Jaime Harrison Creates New Political Action Committee To Support Georgia Senate Candidates
Despite capturing the momentum and having a fundraising advantage, Jaime Harrison was not successful in defeating incumbent Lindsey Graham in the South Carolina U.S. Senate race. However, don’t count Harrison out just yet because he’s clearly not out of the game.
Instead, Harrison is picking up the pieces and has announced the creation of a new political action committee, called the “Dirt Road PAC,” aimed at helping Georgia Democrats win their senate runoff races in January, the Charleston Post and Courier reported.
“We can’t just parachute in cycle-by-cycle and expect that we’re going to change states that have been red for generations,” said Harrison during an appearance Tuesday on MSNBC. “In order to do that we have to have a long term and more sustainable approach. We have to invest in communities, particularly communities that we have left behind for a long time, rural communities, African American and Latino communities that just feel disenchanted, that just feels like nobody hears them and nobody’s fighting for them.”
RELATED: Rev. Raphael Warnock’s Run For U.S. Senate Has Intense implications That Reach Beyond Georgia
Both of Georgia’s senate races came down to runoffs after Election Day. Neither of the four candidates, Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock and incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in one race; and Democrat Jon Ossoff and incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue in the other, received 50 percent of the vote totals, triggering the Jan. 5 run-off vote.
In the weeks following the presidential election, much of the attention has either been on the White House transition and control of the Senate, which hangs in the balance. The potential of two Democratic wins in Georgia could bring President-elect Joe Biden easier access to pushing his political agenda forward. Without that, gridlock is a definite possibility.
Harrison says he has already raised $450,000 for Warnock and Ossoff and the Dirt Road PAC will continue to raise funds for them and other Georgia Democrats. The creation of the committee comes as Harrison’s name is being mentioned as a contender for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, which is currently held by Tom Perez.
After the Georgia runoff races in January 2021, Harrison says he plans to continue working on behalf of state Democrats, focusing on off year races in Virginia and throughout the south.
“The goal is to invest in those state parties and the local parties, to invest in candidates, to help recruit and train those candidates, and to do so on a long-term basis,” Harrison told the Post and Courier.
