Melissa Clink, Chair of the Forsyth County Democrats and newly elected 6th Congressional District Chair

The North GA Blue: Getting into Good Trouble podcast covers democratic politics in North GA, the 9th Congressional District, and across the state of Georgia. The podcast is in Q&A/Interview format with various democratic politicos including county chairs, democratic operatives, politicians, and more. It is our mission to deliver crucial information to our listeners in a timely manner as we fight for community values and principles in the 3rd most Conservative district in the state. Our website is: https://www.fcdpga.com/podcasts

Our guests highlight democratic activities and actions to work toward a Blue Georgia. The 9th Congressional District spans 20 counties across the region and covers a good deal of northern GA including Blue Ridge, Morganton, Fannin, Union, Banks, Athens/Clarke, Dawson, Elbert, Forsyth, Franklin, Gilmer, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison, Pickens, Rabun, Stephens, Towns, and White counties. 

Our democratic party podcast also disseminates information and interviews powerful Democrats across the state of GA working to overthrow the suppression tactics of the GOP and ensure democracy and our values, grassroots efforts, and goals remain intact. 

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Transcript

Meral Clarke: 0:00

Hello and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County, Georgia Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our special guest Melissa Clink, Chair of the Forsyth County Democratic Party and avid political activist. Welcome to the show, Melissa. We're happy to have you with us again for the second time.

Melissa Clink: 0:25

Thank you. I'm happy to be back. Thanks for asking me back.

Meral Clarke: 0:28

Terrific. Well, let's let our listeners know a little bit about you. Melissa Clink, is the chair of the Forsyth County Georgia Democratic Party and is a results driven visionary leader and community organizer known for her ability to win community support develop key coalition's and build relationships with a shared sense of purpose in local populations. Melissa is deeply committed to improving lives of all people by promoting citizenship, trustworthiness, respect and dignity. Under her leadership, the seventh congressional district seat flipped to democratic representation in Congress showing that her work has already had national impact. Congratulations on that, by the way, and thank you Chair Clink has also served as the Forsyth County Democratic committee chair for six years where she has a wonderful team of volunteers on her executive board and county committee as well as grassroots activist coalitions working to change the game in North Georgia in terms of political power. Most recently, Chair Clink graduated from the campaign school at Yale University, a program The New York Times quoted as sadistically intensive, I love that and she is working to build once again in the newly redistricted very red Georgia's sixth congressional district where she was elected to chair last year. So Melissa, you're a very busy lady, and you have a lot going on. Let's dive right in. I would be remiss if I didn't ask you to share your thoughts on the recent SCOTUS ruling overturning Roe which deprives everyone with a uterus of their civil and human rights. What are your thoughts on that? And what happens if Congress is unable to codify roe? How do we move forward?

Melissa Clink: 2:18

Yes, and thank you for having me on the show. And I appreciate that introduction. So I'm just like everyone else who cares about human rights reeling kind of from Friday, I will say I'm not super sad, because I get mad when things like this happen, things that are unjust, and I immediately start to think about what I can do to make the situation better. So that is kind of what I did on Friday, I definitely wanted to make sure that the public had knowledge of the pro choice candidates that were running in Forsyth County, and how to donate and volunteer for their campaigns, I do not think that we'll be able to codify it nationally. So I think that we're going to have to go to the States, which is really, really unfortunate. So we already know every year is really, really polarized. And we seem to be more polarized than ever. And we have been kind of since 2016. And making this choice go to the States ensures that this will forever be a polarizing issue on the state level, especially states in the South, I think that we're always going to see this ramp it back and forth on the topic of abortion in southern states. So I believe that we need to focus on our state legislature and make sure that we are talking to everyone that we can talk to. And that includes people that we might not necessarily always talk to or talk to you about specific issues. And so we know that libertarians are most likely going to be pro choice. We know that there's a lot of conservative voters who are actually pro choice, I've had an opportunity to talk to some of them over the last couple days. And I wanted to make sure that we talked about on the show that you need to talk about these kinds of issues with everyone, not just people who think like you, because I think you'll find that there's a ton of crossover and a ton of people who do want to make sure that the woman has that choice. I think it's interesting that it comes from the Religious Right. And that is where it is rooted. This really wasn't a political issue until the 70s, when the political right was able to really galvanize support behind that. And they were able to bring more people to the polls and get more money in their campaigns. So they have been able to capitalize on all of that. And it's been unfortunate, but because of that what is interesting is that I'm a Christian, and I think that God trusts me with free will, and that the government should as well. So being a Christian means that you decide whether or not you want to be a Christian right? No one can be born a Christian, you have to be born again as a Christian. So that is the free will that God gave to me and all humans. And if the government is saying that they don't trust me to make the best choices for me, they are saying that they are more powerful than God. So in my opinion, God is pro choice.

Meral Clarke: 4:49

And she is of course the attorney who won The original roburt it back in 73. Tell us about that book and why it's a particular interest to you right now.

Melissa Clink: 5:07

So it's been sitting on my bookshelf for a while, like you said, before we got started, I'm always doing something. So I tried to slide reading in whenever I can. So I knew I wanted to read this one soon. And I really just got started. But it was so shocking when I was starting to read it that I had to put it down for a second. And typically you're talking to somebody like I did firefighting. When I was 15 years old, I saw my first dead on arrival person when I was 15 years old in a car accident. So I'm not usually a person that is very squeamish at all. I listened to serial killer documentaries to kind of calm down. So the fact that I had to put it down was wow, this is really jarring and shocking. So I wanted to make sure that I brought it up when we talked about Roe today. So there's two excerpts from the book that I'd like to share with you all, because I think it's worth hearing. And I also think that a lot of people who are pro life really do believe they are doing the right thing that people who believe that abortion is murder, and that there should never be any exceptions and things like that. Unfortunately, they are just religious zealots. And because they're not doing a good thing. It is using God to cause harm. And I wanted to be able to point out the ways that it causes harm. So on page 15, the first chapter, it's a question of choice. And it says Now I know there are countless others living out their own private scenes when abortion was illegal. Some of them were not as lucky as I. They ended up in awful places. They were operated on people with no medical skills before abortion became legal in California in 1967. The county hospital in Los Angeles had a word called the iob or the infected obstetrics Ward, it had about 60 beds for women suffering the results of botched abortions, and sometimes abortions they had performed themselves, doctors and nurses who worked at public hospitals. In the days when abortion was illegal. Remember women who died in their arms after I gave a speech in Dallas not long ago, a nurse told me about her best friend who bled to death after her wound was perforated during an abortion. Another told me about a licensed vocational nurse who had five children and could not face having another one who died from an infection resulting from an illegal abortion from in 1973 1972. Nearly 350,000 women left their own state to obtain legal abortions in New York, one of the very few states where abortion was legal then and available to non residents. So that shows what pre Roe America looks like. And those are the kinds of things that you can only get in the books written by the people who lives through those experiences. The next excerpt is one article listed three different methods as safe when performed by a competent physician dilation and Kitteridge. With anesthesia, vacuum aspiration and hysterectomy, the message went on to warn against various other methods that involve excruciating pain and could lead to permanent disability, infection or death. Often women would drink Ergo a poison or take quinine sulfate neither achieved abortion and ergo could cause fatal kidney damage and quinine sulfate could result in deformities in the fetus or the death to the woman taking estrogen or castor oil as some did have no result. The articles further caution women about the dangers of inserting solids or fluids into the uterus, including objects such as knitting needles, artists, paint brushes, telephone wire, packing gauze, catheters, curtain rods, ballpoint pens, chopsticks, slippery elm bark, and coat hangers. These can pierce the womb and the bladder, and often cause death from infection or hemorrhage. soapsuds alcohol potassium hermandad gate, ly Lysol pine oil and other substances inserted into the uterus could cause severe burning of tissues, shock hemorrhaging, and death. Some women believe that air pumped into the uterus would cause abortion. However, the rank article warrant the result could instead be the introduction of gas and belie into the bloodstream, collapse of the uterus and sudden violent death. Similarly, the paper warned against using a vacuum cleaner, which was not the same as a vacuum aspiration. A safe procedure, when performed by a physician, using a vacuum cleaner would extract the uterus from the pelvic cavity and was fatal almost immediately. So I don't think that when people talk about abortion, they think about the kind of desperation that you put a person into when you take a medically safe procedure off the table. I don't believe that if it was any other religion, we will be talking about this right. And I do think that we will be able to gain some ground as far as the Jewish community and Muslim community for being able to say that it's against their religion because it goes against their religious beliefs, and which is the reason why no one's religious beliefs belongs in this conversation. I have a right to believe what I believe if you do not want to have an abortion and you think abortion is wrong, no one is ever going to force you to have one but you should never have the opportunity to stop someone else from being able to access a medically safe procedure because you disagree with it on moral grounds or religious grounds.

Meral Clarke: 9:47

I completely agree. Thank you for sharing those passages. It's important for us to know and to learn more about the issue, especially when it comes to medical safety. So we're stuck with SCOTUS Supreme Court of the United States, we're stuck with them for a long, long time considering their expansion on gun rights and their lack of ability to discern the difference between church and state, ostensibly. So we need to keep fighting. And you're right, let's drill down to our state legislature because our Republican Attorney General Chris Carr just filed for an emergency adjudication to go ahead and pass the heartbeat law here in Georgia. So it's coming much more quickly than we think. So let's chat about the sixth congressional district race, which is so important and vital to Democrats. Future Forsyth has a number of candidates running for positions. What are your thoughts on these races? And how do we win?

Melissa Clink: 10:48

So Bob Christian is running in the sixth district, he won his primary against Wayne White. Bob is a resident of Dawson and veteran and he's an all around great person. Anyone who talks to Bob walks away enjoying the conversation and really like him what he needs the most right now is fun. So if you are at all interested in making sure that the sixth district makes its mark coming up in November, you want to definitely donate to Bob Christian if you're able, because he's up against multimillion dollar backed candidate, the candidate he's against is a ER doctor who is anti mask and anti vax. Wow. Shocking. Yeah. So he's not a regular conservative, I wouldn't say at all he's definitely far right extreme. So I'm hoping that voters will take the time to really look at the two different men that they have an opportunity to vote for, and really make the choice to that who would best represent the sixth district on the face of it. That is hands down, Bob Christian, and hopefully we'll be able to get some debates in there so that we can talk about things with voters and because Bob's opponent will say nearly anything to get elected. He already has several times, including that he would like to put boots on the ground in Ukraine

Meral Clarke: 11:53

and Forsyth Democratic candidates span across six different Georgia House districts and two Georgia Senate seats. Tell us more about these good folks who are ready to flip the state legislature.

Melissa Clink: 12:05

Yeah, thank you so much for that opportunity. So first, we have Brenton Dannion. He's going to be running state senate for district 27. His opponent is Greg Dalziel. One of the things that he is known for is that he founded the Freedom Caucus here. So anybody who follows politics knows the Freedom Caucus is scary. And on the Religious Right. He is involved in politics, I believe, because he wants to see education privatized, and it is really dangerous. And he has been really successful in being able to galvanize a little bit of support through people who are going to the Board of Education for that fight that we talked about. Last time I was on the show. I have an update on that as well. If you want to touch on that later on. And Brent minion is just an all around great guy and his campaign slogan is y'all means all he just wants inclusivity for everyone. And if he has an opportunity to get his message out there, he will do us very, very proud with voters and serving us and the State Senate. So that's district 27 Brent Benyon. And then we have Josh student, Senate District 48 That is Dr. Michelle house, see that I believe that is her seat that he is going to be running to maintain so that will be a maintaining seat. And then Sidney Walker is running for House District 24 And we thought she would be running against Sherry Gilligan. She's been in office for quite some time and definitely is out and about in the community definitely don't agree with her politics, but you know, definitely seem to be someone who was accessible to just everyone and she was beat out by someone who had a lot more money than her Carter Barrett. So we'll be going against him in the fall. And then we have Claudia woods. She's in House District 28 And she's more towards the lake up towards Hall County. And then we've got Louisa Schell Jackson, she's running HD 100 And she shares that district with Gwinnett. So we're really really looking forward to her race as well. We think we will be able to put some great numbers on the board there and hopefully take that seat. We're hoping to take Sydney Walker seat Canelo Holyfield seat she has run before she's a firecracker. So you may have had her on the show before if you haven't used it, definitely invite her Kayla Holyfield is running for HD 11 And a little part of her touches Forsyth. So we're really proud that she's one of our candidates. She's very progressive and very outspoken and always vocal and every one of our candidates that I'm telling you about today are pro choice, and they have been vocal about being pro choice and will continue to do so Matt Helms. He's from HD 26. And he would actually be my representative if he was able to flip that seat and we're working really hard on that part as well. And he has something really great to share that auto wrap up the candidates with so quagmire is running in HD 25 We also have a lot of opportunity. As far as that seat goes, we're gonna make sure that we're reaching out to several different communities to try to build coalitions to take that seat. And we also have our Board of Education seats. Those are really, really important, especially right now because of all of this stuff that we fought for the last year and a half with the Board of Education and if you remember from last time I was on the show, I let you guys know that when November came, we weren't really going to see those people at the Board of Education. And we haven't, it's kind of crickets, there's a few people who still show up, but it's not any of the theatrics that they had before. And that's because all of those people have now joined campaigns or started to run for office themselves. So the leader of no left turn is one of the candidates that we're going to defeat in November. He's running for Board of Education, district five, and we have an awesome Democratic candidate named Elaine Padgett, who's going to be a really great addition to the Board of Education once we win her election. The same goes for our Board of Education, district one, and that's Janet Krieger house. And we are really excited about her race, we have a couple of different ideas of our sleeve to make sure that we're reaching out to every voter that we can, and we plan to focus all of our efforts specifically in the Board of Education races and build out from there. And we are definitely working a coordinated campaign within our county to make sure that each one of the candidates, if they're in an area where someone can vote for the other candidate, as well as them, we are making sure that they are prepared with the messaging that they need so that voters can be aware of who their representative is because it's redistricting. So a lot of people may not even realize he was running to represent them or that they're in a new district. So to wrap up the great story about Forsyth County candidates and how much we've made inroads, the only seats we were not able to field people for this time around we're Board of Commissioners, and that is largely due to Anna Purcell, it's all she works so hard with cotton, who de hell Rajan. They are co chairs for our candidate recruitment committee. And I have to thank them both for the slate that we have of the strong candidates that we'll be putting forward. So Matt Holmes just wanted everyone to know. And I think it really speaks for all of the candidates. So I'll just share what he has to say that hardworking, everyday Georgians who have sacrificed and done the right things by their families have more than lived up to their end of the bargain. It's time that they had a seat at the table, to have their voices heard in a manner that will shave a better life for their families and their children's futures. I'm running to ensure that happens because all of these wonderful people, my future constituents matter to me. So that's Matt helms running for HD 26. I couldn't be prouder of the team that we have, and the fact that we're not only growing, how many seats we're running, but we're growing, how good we are at running them. So everything that we do has been a progression. So I'm just really proud of all the work of all of our volunteers, and all of these amazing people who have stepped up to run for office in some really difficult areas to win

Meral Clarke: 17:17

Fantastic. And it sounds like you've got a great slate of candidates there as well. So speaking of the Board of Education, or B O E, can you provide an update on far right extremists wanting to defund public education and privatize it?

Melissa Clink: 17:32

Yes, I would love to. So last time we were on the show, I really, really praised the Forsyth County Board of Education because I said that they had done the right thing. And no sooner had I said that, did they reverse course. So they dropped the EI after that I had thanked them publicly and the other side, made a video and put it on YouTube and asked why Democrats were thanking them and all of these things. So I think they allowed political pressure to make them do the wrong thing. So they didn't stand on your principles. And I'm really starting to hear that and disappointed when it happened, what we do know about what's left, the people who aren't coming to the Board of Education, like I said, they're really far right extreme kind of the Q Anon group that will stand up in a Board of Education meeting and talk about the preferred president won the election. And everything's a lie and kind of just spitting out conspiracy theories. And the board has thus far allowed them to dictate how they were going to handle things. But I will give Forsyth County Board of Education a little credit, they did reach out to us after in fact, to ask that we have representatives from our side of things on their planning commissions that they were working on for the next year, I think they were working on their strategic plan. So we were able to put a few voices in those rooms to be a part of those discussions. And one of the most interesting things that came out of that was that the concerns that these far right parents had are not the concerns of everyday average parents who were there in the room. In fact, a lot of their concerns didn't even make the cutting, so they got cut. So I think that they're headed in the right direction. And I think that the political pressure is still there, and that parents who are saying and parents who are reasonable and want their children to be exposed to all kinds of accurate history, I think they need to continue to be vigilant because those parents aren't going to go anywhere. It'll continue to be a problem, but the best way to defeat them is at the ballot box. If we snuff that out with an enormous turnout, and they are rejected, kind of soundly, I think that we will see that tamper down moving forward. Okay, great.

Meral Clarke: 19:25

So you had also mentioned the Forsyth Education Coalition pre show before we started recording this, what is that? And why do we need it?

Melissa Clink: 19:35

So the Forsyth Education Coalition is a non political nonpartisan group. So there's lots of ideologies in there, but they're all there for one purpose. I don't want to misspeak for them, but they really got involved in step things up when book bans started happening and what they viewed as attacks on LGBTQ authors as well as authors of color. So any kind of specific diversity it seemed like we're a target for this supposed Forsyth concerned parents group that was a really small minority, but they were really loud and really hateful. So they made sure that they weren't bringing a lot of attention to the Board of Education. So that group is super active, they hold meetings, they talk all the time, they let me know if we could share anything for them to get their message out, I'm sure that they would send it to the Republican Party, if they felt like they would be attentive to that really just anybody that can get their message out. So it's not necessarily that we are dems, and that's why they reached out to us to share it, it's just that we support what they support. And that is making sure that they follow the rules that are already on the books. As far as when they review books, a parent has asked the school board to look at how long that process takes, and who is on those boards to make those decisions to remove those books. So basically, it's focused on the book ban, but it has to do with protecting teachers, it has to do with making sure that other authors are represented in our Forsyth County Schools, and they just become a Board of Education watchdog group to make sure that we and everybody in the community knows what's happening at the Board of Education.

Meral Clarke: 21:01

Fantastic. And I know how important the education issue is to you. So thank you for all your work on that. So other than voting, which is so important to vote on the ballot from the top all the way down, because PSC the Public Service Commission Board of Education, all of these seats matter, especially on a local level. So what can people who want to make sure we don't go back in terms of Roe in such gaslighting is divisive concepts do in our state? What can the ordinary citizen do to ensure that our rights are protected?

Melissa Clink: 21:35

Well, I'm glad you asked that. And I'm actually really glad you brought up the divisive concept. So we definitely consider that Board of Education a candidate, especially the one we really want to make sure that we defeat in November to be a divisive parent and to be someone who would bring divisive concepts and attitudes to the Board of Education. In fact, that's the reason why he's running, he would like to defund public education. So we would like to drain as many tax dollars from public education as it can so that he in turn can say that the public education isn't suiting the needs of the students anymore, there may not be any need for public education at all. So one of the things I just wanted to make sure that we've talked about today was that divisive concepts, they're subjective, so they're based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes or opinions. And objective is not influenced by personal feelings or opinions when representing facts. So what we need to remember about divisive concepts is I can say something is divisive, and the next person may not agree with me. So we need to make sure that we're going to elect people into those positions, who are going to make choices based on facts and not on their feelings. And I think that we really have some strong candidates who are able to be objective in their decision making and have no intention of politicizing the atmosphere to the Board of Education. And they'd actually like to bring it back to just being about education, and what they can do to support their teachers and their students and implement those programs and continue to be the great schools that Forsyth has to offer. And then the next thing that you asked about was what can people do, right? Well, you got to vote. Voting is going to be paramount to what you can do. But I need you to also start talking about this with your neighbors, I need you to start talking about it with your uncle who may not believe it. I tried to speak to a family member this weekend. And it didn't really work out all that well. They're a little frustrated, left the conversation myself, but I was able to share my points. And you do know and be aware that there's going to be people in here who their choices on it or how they feel about especially Roe may not ever change, but you may have planted a seed in them where they understand that an all out ban or a heartbeat bill is detrimental to women detriment and for people who have uteruses.

Meral Clarke: 23:34

Well, especially in Georgia, where we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. It's forced birth, especially in Georgia in a state where women die routinely, due to lack of resources. What are your thoughts on that?

Melissa Clink: 23:51

Yeah, the statistics are even more alarming and really disgusting for black mothers. Not only the statistics show us that black mothers have less access to prenatal care and health care access in general, but they're dying at larger rates than across the country. So it can be said that it's dangerous to be pregnant, especially while black in Georgia, because of the lack of health care and lack of access to healthcare. And a lot of those things could be fixed with democratic policies, policies that shouldn't even be seen as democratic policies like expanding Medicaid, expanding Medicaid is the right thing to do. Because it's the right thing to do now, because Democrats want it done. But the only people who are gonna get it done is going to be Democrats. And electing Stacey Abrams is step one, and making that happen. The other thing is, as far as voting, you have to get involved in a campaign like today, if you're not already involved in a campaign and asked a candidate What can I do to help you then you're not helping, you may feel like you're helping, you're just not as far as the overall scale of everything. And what I mean by helping is not giving up every Saturday from here until November. Let the candidate know what your capacity to help is. You maybe you're really good at graphic design. Maybe you own a printing company. There's a lot of different ways for you to help candidates that don't always involve giving up all of your time or giving up all of your money but when you That's how we get messages out is with money. So donating if you don't have the time to candidates now, I understand that we are also telling people that they need to find abortion providers and people who are already doing the work on the grounds. But because of what I do, I would ask that you put your money into a pro choice candidate in your community, and that it'd be someone in the state legislature, because that is where we're going to make these decisions, we can have all of the good candidates we want. If we do not get him in office, we lose this is a numbers game. So believe in the last I heard that we need to hold every seat that we have plus gain six more seats to be able to have a fighting chance. And obviously, we need to elect Stacey Abrams, because we need to be able to make sure that she has that veto pen ready,

Meral Clarke: 25:43

Right. And again, on the ballot from the top down. So many people vote for the top seats, they vote for governor, they vote for attorney general, they vote for insurance commissioner, but they don't go all the way down the ballot. So I would urge our listeners, again, to make sure that you not only come out and vote but vote fully before of course, Democratic candidates if you want to maintain our rights. So pivoting in a different direction, tell us about the recent Yale University course which you just participated in, what was it? What did you learn? And how will you apply it in your county and across the state?

Melissa Clink: 26:21

So it was a really wonderful program, and Congresswoman Nikki millenniums is actually who told me about it, she's an alumna of the school herself. So when she said that I should go for it, that was enough for me to believe that maybe I could do it. So I applied and had two letters of recommendation, both from Congress woman, so that helped me I think, get into the program. And then the program costs quite a bit, it was $1,800 for the program. So they encourage you to fundraise, which is part of the point, they want to see if you're able to reach out to your networks to be able to raise those kinds of funds. And I was really, really grateful for my network, because they backed me so much that I was able to raise those funds within 24 hours. So some of those hours I was asleep. So I was just really touched and impressed that so many people believe in my success and believe in that personal development. So fast forward to the campaign school at Yale. So I don't like to do anything basic. So I don't take anything to heart the easy way. So I tested positive for COVID, the very first day of the campaign school at Yale. Luckily, it was virtual. So they had already planned for that ahead of time. And it's the first time that I had had COVID. I dodged it for two and a half years. And I got it on one of the most important weeks of my entire year. So it was very interesting to have that challenge of being sick at the same time. Because it was a really grueling course, like we said in the introduction, it was distinctly intensive. It was every bit of that. It began at 8:30 in the morning, every day, every night kind of got progressively a little bit later so that by the last couple nights, we were staying up to like one and two in the morning to get our stuff done. So what we were doing was going to classes all day long. And then we broke out into small groups where we worked on our own case studies. And it was just really phenomenal. Like I had COVID and I had a phenomenal week. So that should tell you how amazing it was. I learned so much. And I was really shocked and a little bit validated. As far as the information that I already knew going into it. I didn't think that I was as knowledgeable as I was. And I learned a lot. I don't know if you've heard of Patty Murray?

Meral Clarke: 28:10

No, I'm not familiar. I'm sorry.

Melissa Clink: 28:11

So she's a Senator in Washington State. And in the 90s, when she was trying to get a pre K program to not be removed from Washington State, the legislator that she saw said that she was just a mom and tennis shoes that she couldn't get anything changed. She was insignificant, basically. So she mobilized 13,000 people. And that's pretty interesting. And we think that's very interesting to point out that people did this work without the internet before I came along. So it's really impressive to know that she won that election. And she's been in office as a Senator for Washington State since 1995. I think it is. And this year, she has a really formidable Challenger and Tiffany smiley, so she's Republican running against her. We know Washington's in blue state pretty solid blue. But this year, Tiffany smiley actually has shot. So Tiffany Smiley is pretty impressive in her own regard, please look her up, I may be missing her story up. So don't want to tell it wrong. But basically her husband was injured in the army and he was injured in an explosion where he became blind. And while he was blind, the army came to the hospital and asked her to sign his discharge papers before he had even been released from the hospital. So she got angry, and she told them, she wasn't gonna sign it. And they were the reason that he was injured, and that he was blind, but he was not unable to work and that they needed to find a place for him in the army. And they did. So she went up against the military and she wanted and I think that anyone who hears that story thinks that's pretty impressive. So what our class was tasked to do was to come up with a campaign plan for January through November to determine how much money our specific candidate would need to raise how they would raise that money, where they would put that money, what ads they would buy, which media markets, they would look at what the wind number was being able to determine to see if you could project what the turnout would be. Another interesting fact about Washington state is they have all mail in voting. So all of their voting is done by mail, and they still don't have 100% return rate. So they have about an 85% return rate, but you think oh well if they made it that easy for everyone. Why is it not 100 Do you know? So I thought that was interesting. And so we had, I think, 60 people in the class and so we were split up in sets of 10. And we had advisors who had been through the program before we I had a great advisor. Her name was Stacey Chivas. She's actually a Georgia native. Well, she's not Georgia native, but she lives here. So there was actually a couple of Georgia girls on my team. So that was really cool to be able to connect with them and learn from all of their experience and things like that. So I was fortunate enough to be on the Democratic side. So I didn't have to be on Tiffany smiley side. And our team won when we presented on Friday, what our plan would be. So we presented an $18 million plan for how Patty Murray retains her seat.

Meral Clarke: 30:37

That's wonderful to hear.

Melissa Clink: 30:38

Yeah. So when I came back, and I was dealing with these smaller races and kind of looking at smaller numbers, it kind of made everything just fall into place, there was a couple things that I didn't know is all of this I've done up to now has been self taught. It was just a passion. And something I discovered I was really good at and I kind of went with it. It's great to put some training behind that and now working with couple candidates, so that's great working with a candidate in North Fulton Her name is Peggy Gillan. She's running for district 49. She is going against Chuck Martin, and he has been in some form of elected office since about 93, or 95. He wasn't always a state representative. And it seemed like he took a couple years off in between that, but if we are able to unseat him, which I think we will be preparing you to win that election, that would be one more seat to add to the house. So I think it's really great. Everything I learned at the Candidate School he'll have already been putting into my everyday life, I think I started using what I was learning almost immediately. And I'm just really grateful to chair and Congresswoman to Kenan Williams, as well as Congresswoman Carolyn Bordeaux, who both wrote me letters of recommendation to get in there, as well as every single person who donated anything to my success. I think everybody who has known me for a long time realize that anything that I ever go to those kinds of things, kind of trainings or anything that I have an opportunity to go to conventions that I always bring back where I came from, and make sure I pass on as much knowledge as I can.

Meral Clarke: 31:54

Do you have any aspirations to run for office? yourself, Melissa?

Melissa Clink: 31:58

No, not at this time. I really enjoy being behind the scenes and working with candidates on messaging and organizing aspect of it. I like seeing the end result of our combined work. Not being a candidate allows me to say a lot more than I could if I was a candidate. But of course never say never. But I don't see myself running for office anytime in the near future. I do see myself continuing to consult for candidates as well as campaign manager, and I just want to continue to grow in that aspects and learn all I can so I can apply it.

Meral Clarke: 32:25

Okay, terrific. Tell us about your initiative called Leading the Way in Forsyth, what does it mean and how you achieve your goals.

Melissa Clink: 32:34

So leading the way it was really just a statement to talk about all of the candidates, we're going to be doing Operation Blue Wave 3.0 This year, Kannan is my first vice chair, he does work with AC blue. That's how we met and he has now been with us. I think two years he's been on board, he's a state committee member to kinda has brought a new level of stepping up what we're doing with our candidates, I was able to talk to him about win numbers and things like that, and the demographics of the area and what we do with our persuasion universe. So we are taken away at one on one discussions with them so that each one of those candidates know that we are here to support them. And we have a plan for each one of their races, of course, the candidate is in charge. So like if they don't love our plan, they can do what they would like to do. But what's so amazing I can't really say enough is that every time we come out, we progress. So when we first started Operation Blue Wave, it was a sign situation. It was making sure signs got to supporters that we did signs the week before early voting. And then people knew that Democrats were here and it was successful. And then next cycle that we turned on Operation Blue Wave, then we were writing 1000s and 1000s of postcards because that was through the pandemic. So we weren't able to knock doors. And this time, we're ready to cut some turf, and we'll definitely I'll be knocking doors coming up. So it's exciting to see the progression of the committee and all of the people who have been here for so long working so hard.

Meral Clarke: 33:49

Fantastic. Well, finally, if someone wants to donate volunteer their time excetera for your Forsyth County candidates and your campaign initiatives, where would you send them?

Melissa Clink: 34:00

You can go to www dot Forsyth dems.org And you should be able to find all of our candidates there. One of the most active parts of our social media is definitely our Facebook page. So that's Forsyth County Democrats and make sure that you specify Georgia because we do share Forsyth County Democrats with North Carolina as well. So you want to make sure that that is specific. If you have any questions or you would like to help the committee or any of the candidates I've mentioned throughout the show, you can also email Forsyth County DP as in democratic party@gmail.com. And all of our information is online on how to get in touch with us or myself or any of my executive board members or any of the committee met perfect

Meral Clarke: 34:35

and tell us a fun fact about yourself, Melissa, something not necessarily related to your work, although I suspect you work 24 hours a day.

Melissa Clink: 34:44

It really isn't kind of a moment to breathe right now. I think that it's gonna get even busier but I do have one of those word of the day or a quote of the calendars and I had a really great one from Friday so I thought I'd close us out with that. It says few will have the greatness to bend history, but each of us can work to change a small portion To the events, and in the total of all of those acts will be written the history of this generation. And Robert F. Kennedy said that, and before I even knew, he said that that's how I live my life. That's how most of the activists that I know live their life. We know we can't do everything. We know that we can't do it alone. But we can do something. And so if you're listening to this, and thinking, What can I do? Do something, find something to do? And as busy as I am, if you find my inbox somewhere, you find my phone number, you find my email and you say, Melissa, what can I do? I will give you a job, there will be plenty to do. So I think there's plenty of chairs across the state congressional district, as well as county chairs who have the same idea. If you want to get to work, we have work to be done. And if you have an idea that you think maybe we haven't thought of, then you need to come and bring that to us. One thing I want to remind everybody is that the people who show up are the people who made the decisions is that same thing when you're voting

Meral Clarke: 35:52

Absolutely. And I agree completely. Well, thank you, Melissa, for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work to support democratic ideals and policy. I'm Meral Clarke and on behalf of our team, I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the North Georgia Blue Podcast. Join us next time when we chat with Kim Floria ninth congressional district Democratic candidate running for Georgia House District 30. To learn more about us and the work that we're doing, visit us online at Fannin County, Georgia democrats.com all spelled out share the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family. Be sure to subscribe and follow and if you enjoy our podcast be a founding patron and friend of the show at North Georgia blue podcast.com/patron Now with three different giving levels to choose from offering cool swag recognition on the show and website and valuable gift cards to help us continue getting into more good trouble.