Countdown to Year-End – 4th Stop Georgia for 2022 Midterms
As we reflect back on 2021, it is very clear why Georgia is one of 6 states that Ridehare2Vote will prioritize in the 2022 midterms. If you have been reading this series of articles, you will know that our first 3 primary elections for the 2022 mid-terms will be in Texas, Ohio, and North Carolina — all states with compelling contests in the works. Our next stop will be in Georgia, but in many ways, we feel like we have held permanent residence in Georgia for the past year, having just concluded driving in municipal elections there.
Earlier in the year, January 4, 2021, was Election Day in Georgia’s Special Senatorial Election in which Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff secured the US Senate majority for the Democratic Party. Even as votes were being counted in the Special Election, Georgia was already ground zero for Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 general election. He tried strong-arming fellow Republican Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger, asking him to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss to Joe Biden, and threatening possible criminal charges against Raffensperger if he did not. Fortunately for the continuation of democracy, Raffensperger held fast and denied the “Big Lie” of election fraud.
Unfortunately, Trump’s failure to steal the election in Georgia has inspired his strategy of conducting a “slow-moving coup.” This past year, Trump has been strategically endorsing his own right-wing conspiracy theorists for positions from which they could overturn future election results. Instituting a loyalty requirement to the Trump Cult and purging non-adherents from the GOP will help place Trump cronies in positions of power in 2022, able to take his orders to overturn election results in 2024 when he will likely run again for President.
So in states like Texas, Georgia, Ohio, and Florida where the executive branches are up for election, we must work NOW to protect against these executive branches from being overtaken by Trump’s chosen candidates. Rideshare2Vote will be firmly behind Democratic candidates in all 6 states, but we’re looking forward to revisiting Georgia, where over half of the voters we took to the polls in January 2021 were first-time voters. Finding these low-propensity voters and enabling them to turn out for Democratic candidates is the heart and soul of our mission.
In mid-May, we will begin driving voters in Georgia in early voting leading up to the May 24 Election Day. Trump has already endorsed David Perdue (the former senator defeated by Raphael Warnock) to run against current Gov. Brian Kemp, who like Raffensperger refused Trump’s demands to overturn the 2020 general election results. Continuing his attempt to install his own loyalists in positions of power over election certification, he has also endorsed state Sen. Burt Jones for Lt. Governor. Along with other statehouse Republicans, Jones signed on to a Texas legal brief in a bid to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results. The winner of the primary for the governorship will face off against voting advocate Stacey Abrams next November.
Trump has also endorsed former NFL star Herschel Walker to run for the US Senate seat of Democrat Raphael Warnock, who is attempting to gain a full term in the Senate seat he won in January’s Special Election. Congressman Jody Hice has also passed Trump’s loyalty test, and has Trump’s endorsement to run in the primary against Raffensperger in the Sec. of State race. From his House seat, Hice voted against certification of Georgia’s electoral votes on January 6 even after the Capitol had been overrun by the Trump mob, and declared the insurrection to be “our 1776 moment.”
All of these races reflect the strategy of supporting primary challengers to any Republican who opposed Trump’s Big Lie. While forcing Republican challengers into expensive and contentious primaries does provide some benefit to Democrats who will hopefully solidify early behind their own candidates, the possibility that these Trump-endorsed candidates come to power with a willingness to do his bidding is truly horrifying. Democrats must turn out to defeat the right-wing takeover of their state governments, and we are supporting Georgia’s Democrats as they build a bulwark against the Trump slow-moving coup.
Please donate today to help us turn out the 2022 vote for Democratic candidates in Georgia beginning in mid-May, with voting to follow in Virginia and Florida.
by Sarah Kovich
