On Tuesday, Senator Raphael Warnock won his run-off against the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Herschel Walker and will be returning to Washington in January 2023 for six more years as Georgia's representative to the US Senate.
It’s a big win for Georgia and an important win for Democracy.
Here are three takeaways from the run-off that I felt were important to share with you.
1. Candidates Matter and Walker Was a Terrible Candidate
“Herschel was like a plane crash into a train wreck that rolled into a dumpster fire. And an orphanage. Then an animal shelter. You kind of had to watch it squinting through one eye between your fingers,” Dan McLagan, an adviser to one of Walker’s defeated rivals in the GOP primary, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
As John Cassidy writes in the New Yorker, "in an environment of hyper-partisanship and all-out political warfare, individual candidates still matter." The fact that Walker was also Trump's candidate was also a problem for Georgia voters. Many Republicans who voted for Brian Kemp for governor did not vote for Hershel Walker. As Democratic strategist Celinda Lake told Bloomberg News on Wednesday, Georgia is a "state that’s proven to be anti-Trump."
In Northern Georgia counties where Walker won big in November, Republican voters failed to show up on Tuesday. That drop off caused Walker to lose.
2. Georgia Is Now a Purple State Because of Its Diversity
The population in my home state of Georgia has been growing a lot, and undergoing demographic changes over the past decade that have changed the composition of the state in meaningful ways. Back in 2020, after the most recent US Census, demographer Charlie Hayslett told the AP, “I do think one of the big stories out of the 2020 Census is going to be the relationship between diversity and growth. Based on the counties I’ve been able to drill down on so far, the ones that have experienced meaningful growth and that have vibrant economies have also seen a significant increase in the diversity of their populations.”
As late as 1980, Georgia's population was 70% white, now it's around 51%, the lowest on record. And that new diversity in population is already seeing a change in local representation. When the 2023 Georgia state legislature is seated in January, it will be the most diverse in the state's history. "Next year, at least 83 of the 236 members will be nonwhite."
But the state is very divided as you can see from the returns in the map below. Turnout is what won Warnock his seat this week and in order to make Georgia Blue, we need to continue registering Democratic voters.
3. "The Marietta Moms are in charge now"
New York Times reporter Lisa Lerer sees the outcome as definitive and I like her optimism. At the very least, I agree that Georgia is definitely a purple state now, and I also believe that we can turn it Blue, but that will require an invigorated and motivated Democratic base. As Stacey Abrams noted in her tweet congratulating Senator Warnock, organizers from both her Fair Fight organization and the New Georgia Project have as much to celebrate as Senator Warnock. We must continue that important work, as well as remind Marietta moms that many of the issues they feel strongly about — abortion rights, climate change and gender equality — are ones that Democratic candidates will fight for.
Stacey deserves the credit and the gratitude for this shift in Georgia — she and her organization Fair Fight helped to register the new voters in the State — the ones who are most responsible for Senator Warnock’s win. And I must admit to being disappointed that the Senator did not express his gratitude for Stacey’s support which was important in his original selection by the Democratic Party to be a candidate for Senate, and her vigorous campaigning and advocacy throughout both of his campaigns.
Of course, on a personal level, I am honored to have Senator Warnock representing me and all Georgians in the U.S. Congress. I have had the privilege of knowing him as the pastor of the Ebenezer Church, and our family were frontline campaigners and supporters. As he said over and over again on the campaign trail, this race was about competence and character. He has both in abundance. His perspective on being Georgia’s first elected African American Senator and on the historic nature of this election as well was echoed in his acceptance speech when he said, “Tonight, I want to pay tribute to those, over so many years, who have put their voices, and their lives on the line, to defend the right to vote.”
Georgia voters exercised that right on Dec. 6th and the outcome sends a well qualified, competent, compassionate, committed and well prepared public servant to Washington to lend his voice to the important preservation and strengthening of all the rights we enjoy as citizens of this Democracy.
Onward!
- Pat
