Senator Raphael Warnock was reelected in Georgia on Tuesday, defeating his rival, former football star and entrepreneur Herschel Walker in a relatively close race. But it wasn’t as close as it should have been.
This race should have been a golden opportunity for Republicans: Our economy is inflationary and the President of the United States is unpopular. Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp was easily reelected against a tough Democratic opponent with a national profile, Stacey Abrams. Warnock was said to be among the most vulnerable incumbents in this cycle. So his victory should make both parties take notice; the takeaways from this race have major implications for 2024 and beyond.
First of all, candidate quality is of the utmost importance. Republicans were so obsequious to Donald Trump that they did not push back at the suggestion of Walker as their candidate, despite the fact that many of Walker’s troubles were known prior to his candidacy. Maybe GOP leadership thought Trump’s and Walker’s combined star power would eclipse his troubling past. How wrong they were.
Since his meteoric ascent in 2016, Trump has delivered nothing but electoral disappointment in every subsequent election. Trump’s only qualification for an endorsement appears to be that a candidate is sufficiently famous—or at least, sufficiently sycophantic to him.
Republicans need to reclaim their party, or Democrats will continue to over-perform in elections.
Independent and moderate Republican voters also turned away from Walker because he wasn’t a strong candidate. Many voted for Kemp in the midterm gubernatorial election, yet turned toward Warnock for Senate because they didn’t feel Walker was worthy of the Senate.
But there were other, huge missed opportunities here. Republicans had a chance to make small inroads with Black voters in Georgia. Some Black people were frustrated by Democratic COVID policies and sloppy messaging as well rising prices. But instead of crafting a message and policies that would resonate with those communities, Republicans seemed to believe that some Black people would be convinced to vote for Team Red just by seeing a Black GOP candidate.
This of course did not happen. Walker’s scandals and nonsensical rants only made Black voters feel insulted.
The Democrats also had a strong ground game in Georgia, particularly within Black communities. They also didn’t only focus on metro Atlanta; Warnock’s supporters went into rural Georgia to raise participation and excitement.
Sometimes people forget that elections are not won with tweets and cable news appearances but with door knocking and get out the vote campaigns.
But the lessons from Georgia aren’t just for Republicans. Democrats also need to understand the importance of voter access for their base. It was the Warnock campaign’s lawsuit to allow for Saturday voting after Thanksgiving that gave Democrats a sizable early vote lead. Warnock also made voting rights a major part of his campaign message.
The Democratic Party has once again been rescued by Black voters. They now owe it to Black Americans to fight for issues that concern us.
Finally, this election confirmed what we all know: Trump is a liability for his party. Even with him staying away from Georgia in the closing weeks, his election denials and poor candidate promotion sunk the GOP.
And the stakes could not be higher. In scoring a 51st Senate seat, Democrats have taken some power from moderates like Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, who have repeatedly tanked the progressive components of President Biden’s agenda.
But Democrats need to be prepared for a time when the GOP doesn’t pick terrible candidates and election denial is a thing of the past. They must keep strengthening their ground game and engaging their base of support. They would do well not to forget that that is Black voters.
Dr. Jason Nichols is an award winning senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park and was the longtime editor-in-chief of Words Beats & Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
In Georgia, Black Voters Deliver for Democrats-Again | Opinion
