America begins recovery from the 2020 elections coverage there was no parallel in this nation’s history. Perhaps it’s a sign of the changing political landscape in the county downplays any suggestion that there might be a substantial analysis needed explain the 2020 results.
The whole voting universe was turned upside down by Covid19. While an overwhelming emphasis was on electoral strategy, and on the problems the coronavirus pandemic and racial justice movement are major stories that have impacted last November’s general election.
Weeks after the November 4th election political strategists are reviewing how voters approached the election during a period of extraordinary turmoil.
“Early voting was a much more significant during this election cycle than any cycle I had ever seen,” says Kerman Maddox, managing partner Dakota Communications. The political strategist adds that people didn’t want to stand in line and be close to people because of the coronavirus epidemic.
As the United States confronted several crises and the urgency of that mission has never been more important. Local, state and national campaigns had no choice but to articulate the tangible impact a pandemic and the racial movement on everyday life.
Still this last tumultuous voting cycle put a spot light on Southern politics.
While autopsies of the 2020 election results are underway, Florida
Democrats are assessing lessons from their 2020 electoral losses.
There were clear signs in the weeks leading up the election that Republicans could turn out in high numbers in parts of Florida where Democrats needed to win: Miami-Dade County.
“Florida is such an unstable political landscape,” claims Gayle Andrews, president of Andrews Plus corporate and political media consulting.
According Ms. Andrews national campaigns are notorious for sending people into Florida from out of state “and that’s just not fair.” She says “you could spend four or five months trying to educate them on who the players are in north, central, and south Florida.”
Florida State Senator Perry Thurston said Covid-19 affected democratic volunteers ability to canvas “including our souls to the polls as well as our traditional ability to politic in churches”.
However Andrews and Thurston agree without question Broward is a solid democratic county. On the other hand Miami Dade Countyi s a wildcard.
According to political experts fighting misinformation was most frustrating to the democratic party. Republicans’ argument was simple, bring up people’s fears……Biden is a socialist….Democrats are socialists. Some Democrats conceded they were not able logically engage with people that refuse to believe or even entertain alternative messaging. It particularly resonated with members of the Cuban community, many of whom fled a socialist regime.
Decisions regarding how much attention and investment from the national party can Democrats expect if they are serious about winning Florida. Miami-Dade County, one of the largest Democratic counties in the nation, would be a high priority.
For years, national Democratic campaigns wrestled with whether
Georgia and other Southern states were worthy investments.
the culmination of on-the-ground organizing and voter mobilization efforts in Georgia years in the making resulted in high yields. Reaching out to minority communities and getting them energized triggered tens of thousands of young voters who turned 18 during this runoff election season.
Stacey Abrams, the former state lawmaker and candidate for governor who founded a voter registration group called the New Georgia Project and the other black women organizers made Georgia the place that democrats had to all focus on.
Also democratic groups where effective in reminding voters why it was so critical that Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock represent the state of Georgia and help determine the future of our country.
Not everyone knows that Mitch McConnell has been the reason they haven’t received unemployment benefits that he’s the block against most of the resources and the support that we need to survive COVID.
Last November’s and this month’s elections could not ignore rural Georgia where pockets of Democrats largely Black rural voters are too often left out of the process and get left out of the efforts of candidates.
For Black Georgians, the conditional recognition of one’s citizenship rights, policed through terror, continues to be the historical default for voting.
However the success of a candidate like Raphael Warnock is a product of years of voter engagement and Black women who laid the organizing framework.
A blue Georgia is vindication after years of close calls.
