A coalition of Black organizations in Georgia joined together to push the state in favor of the Democrats in the 2020 presidential elections, something that hasn’t happened since 1992 when Bill Clinton took the White House.

The race has not officially been called in the state, but President-elect Joe Biden leads Donald Trump 49.5 to 49.2 percent, CBS News reports. If that margin persists, it will likely head to a recount.  There will also be a runoff election in January between four candidates vying for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats. This race could determine who has control of the legislative body.
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Still, the activism of voter advocates like Stacey Abrams mounted a large get out the vote effort, that particularly targeted African Americans and the result was record voter registration. In addition the grassroots political organizations were the foundation of the movement and its leaders say their efforts worked.

“We put in a lot of hard work and that hard work is reaping the rewards,” John Jackson, chairman of the DeKalb County Democratic Party told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Georgia cannot flip without a reasonable turnout from the Black community.”

Over the past two years, organizations like Abrams’ Fair Fight Action, Black Voters Matter, the New Georgia Project, the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda, and others focused on making voting easier for people to do, made information available, stood ready with legal challenges to voter suppression and created an atmosphere of encouragement of voter participation.

For people who worked in the trenches, it was all about putting in the effort.

“We just continued to do the work,” Mary-Pat Hector, an activist who is also a Georgia State University graduate student told the AJC. “We refused to leave any votes on the table.”
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Helen Butler, who runs the People’s Agenda said that her group made 1 million calls or texts to potential voters in Georgia. It also held candidates forums, sent educational literature out, trained more than 1,300 poll workers, and gave people rides to the polls.

Their efforts paid off, Butler told the AJC. “Black voters showed up, stood in line and were committed to making sure their voices were heard," she said. "They were willing to exercise those rights.”