcome.
OTOH, Perdue is loathed by everyone except OTP males and Ossoff just handed him his jockstrap in that last debate and follow-up by flat-out calling him a coward for skipping two more (and maybe all) future debates. Not a good look if your base is a bunch of manly men. And, OTOH, Warnock is BLACK. Did you know that? I don’t think a single white OTPer, male of female, will vote for an uppity preacherman from MLK’s church. So, these considerations could result in Loeffler/Ossoff.
Who the F knows? We just need to pour effort and money into Georgia. GOT(dem)V will be THE deciding factor.
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer: I kind of think so, too. I am very hopeful about Georgia, and I get tired of pundits talking like this will be harder for Dems than Republicans.
This is a whole new game, and I don’t think the results can be predicted based on history – not the history of runoffs, or off-years from presidential races, or anything.
We just have to give it our all, and then some, and see how it plays out.
WaterGirl
@Chief Oshkosh: What is ITP? (inside the perimeter?) I had never heard of OTP, either. But what does that even mean? (I know what perimeter means, it just isn’t meaningful to me in this context.)
David ?Booooooo!? Koch
#CrookedKelly is treading on Twitter, as is this brutal attack ad (link)
WaterGirl
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch: I’m ready to vote her out!
WaterGirl
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch:
I think Kelly L. and Perdue are both really unappealing. I wouldn’t vote for either one as dog catcher, and not just because they are republican.
David ?Booooooo!? Koch
@WaterGirl: ITP means Atlanta and their surrounding suburbs (inside the perimeter), which are hospitable to POC. (photo)
debbie
@rikyrah:
The GA GOP must be very afraid of him. In an interview on NPR this afternoon, the Rethuglican pundit was really vilifying him.
JPL
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch: IOKIYR We have reached that stage. Today she was fundraising on Fox while in the Capitol.. The burbs around Atlanta are younger and more enthusiastic voters than the past so that’s a plus. If trump campaigns here though, his voters turn out. I’m voting early.
raven
@WaterGirl: 285 is the perimeter
raven
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch: There are burbs outside the perimeter that are very diverse now.
Chief Oshkosh
@WaterGirl: Sorry about that.
Like many metro areas, Atlanta has a perimeter road (I-285, in this case). Inside The Perimeter (ITP) is essentially the metro area. Outside The Perimeter (OTP) is the exurbs and rural areas. Traditionally or historically, one GA Senator was considered the ITP Senator and the other was considered the OTP Senator.
In this case, Perdue is the OTP Senator and Isakson (Loeffler was appointed by Gov. Kemp to replace Isakson when he retired for health reasons) was the ITP Senator. In normal times, the OTP Senator relies on the farm vote and the ITP Senator relies on the business vote. If you’re not a farmer or a bidnessman, then you’re SOL (that’s “Shit out of luck”).
Until this year…
Now it’s all mixed up, nobody knows nuttin’ about nuttin’ and so the name of the game is to do everything possible to get out the Democratic vote!
rikyrah
@Nelle: ?????
Chief Oshkosh
@WaterGirl: We are of one mind, Watergirl. :)
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
I am in the both or none category
evap
@WaterGirl: I somewhat puzzled by the fact that Ossoff got a lot fewer votes than Biden did in the election, but Perdue got around the same number of votes that Trump got. This suggests that there were people who voted for Biden and then ignored the rest of the ballot. That does not bode well for Ossoff, I think. On the other hand, maybe the hard-core Trumpies won’t bother to turn out since Trump is not on the ballot. To end on a positive note, there was some polling of the special election with head-to-head matchups with Warnock and the top GOP candidates and he beat Loeffler in their matchups. So maybe Warnock can win? Let’s just hope the Biden voters turn out for the runoff!
WaterGirl
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch: Wow, that clears everything up! thank you.
raven
@evap: Maybe both of them can win.
WaterGirl
@Chief Oshkosh: Let’s not vote for them together.
raven
@WaterGirl: Loeffler is from Bloomington
WaterGirl
@evap:
That’s not my conclusion at all. It says to me that some Rs voted for Biden, but voted R for probably everything else. Possibly the rural vote? So I don’t think they were necessarily voting for Perdue – they may have just been voting R, like they always do, with the exceptionalities of President because Trump is a bridge too far.
WaterGirl
@raven: Bloomington IL or Bloomington IN? Must be Illinois.
raven
raven
@WaterGirl: IL
planetjanet
@WaterGirl: The link for Fair Fight’s phonebanks this weekend is not working, try deleting the word action from the link.
https://www.mobilize.us/fairfight/
Dan B
Warnock and Ossoff seem like lovable men. I’d love to have them provide extra good energy for my senators. The past decade must have been terribly dispiriting for them.
evap
@WaterGirl: But then Perdue would have received a lot more votes than Trump. It could be that there were some who voted Libertarian for Senate, but Biden for president.
WaterGirl
@Dan B: They do both seem like good men with good spirits.
BruceFromOhio
@rikyrah: Same here.
Clams to Fair Fight now, candidates on next payday.
The Moar You Know
@WaterGirl: I want polling numbers What you or I think does not matter.
phdesmond
@WaterGirl:
the ad raises the disturbing possibility that Warnock is not enthusiastic about cats!
WaterGirl
@The Moar You Know: Mindset certainly affects engagement, and I am curious about what people are thinking.
Most of our discussion here on BJ impacts absolutely nothing or no one but ourselves.
WaterGirl
@phdesmond: If that’s the best they can do, I say we let them have that one.
Matt McIrvin
Already gave to both campaigns, just kicked in some to Fair Fight. I have no idea how likely or unlikely these wins are, but the potential payoff is so huge that even a long shot is worth investing in, and this seems better than that.
H.E.Wolf
Donation to Fair Fight is accomplished.
Today’s postcards are in honor of Nelle, whose local GOTV action has been inspiring me for months.
If anyone is teetering on the fence about signing up to do postcards, http://PostcardsToVoters.org has a 5-card minimum option, with 3 days in which to write them. If you’re a slow writer like me, you can request addresses on a Thursday and get the equivalent of 4 days (no mail service on Sundays). Shhh, don’t tell. :)
ETA: That’s a 5-card option with NO requirement ever to do any more.
Mousebumples
@evap: there was a third party candidate on the ballot who may have taken some biden votes from Ossoff.
I haven’t looked otherwise but, in addition to WaterGirl’s suggestion of biden/Purdue voters, that could explain some of it too.
dww44
@Cheryl Rofer: As a Georgia voter, Loeffler’s ads are so negative that I think there’s a good chance they may backfire. Also, Rick Scott is on our TV in his baseball cap talking about the Radical left taking the Senate and destroying the country. They are selling fear.
Ossoff and Warnock are selling positive policies. FWIW they are also both running ads showing what both the Senators did in January after attending the secret Senate meeting on the coming pandemic.
For a moral and ethical person, that behavior alone should make them lose their seats.
Warren Senders
I’m finishing off a batch of 100 letters for VoteFWD. Deo volente, the postcards I’ve ordered will arrive soon so I can have something to do with the excess election energy.
God damn it. It looks more and more like there will never be a time when I can leave electoral politics to be by itself for a while.
dww44
@Warren Senders: I’m with you there. Also time off from having to even hear the name Trump. So tired very tired of it.
J R in WV
We just kicked in to Fair Fight, partly because we respect Stacy Abrams, and partly because of the comment above about out-of-state contributions coming in to the candidates. That way the contribution comes from a GA organization.
I think we can win both of these special runoff elections… the R candidates are so, so vile!!!
Three Dots
Hi, longtime lurker here. Over the summer and fall, I was involved with Postcards to Voters and wrote hundreds of postcards to voters in Florida, Michigan and Ohio. But I am hearing that Georgia is a special case. If a voter in Georgia receives a card that is postmarked Brooklyn, N.Y., will that be a turn-off? (“Why is this Northerner sticking his nose into our business?”) Should I think twice before writing cards for the Warnock and Ossoff campaigns?
WaterGirl
@Three Dots: If I were you, I would participate in one of the Fair Fight campaigns. I know they do phone banking and text banking, for sure.
If they do do postcards, you can participate through them – I’m confident that Stacey Abrams is a good judge of what works in Georgia. If they do postcards, you could do them through Fair Fight.
If they don’t, maybe that’s an indication that they believe phone and texting are better ways to reach people.
Or, if that doesn’t pan out, maybe get involved with a postcard campaign that isn’t trying to persuade them – where your concerns would be an issue – where the goal is information: these are the dates you can start voting, you can register to vote here until x date, etc.
Hope that helps
P.S. Welcome!