Project Logic Ga

If Georgia Democrats want to win in 2020, we must cultivate a coalition from Columbus to the Georgia coast now.  The Republicans constantly speak of Hillary Clinton using money and influence from the two national coasts as her foundation while ignoring “flyover America” or the heartland.  The job of the G.O.P. is to create drama among Americans for political gain.  But on some level, they are right.

From Baltimore to Boston and from San Diego to Seattle, so-called national Democrats are raising countless millions for campaigns and causes across America.  We know that money is the mother’s milk of politics.  However, donors want “ears” or influence for their support.  If you raise a ton of money from coastal elites to win an election, your first deference might be to them over the voters who are now your constituents.  A servant can’t have two masters.

Black folks love us some Barack Obama.  At times during his second term, he seemed to embrace issues based on being on the right side of history more so than the right side of the southern railroad tracks.  (If you don’t know about those tracks, don’t campaign outside metro Atlanta.)

The Progressive Movement in the form of the Stacey Abrams governor campaign made great strides with young voters in Georgia last year.  We feel an additional 100k voters can be had in the Georgia’s 8^th, 1^st and 2^nd congressional districts if they are developed with nuance over time.  A national concern with Hillary and a state concern with Abrams is appreciating rural Democrats—Black and White.

The answer isn’t bringing more southerners into the Progressive Movement only.  The answer includes acknowledging a Sanford Bishop Moderate section of the Blue Team and working with us.  Southern moderates love rural living, support the military, support agriculture/rural development and support the role transportation plays in our economy with highways, the Atlanta airport and the Port of Savannah.  The changes the Progressives want in criminal justice reform, education/training and income fairness are right on time to many Moderates.

We have more in common than you think.  Look, the Country Club Republicans tolerated the rough TEA Party crowd to win elections.  Democrats need to tolerate each other to do the same.  For example, the Moderates would love to bring any Georgia U.S. Senate candidates up to speed on the Farm Bill.  That would be one dusty boots long weekend but at the end, we would have groomed the next member of the Senate Agriculture Committee.  That member would be important to Georgia farmers and producers and vital to people who need a save and affordable food supply around the world.  Actually, ag could solve problems around the world better than missiles but the costal elite don’t seem to know that.

Urban campaign staff seem a little awkward to some rural people.  They show up from who knows where to tell us what is important….to us. Really?   Smooth voter education/Get Out The Vote starts with listening and comfort level.  If you meet the right local community people early and develop a rapport, those local relationships will populate rallies and give candidates the opportunities to win the region over.  Hillary spent all of that money on T.V. ads but if she put a fraction of those funds into chicken leg quarters/Motown music events, she would be president today.

A candidate can’t just be Black and from a Black college.  Voters are too smart for that.  After all, Herman Cain is a successful Morehouse Man but Black voters were not feeling his political views.  On the other hand, urbane Morehouse alum Sanford Bishop was a quick study on crops and troops.

Finally, you can’t make rural voters love all of the liberal views of coastal elites—some but not all.  South Georgia voters know the massive efforts made to get out the urban vote in the past while rural us were an afterthought.  That can’t happen again.