Project Logic Ga

Abrams and Gillum should have easily won; they made the right moves.  The costly miscues came from the Democratic Party in rural areas.  Why is this starting to sound like a broken record?  The young people currently doing political strategy don’t know what a “record” is nor have they checked the election record.  Shall we start a list that would have gotten another 100K voters in Georgia and 100K in Florida.

1. History: Al Gore=Hillary Clinton=Stacey Abrams. If the working families who are the focus of Democrat issues would simply vote, elections would be runaways. After everything done by the successful Clinton/Gore White House, Gore should have defeated Bush with no problems. The same should have applied to Hillary after Obama’s White House.  But in a twist, the mess of the Trump White House should have driven working Dem voters to the polls in even better numbers.  Problem: the Dems are too nice and politically correct to speak hard to those voters about the real consequences of not voting.
2. Obama=Trump=Abrams. For real. The Democrat establishment wanted Hillary over Obama. After Obama won with his own organization, he didn’t feel compelled to turn over his fundraising database or network to the D.N.C.  Trump did a similar bypass of the R.N.C. because they knew he wasn’t presidential material.  Today, he controls basically a MAGA/Trump Party outside of the Republican Party and if they try to drop him, the drama will be serious and entertaining.

Since Abrams wasn’t the choice of the state Democrat establishment, she raised millions outside the state and didn’t feel the need to be “plural” with her campaign pronouns.  “Us and We” were more about the Progressive wing of the national party than the statewide Democratic ticket. Problem: Winning statewide in a diverse state like Georgia requires an uneasy alliance like Blacks and Dixiecrats in the 80s and 90s on the Dem side and Country Club Republicans with Trump zealots on the GOP side.  Hillary and Abrams tried to win primarily in the urban areas; the numbers were there but the margin of victory in both their races was rural Democrats that were not cultivated.

3. Agriculture areas not cultivated: Ms. Abrams did hit the piney woods of rural Georgia hard but it wasn’t her job to be everywhere. I feel like Chicken Little with the sky is falling thing. Moderate Dems kept waiting for Hillary to spend some money rallying Dems who lived in G.O.P. congressional districts.  But, her cool hipster team didn’t see the need after looking at numbers in Georgia’s 6 biggest cities. They thought it could be done with T.V. ads.  What was left on the table was the margin of victory in Georgia and in the panhandle of Florida.  Van Jones on CNN said Hillary spent a billion dollars on T.V. ads and expected Black women to do Get Out The Vote as volunteers.  To her credit, Abrams learned from that.

Problem: the Democrat Party of Georgia needed to recruit quality, well-funded congressional candidates outside Atlanta.  Those candidates drive out numbers in their region.  What do I need on these candidates’ resumes: Military, gun owner, church officer, farm childhood, graduate of a college that plays football on T.V., Black college alum or Black Greek network,  Andrew Gillums’ charm, Moderate who can relate to Progressives.  If we had such candidates in the Red congressional districts from Augusta to Macon to Valdosta, Abrams and the Dem ticket would have had an additional 100K votes there.

4. Rep. Sanford Bishop: If Bishop had a strong opponent, he would have fully engaged his campaign machine. The results would be an additional 40K votes for the Dem ticket in vital Columbus, Macon and Albany. Rep. Bishop has three of the five Black urban areas outside Atlanta in his district.  He is basically the leader of Georgia Moderates and the leader of rural Democrats in the South.  In other words, a busy Bishop could have produced the numbers needed to give Hillary Georgia.  A really busy Bishop could have help the Dems in the parts of Florida above Gainesville.  Yes, some of us think that an aggressive Bishop could have tipped Georgia and Florida to Hillary and kept Trump out of the Oval.

Andrew Gillum, in or out of the governor’s mansion, will continue to energize Florida. I just realize that Abrams and Gillum cultivating their states for the next two years could swing these states to the Dems.  Are we looking at two cabinet members in the next White House?  Come on, you know that’s how presidential thank yous work.

5. Should be Shame: It’s a blank blank shame that high school football games are packed with Black folks but the same numbers don’t appear on the Democrat voters results. To be real, we aren’t talking about voting for her or him; we are talking real kitchen table issues.  It has to be “Vote for this candidate because these issues are important to your family: healthcare; the re-segregation of  your kids schools disguised as school choice; attracting new industry and jobs; criminal justice reform.”
6. Missing Moderates: Can southern Democrats walk and chew gum at the same time. President Jimmy Carter warned that Georgia Dems shouldn’t forget about the Moderates in suburban and rural areas.  We don’t need or want back former Dems deep into Trumpism but there might be a 10 to 20 percent of non Dems who see Democrats as healthier than the divisiveness of the new G.O.P.
7. Preaching to the Choir, literally: Have mercy, these candidates see numbers in Black churches so the big bishops are going to need that sizable check. That’s nice but church folks vote anyway. The question is how do you get the sinner vote also (too much?) or shall I say how do you light a Fuse under them.  It starts with listening to them; connecting on a personal level before voting time.  Did the homeboys know what Stacey Abrams planned for reform of the money bail system and weed laws.  The Dem ticket in Georgia could have gotten 60K pot smoking voters and another 30k senior citizens who want to grow their own non-hallucinogenic pain relief.  Also, some Georgia farmers are interested in a new cash crop. Yes, we left maybe 90K votes on the table right there.

In summary, the Democrats don’t need to wonder what we should do next to secure victory in 2020.  Projectlogicga.com has been outlining (begging) a better approach for rural Georgia voters for ten years.  Because rural voters are pivotal in 2020, planners should come see us soon and bring a checkbook.