Stephen B. Morton/AP Photo
Vice President–elect Kamala Harris rallied for Democratic Senate candidates outside of Savannah, Georgia, on Sunday.
GARDEN CITY, GEORGIA – At a drive-in rally on Sunday afternoon, Vice President–elect Kamala Harris made her pitch for Senate challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff ahead of Tuesday’s runoff election. “You did it in November and now you’re going to have to do it again,” she told Georgia’s Democratic voters, to both a crowd of cars and those who gathered outside a line of fencing ringing the rally site.
Harris referenced the six lawsuits that President Trump’s campaign filed to throw out her electoral victory with Joe Biden in Georgia. “Why are such powerful people trying to make it difficult for us to vote?” she asked. “It’s because they know our power.”
While the focus of the event was on the Senate candidates, Harris was the big draw for many in attendance. Savannah resident Norma Georgia already voted early in-person for the Democrats, as she’s done for every election this cycle, and came to the event to see Harris.
“Black women have been the backbone of this country, of our families, and never get any of the attention,” Georgia says. “But we always do all the work.” Georgia says she thought of her children and grandchildren as she cast her ballot, aiming to elect people who will have the working class at the top of their minds.
Both the Biden-Harris ticket and runoff candidates Ossoff and Warnock have made promises on health care, the economy, and addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Georgia adds that she’s expecting hard work done on these issues in exchange for her vote.
Other voters at the rally echoed that sentiment. “Joe Biden promised Blacks will be getting fair representation, and he’s the first one to say those words verbatim,” says Ethel Berksteiner. “It’s promising that he chose a Black woman as his vice president.”
Berksteiner, a retired educator, was flanked by her husband and mother-in-law, Betty, outside the rally, waiting for a chance to see Harris’s motorcade pull in to the event. Both Ethel and Betty are members of the Divine 9, an organization of Black sororities that Harris also belongs to. The Berksteiners have all voted early by absentee ballot and have been calling, texting, and canvasing for Democrats this election cycle with their local civic organizations, the Democratic Party of Georgia, and the NAACP.
As lifelong Georgia residents, they’ve seen how decades of voter suppression have prevented Black people in the state from their right to the franchise. Betty Berksteiner, 81, was ten years old when her parents were among the first African Americans to vote in Georgia. Now she says that she sees native Georgians who have been here all their lives newly engaged. That, combined with an influx of people moving to the state, has shifted Georgia’s politics, Ethel adds.
The attack ads, however, aren’t new to Georgia, the family insists. The anti-Black television and radio ads run by the Republican campaigns, in addition to the hate from Trump supporters that has most recently taken aim at Republican election officials, are a somewhat known quantity. Kelly Loeffler’s ads in particular have savaged Warnock, using out-of-context statements from his time as a preacher. It’s a familiar tactic, designed to activate the sentiments of white paranoia.
“Republicans played a dirty game,” Deontray Grant says. The 36-year-old truck driver adds how positive it is that Warnock has run such a clean campaign. While Warnock has been called a radical or dangerous, he’s run humorous ads of him with puppies or focused on policies he hopes to achieve.
Grant is focused now on the economy and the coronavirus. He also wants to see more policies focused on helping low-income people and families in addition to expansions for health care.
Unsurprisingly, voters at the Harris event are confident in the Democratic Party’s candidates. And the strong early-vote turnout hints at a slight advantage for the challengers, although it’s likely to be close either way. All polling is within the margin of error, and it may be several days before firm projections can be made (similar to November’s general election).
But if Democrats do win, and consequently take control of the Senate, Earl Berksteiner is expecting a backlash.
“I expect a reaction from the right wing, if Warnock and Ossoff win. For every action, there’s a reaction. I do expect some violence,” Earl says. “Though I hope I’m wrong.”
