Newsweek - USA (2020-11-27)

race, her campaign had calculated
that swing voters comprised a small
portion of the electorate—150,
voters out of a total of 4 million. By
contrast, her Fair Fight initiative iden-
tified 1.9 million potential new voters
who could be enlisted.
The success of her gubernatorial
campaign was a function of invest-
ment in recruiting new voters—and
the potential to keep doing so for
2020 would pay off, Abrams argued.
She advocated improving access to vot-
ing to capture the estimated 80,
votes in 2018 lost through long lines,
rejected ballots or people who had
just decided not to vote. She pushed
for grassroots get-out-the-vote drives.
“In Georgia, Democrats can take the
presidency, U.S. Senate races, the 6th
and 7th Congressional districts and
the state house majority,” she wrote.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck

Schumer pressed her to enter the

Senate race, but she preferred to

focus on her voter-enlistment drive.

Abrams took her message to Demo-

cratic leaders. “Back in 2019, I met

with every major candidate who was

running for president and I had two

messages,” she told Politico. “One,

voter suppression is real, and it’s one

of the reasons that we lost across the

country. But two, Georgia is a com-

petitive state, and it would be mal-

practice to not pay attention. Luckily

both messages broke through.”

The surge in voters who turned

out on November 3 seemed to help

Biden and the Democratic Senate

candidates. The rise was due partly to

Georgia’s policy of automatically reg-

istering people when they apply for

driver’s licenses as well as to the voter

registration drives of Fair Fight 2020.

Even the competition was impressed.

“What you did for the citizens of Geor-

gia is a testament to empowerment,

organization and leadership,” tweeted

former Republican National Commit-

tee chair Michael Steele. “It is a model

for the country.”

Abrams can’t afford to rest. Accord-

ing to the Atlanta Journal-Constitu-

tion, the conservative Heritage Action

plans to spend $1 million on the two

Senate races and an anti-abortion

group has pledged another $4 million.

Even before the presidential race

had been called, Abrams was already

campaigning for the runoff elections

in January that she had helped make

happen. She tweeted, “Georgia, thank

you. Together, we have changed the

course of our state for the better. But

our work is not done.”

SENATE DOʝOVER Abrams is working to

get out the vote for Democrats Jon Ossoff

(left) and Reverend Raphael Warnock in

their runoff races against Republicans

David Purdue and Kelly Loefʀer in January.

“We have seen

what is possible

when we work

hard and when

we work together.

We know we can

win Georgia.

Now let’s get it

done, again.”

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