One group who were pivotal in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris winning the White House this past week were Black voters. From Biden’s primary victory in South Carolina – which helped him earn the party nomination – to his win in Pennsylvania that won him the election, overwhelming support from Black voters caused that momentum.
Polls state almost nine in 10 black voters backed the Democrats in this election, showing up in huge numbers and none more so than in the state of Georgia, which has been reliably Republican for a long time. It finally flipped to Democrat in this election in a crucial victory for Biden. Much credit for this has been attributed to Stacey Abrams.
In 2018, Stacey Abrams made history as the first African-American women to run for governor, against Republican challenger and long-time Georgian Secretary of State, Brian Kemp. He went on to win the race by just over 50,000 votes. Stacey Abrams did not concede, citing voter suppression – registrations for more than 1 million Georgia residents had been cancelled due to “inactivity”. An analysis of the records by Associated Press found that this list of voter registrations on hold is nearly 70% Black, despite Georgia being approximately 32% Black. Meanwhile, the person in charge of maintaining these voter rolls was her opponent.
Two years later, Stacey Abrams and a network of grassroots volunteers had registered over 800,000 voters, being widely praised for the Democrats lead. This could be even more critical – Georgia’s senate seats are headed to a crucial runoff in January. This runoff may determine which party holds the Senate and therefore holds the power in passing legislation. If Georgia wins Biden the Senate, Stacey Abrams and her volunteers may have made a historic difference.
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