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Rev. Raphael Warnock [in black t-shirt] and Jon Ossoff [white t-shirt] with supporters in Atlanta on Thursday
Photo by Donnell Suggs
Attendees at an event where the two Democrats running in the special Georgia elections for the U.S. Senate in January on Thursday said they feel optimistic about voter turnout which analysts believe will be a key factor in who will win.
The two Georgia races are being watched closely because they will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.
Read: Here’s what you need to know about Georgia Senate races
On Thanksgiving morning, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the two Democrats in the race, were both helping to distribute food to those in need alongside volunteers at the annual Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless, Inc. holiday food drive in downtown Atlanta.
One of the onlookers was Dr. Frank K. Jones, the president of the Atlanta Medical Association, who was still in his scrubs following a shift at a local hospital and said he just dropped by to get a good look at the two candidates.
Asked about turnout, Jones said he expected it to be strong “if nothing else than to just have positive results that continue to turn Georgia blue.”
President-elect Joe Biden was the first Democrat to win Georgia in a presidential election since Bill Clinton won the state in 1992.
“We’re just supposed to do what we are supposed to do and that’s vote. We have enough momentum and we have young people out here. It’s a movement,” Jones added.
Adalina Merello, an Atlanta resident who made her way downtown to see if there was anything she could do, said she’s “personally involved in Latino voter engagement” and thinks the Ossoff and Warnock campaigns have little to worry about in regards to voter turnout.
“We’re headed in a good direction because we saw what this kind of turnout can do,” she said. “I believe the national attention is helping as well.”
Georgia had record voter turnout for the November presidential election with 1.1 million absentee ballots cast by mail and an average of 66,241 in-person ballots cast per day during the in-person voting period, according to the Secretary of State website.
Weygand Grant, 46, a volunteer at the event and a registered voter agreed. “I think they will {turn out] since they know what’s at stake and as long as the candidates keep pressing, keep campaigning like they did last election.”
Daniel Blackman, 41, who is also involved in a runoff on Jan. 5 as the Democratic candidate for the District 4 Public Service Commission, believes the momentum from the presidential election will carry over to the first elections of 2021.
Blackman said he didn’t agree with the statistics that show runoff elections are not as popular as primary elections.
“I feel the opposite”, he said. “Traveling in rural and coastal Georgia feels different. They are so motivated because they feel like they are finally a part of change in Georgia.” Blackman recently traveled to Liberty County in south Georgia with the Warnock campaign and remembers the trip feeling “optimistic.”
Dr. Bola Tilghman, a graduate of Morris Brown College and Clark Atlanta University, two of Atlanta’s five Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) , was volunteering alongside her niece Thursday. Dr. Tilghman, who has volunteered for the past 20 years and has been a registered voter in the state of Georgia since she was in college, believes it is going to take an even greater effort from Georgia voters to continue keeping the state blue.
“If we do the same canvassing and the same amount of phone banking we will be OK. I believe we need to continue educating voters about the process. We have to finish what we started.”
Warnock spoke briefly to reporters at the event but didn’t address turnout.
“The depth of our faith is tested by our commitment to the poor and the true character of our government is revealed in our commitment to the most marginalized members of the human family,” he said.
Warnock is facing Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler while Ossoff is facing incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue.
Loeffler and Perdue had no public events on Thursday.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that he will go to Georgia to support the state’s Republican Senate candidates. A White House spokesman said the president would visit on Saturday Dec. 5.
Trump continues to attack key Republicans in Georgia in the wake of his election loss. On Saturday, he called Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “an enemy of the people.”
Analysts said the two Republican candidates desperately need Trump supporters to come back to the polls on Jan. 5. The Loeffler and Perdue campaigns were reportedly hoping for a Trump visit.
Biden is also expected to visit Georgia during the campaign.
The two parties are spending massive amounts of money to get voters to the polls.
