fbpx

Will A ‘Black Wave’ Push Stacey Abrams, Andrew Gillum To A Win On Election Day?

Will A ‘Black Wave’ Push Stacey Abrams, Andrew Gillum To A Win On Election Day?

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 20: Andrew Gillum

Jamarlin talks to Andrew Gillum, mayor of Tallahassee and leading Democratic candidate for Florida governor. They discuss the DNC taking the Black vote for granted, its silence on the killing of 60 Palestinian protestors, and whether big tech and Silicon Valley elites can be regulated at the state level.

_______________________________________________________________________

If it seems like the Black community across the country is mobilized to get the vote out, you might be right. In fact, political observers are saying not to expect a “blue” wave this coming midterm election but a “Black” wave. Black voters are excited about the prospects. Over in Georgia, there is a major effort to get Democrat Stacey Abrams elected governor, which would make for the first Black female governor ever in America. Down in Florida, there is a push to make Democrat Andrew Gillum the first Black governor of that state. And, Democrat Ben Jealous may be on his way to becoming the first Black governor of Maryland if he beat his popular Republican opponent. Over in Michigan U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow is facing Black Republican John James, a military veteran. He would be the first Black senator for Michigan ever. His win would be a longshot.

There are many get-out-the-votes events popping up. One in Georgia got bizarre when police stopped a group of Black senior citizens and made them get off the Black Votes Matter bus they were on to go to vote early, presumably for Stacey Abrams.

The voting momentum is building in the Black community. “Black voters are seeing this as a transformative moment for the country,” said Adrianne Shropshire, who runs political action committee BlackPAC. “They are using their votes as their resistance,” she said.

Stacey Abrams savors her victory. AP Photo/John Bazemore/The Conversation

And BlackPAC is “spending $8 million in the final sprint to Election Day to target African-American voters with radio ads and mailers in Georgia and nine other states,” CNN reported.

BlackPAC and Color of Change, whose backers include labor unions and Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer and plans to spend about $5 million to reach 1 million Black voters, are not alone, there are other organizations working to get the Black vote out, such as PowerPAC Georgia, a group affiliated with San Francisco lawyer and veteran Democratic strategist Steve Phillips. PowerPAC Georgia has used $5 million to help turn out get the 100,000 infrequent African-American voters who live outside the metro Atlanta area to the polls. Another group is Collective PAC, which calls itself as the EMILY’s List for Black candidates. They started a national text-messaging program to reach about 2 million African-American voters in at least five states, including Florida and Mississippi.

There’s also the Black Economic Alliance, formed by African-American executives, and the alliance is spending $2.6 million in a last-minute voter-mobilization push in 15 federal and state races. The goal of a coalition of African-American groups, led by the Black Women’s Roundtable, is to mobilize at least 150,000 Black women to vote in Georgia.

CORRECTS HIS SON’S NAME TO DAVIS, NOT JACKSON – Andrew Gillum holds his son Davis as he addresses his supporters after winning the Democrat primary for governor on Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Cannon)

 

Meanwhile the Color of Change PAC is trying to encourage Black voters  in key states, such as Georgia, where African-Americans are about 31% of the population. According to Color of Change’s executive director, Arisha Hatch, they organization is hoping a “Black wave” will out Abrams and other Democrats into power.

The Black wave moment isn’t just for these elections, these organizations wants to make this a permanent trend. “Their ultimate goal: build lasting political clout for African Americans, especially in the South, where more than half of the nation’s Black residents live. To do so, they will have to defy history and permanently change decades of voting behavior,” CNN reported.