How did a former Georgia state Senate minority leader and defeated gubernatorial candidate in a red state become a nationally known progressive Democratic star? We know she is one -- but how'd she get there? It wasn't by winning (statewide) elections or by mastery of sound bites in national media.
Stacey Abrams' prominence started with -- and still largely rests upon -- her service as an evangelist for smart grassroots organizing as a route to political power within our quasi-democratic system.
This month, thousands of Democrats are trying to apply the lessons that she and her extended network -- Fair Fight, the New Georgia Project, and many local groups -- have perfected over a decade.
A while back Abrams gave the incomparable feminist journalist Rebecca Traister an interview full of organizing tips derived from her Georgia work, a few of which I want to share here. Says Abrams:
Having volunteers is great, but having experienced volunteers is vital. So when someone learns how to door-knock, when someone learns how to organize and get other people to work with them, that is gold. When campaigns are intentional about building that muscle memory in places where it hasn’t existed before or worse, where it’s atrophied, that changes the outcome. What [Atlanta Congressional candidate] Jon Ossoff did in 2017 by investing in communities that had not been contacted in previous elections, what I did in 2018, absolutely helped support what [Atlanta Congressional candidate] Lucy McBath was doing in the Sixth in 2018. It’s one of the reasons she had an even easier time this cycle of winning. Because you’re building capacity among voters who become more engaged.
Jon contacted this whole group of voters called the unlisted — people who don’t vote, so they really get pushed outside of any communication about politics writ large. But when you go to them and say, “We think you matter,” that changes the dynamic. It doesn’t guarantee a voter, but it guarantees an eyeball. Those people got contacted by Jon’s campaign, and by my campaign, and then again in 2020. So we’re growing new voters: low-propensity voters who may move from low propensity or no voting into moderate propensity, or maybe we create a super-voter.
... It’s important that we understand that voter suppression being stopped is why they are so mad. Republicans had a plan for stopping voters from getting to the polls. We beat them in multiple states and flipped the outcome. The margins are small because the outcome can be undone very quickly.
... we have to invest in people who understand the places where they live. I understand Georgia, but I only understand Georgia because I worked with Georgians who were here before I got here and who will be here after I’m dead. There is absolutely a necessity to build in place.
Thanks to all this organizing work that has gone before, two Democratic candidates have a chance to win Senate seats on January 5 -- and the whole national Democratic organizing cohort is on the ground and on the phones to get it done. Thanks Stacey!
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