With Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock’s victories in the Georgia runoff elections, President-elect Joe Biden will come into office with a Democratic majority in the Senate—a surprising boost to his presidency for which he can largely thank Black, Latino and Asian American voters, along with the progressive groups who worked tirelessly to turn them out.
Of course, Biden also owes an earlier debt to the Black voters in South Carolina and other primary states who last spring helped revive his failing candidacy and push him to victory.
Now, with the President-elect and his team able to think bigger about their policy goals in a Washington ruled by Democrats, how will they move to pay down Biden's considerable debt to voters of color? And what obstacles might they face from moderates in Congress?
Georgia voter turnout
Of the almost 8 million registered voters in Georgia, about 4.4 million voted in the Senate runoff elections. That's about 90% of the vote from the general election—a record-breaking turnout. The previous record was about half of that during the 2008 runoffs.
Although the official numbers aren't out yet, exit polls show that turnout among non-white voters, especially Black voters, was higher than turnout among white voters. This benefited Democrats as they performed far better with non-white voters than with white voters.
An NBC News exit poll shows that although white voters make up the majority of Georgia voters at 61%, Democrats only won 29% of white voters. Democrats won 85% of non-white voters, which make up 39% of all Georgia voters.
The chart below shows a more detailed breakdown of Georgia voters by race. Democrats won 93% of Black voters, 64% of Latino voters and 60% of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voters. Republicans won 71% of white voters.
Created with Datawrapper
"This historic turnout of Black, Latinx, & immigrant communities in GA was thanks to years of grassroots organizing in communities that often go ignored," wrote Latino rights group Mijente on Twitter.
To tip the runoffs, Mijente partnered with other Latino groups in November to launch the Georgia con Ganas campaign, which it called the "biggest Latino voter turnout operation" in the state's history. The campaign says that it was able to contact every Latino voter in Georgia, knocking on 310,000 doors, making 257,000 phone calls and sending 376,000 text messages.
Other progressive groups also mobilized in historic ways. Aisha Yaqoob Mahmood, who serves as the executive director at the Asian American Advocacy Fund, said on Twitter that its team had knocked on 100,000 doors over six weeks. "We also made over ONE MILLION phone calls to voters in so many diff languages—Korean, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, Bangla, you name it."
While it's true that Latinos and AAPI make up a small percentage of the Georgia electorate, given how close the races were, every one of those votes mattered.
Black voters make up the largest share of non-white voters in Georgia at 30%. An impressive 93% of those who voted did so in favor of the Democratic challengers. As such, Black voters were by far the most crucial demographic for Democrats.
"The margins are so small that every action, including your vote, matters, and will make a difference," New Georgia Project's CEO Nse Ufot told CNN. "Black voters got that message. Black voters recognized that we need to complete the task."
What do organizers want?
But with these victories comes a crucial question: Will Biden repay the Black, Latino and AAPI voters that helped to deliver Democrats a Senate majority? Those who helped make the historic turnout a reality aren't satisfied with just winning; they want change.
"Voters of color are the true silent majority in our country, and we will no longer be silenced or left behind,” said AAPI Victory Fund President Varun Nikore.
Mijente, meanwhile, has pivoted from mobilizing voters to pressuring Biden on immigration reform. "Now that Democrats have control of the White House, the Senate and Congress, it’s time for the party to deliver big in return," Mijente wrote on Twitter.
Among the policies for which Mijente is advocating are a moratorium on deportations, an investigation in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ending the surveillance of Black, brown and immigrant communities.
In addition to delivering on policy promises, grassroots groups are also looking to pressure Biden and congressional Democrats to deliver on issues such as racial justice.
Adrianne Shropshire, who serves as executive director for BlackPAC, argued that the dramatic events that unfolded in the capitol last week are a "white backlash to Black progress" and an example of "racial intimidation masquerading as political protest."
"It is not a coincidence that this is happening in the shadows of the first Black senator from Georgia being elected and during the ratification of the first Black vice president," Shropshire wrote. She added that the situation requires "accountability and consequences."
A permanent shift in voting power
A recent article by four analysts at the Brookings Institution argues that Democrats can no longer continue to "take Black voters for granted, courting their vote but not delivering their agenda."
"Nor can the party disregard the progressive platform that catalyzed its victories. Bold, progressive ideas produce wins, and old-school Democrats should embrace the ambitious people and policies that delivered Joe Biden's victory, as well as those in the Georgia runoffs," they wrote.
"We’re already hearing whispers of a gravitation to the center because of the Senate’s newfound 50-50 split, with a Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote," added the analysts. "It would be foolish for the Biden administration to push a tepid agenda at the expense of the people and ideals that provided their very electoral opportunity. Not listening to Black voters’ demands for a progressive agenda may prove fatal for a democracy."
While Black, Latino and AAPI voters in Georgia may have delivered Biden a Senate majority—and with it, the opportunity to enact his vision for America—the incoming president will also face strong countervailing pressures from Democratic moderates in Congress. The centrist New Democrat Coalition is the largest caucus among House Democrats and includes many members who believe that activist demands to "defund the police" explain the party's down-ballot losses in November. In the Senate, Biden's legislative ambitions will depend on the cooperation of Joe Manchin and Jon Tester, moderate Democrats who reflect an electoral system that heavily overweights the preferences of voters in mostly white rural states.
In other words, it remains to be seen if Biden will—or even can—repay his debt to crucial voter blocs.
