Stacey Abrams launched Fair Fight to ensure every American has a voice in our election system . Fair Fight 2020 funded and trained voter protection teams in 20 battleground states .
Program Success 6 November 2020
6 Black Women Organizers What happened in Georgia - and what comes next
By Anna North , Vox Guest Columnist
One lesson : “ Do not take Black women for granted .”
“ Finally !” That ’ s Georgia nonprofit leader Deborah Scott ’ s reaction to this year ’ s election , where massive Democratic turnout looks to have flipped the state to a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1992 .
6 Black WomenOrganizers What Happen in Georgia and What comes next Politics , Elections , Campaigns Stacey Abrams November 2020
“ We ’ ve been trying to get here for the last 15 years ,” the executive director of Georgia Stand-Up , a group that works on civic engagement and other issues , told Vox . “ I ’ m so happy that we ’ re at this moment .”
It ’ s a moment many Democrats are celebrating - and analyzing - even as the state heads for a recount . And around the country , millions of Americans are paying attention - finally - to organizers in Georgia , many of them Black women , who have spent years trying to get people to the polls .
Many say it ’ s been an uphill battle against restrictions designed to keep Black voters away . That battle got nationwide attention in 2018 after Democrat Stacey Abrams narrowly lost the gubernatorial election to Republican Brian Kemp , the secretary of state who had presided over purges that eliminated more than a million people from the state ’ s voting rolls between 2012 and 2016 .
Abrams went on to found a voting rights group called Fair Fight , whose nonprofit arm sued the state in November 2018 , arguing that its election policies disproportionately impacted — and even disenfranchised — Black and other voters of color in the state , as P . R . Lockhart reported for Vox at the time .
That suit is still ongoing , and with Fair Fight also working on voter registration and other grassroots activism in Georgia , Abrams has been getting a lot of credit for the 2020 results .
Stacey Abrams launched Fair Fight to ensure every American has a voice in our election system . Fair Fight 2020 funded and trained voter protection teams in 20 battleground states .
But organizers ( including Abrams herself ) say it has been a team effort among larger organizations like Fair Fight and Black Voters Matter and local groups knocking on doors , texting voters , and providing rides to the polls . “ The biggest factor was the network ,” Amber Bell , program director at the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education , told Vox .
Vox spoke to six organizers active in the state to learn about the work that led up to this election — and that continues with two runoff races in January that could tip the Senate to Democrats . They have lessons for both parties when it comes to the role of grassroots organizing in winning elections , the importance of talking to people in person ( even during a pandemic ), and the need for politicians to make Black voters a priority — and not just right before the election . As Scott put it , “ Do not take Black women for granted .”