Melita Easters, Founding Chair & Executive Director of the Georgia WIN List

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: 0:18

Hello and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our special guest Melita Easters, Executive Director and founding chair of the Georgia WIN List, getting pro choice Democratic women elected to office for over two decades. Welcome back to the show, Malita. We're happy you're here.

Melita Easters: 0:47

Thanks so much for having me. It's always lovely to talk to my friends in North Georgia.

Meral Clarke: 0:51

Well, thank you so much, and thanks for all you do. Let's let our listeners know a little bit about you. Melita Easters is the founding chair of Georgia WIN List and has served as executive director since 2015. WIN List is a 22 year old political action committee or PAC dedicated to changing the face of power in Georgia by electing Democratic women to statewide office and the Georgia General Assembly who are committed to reproductive freedom and economic educational and legal equality for all women. Georgia WIN List has become the leading PAC for electing Democratic women in Georgia and has supported the election of more than 75 Women 46 of whom currently serve. Thank you for that. Georgia currently ranks 19th in the nation for the percentage of women in its General Assembly, which is the state legislature and leads the nation for the percentage of black women legislatures, which is wonderful. She is also a panelist on Atlanta's longest running public affairs program, the Georgia Gang which airs Sunday mornings on Fox Five and is the highest rated program in the time slot probably because you're there now, Melita. That's the story I'm going with. You're welcome. She is also an occasional guest on Georgia Public Broadcasting's political rewind to discuss political news and developments Melita is a creative strategic thinker, political strategist and author and playwright with deep connections to Atlanta civic, business and political communities. She combines fundraising, leadership, communications, event planning and organizational skills which must be incredible with her background. As a former journalist and television producer, she has worked to raise millions for progressive causes and candidates and was the pioneering visionary behind Atlanta's two largest and most financially successful events for women, the Women's Foundation Numbers Luncheon and the WYCA salute to women. Melita is a UGA graduate Go dogs, and during her professional career served as State News Editor of the Tifton Gazette and political reporter for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution winning several awards for her work for seven years. She was a producer of the lawmakers on Georgia public television and later served as press secretary for Roy Barnes during his first bid for Governor which obviously was successful, eventually. She served in leadership roles on numerous nonprofit boards including the Atlanta Women's Foundation, the Atlanta International School, the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, and as board chair for UGA as independent student newspaper the red and black she received the National Council of Jewish Women's 2021 Hanergy Solomon award for public service and was inducted into UGA as Grady fellowship in 2018. She has two daughters and nine practically perfect of course, grandchildren. Oh, my Melita. When do you find time to breathe with this schedule? You are definitely a very, very busy lady. So thank you for taking the time to be here with us today. So we have quite a bit to discuss. So let's dive right in. Your organization, The Georgia WIN list is now more important than ever, especially considering the recent SCOTUS ruling overturning Roe and I can only imagine your reaction to that. So what are your thoughts on the SCOTUS overturning nearly 50 years of legal precedent and where do we go from here?

Melita Easters: 4:36

Certainly, when the first decision draft leaked, many of us hoped that the protests would somehow make the justices change their mind and not reverse this 50 years of precedent. It's really devastating for women nationwide to have the Supreme Court decision reverse 50 years of precedent and it's almost as though all of the Republicans did not fully fathom what they were asking for. Because many states had laws on the books which had not been revisited in light of more recent medical technology. Some of the laws which have recently been passed, such as the really draconian measures in Texas that criminalize abortion and even leaving the state to receive an abortion, those were not fully thought out. And so now all over the nation, we have a patchwork approach to abortion. We have women who are not pregnant, but having their medical care compromised, because for example, some women with chronic conditions take medicines, which can be used also to induce abortion, and they're finding their access to those prescriptions they've been on for years suddenly being limited because of fears about these abortion bans. Now, we must emphasize that until a federal court or a state court rules on House Bill 481, and declares that it is indeed constitutional abortion remains legal in Georgia to the 20th week and clinics remain open. But if House Bill 481, which was a bill pushed by Governor Kemp passed in 2019, by only one vote more than the required constitutional majority goes into effect, then Georgia will have a six week abortion ban, which certainly changes the picture for how reproductive care is administered in Georgia. The thing that's interesting to note is, however, that while that bill is currently being reviewed by the 11th circuit court of appeals, that bill created a new section of law making the fetus a person in a variety of circumstances, some of which are potentially quite questionable, legally, frankly, the Republicans who passed House Bill 481, many of them had no idea that Supreme Court would actually overturn Roe v. Wade. And so they were making a show of passing the toughest abortion law in the United States for political purposes without fully understanding the full implications of every sentence of that bill and what it would eventually mean. Now, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals judges have asked for briefs which had been submitted, we don't know how long they're going to take to review those briefs. But even if they declare that HB 481 can go into full effect, we expect an immediate state court challenge to HB 481, which would then process through the state court system. That challenge will be based on a 1905 case about trademark law, which gives Georgia citizens some of the strongest privacy protections in the United States. Those privacy protections are the same kinds of protections. The Roe v Wade decision was based upon so we may very well see a state court challenge which could move through the state court, Superior Court, court of appeals and Georgia Supreme Court system before we know whether HB 481 will go into effect. Meanwhile, we have this election in November, the composition of the Georgia General Assembly is set to change dramatically. We already had three Georgia Win List women who are pro choice Democrats flip seats in 2020. So even the legislature which passed that bill in 2019 is not the same, it will dramatically change yet again, after our current election cycle WIN List has the most women endorsed for legislative seats ever in our history. And that makes this November's election cycle, all the more important for those who prioritize reproductive freedom as an issue for their voting discernment process.

Meral Clarke: 9:24

And I would emphasize that it's more important than ever to vote on the ballot this November from the top down absolutely right to ensure that we do get those extra votes that we need. So let's talk about House Bill 481. In its historical context, you had mentioned trademark law and privacy. Can you elaborate on that?

Melita Easters: 9:46

Yes, for anyone, like I said passed with only one vote more than the requisite constitutional majority, but Georgia has a background as a long history for progressive policies. Back in the 60s, it was safer and easier to get an abortion in Georgia than in New York or Massachusetts. Now, specifically, the privacy consideration that arises from a 1905, Georgia Supreme Court case about the use of a photograph in an ad without the permission of the person photographed. And so that particular Georgia Supreme Court case then became the basis for future Georgia cases and future United States Supreme Court cases. So Georgia's privacy laws are some of the strongest in the country based on that 2005 decision.

Meral Clarke: 10:44

So how does that correlate to HB 41?

Melita Easters: 10:47

Well, basically, that gives advocates for reproductive freedom a way to challenge the legitimacy of 481 based on state law, rather than the Roe v. Wade, federal standard. So Roe v. Wade, gave federal protections for abortion whereas the new challenge will be based on state protections for abortion under the privacy provisions of that particular case.

Meral Clarke: 11:23

Excellent. So that litigation is going on now even as we speak.

Melita Easters: 11:27

it will go on Yes, the minute, there is a

Meral Clarke: 11:28

Okay, it's good to know that we have some legal federal court ruling, which says 481 can be enforced. So in other options at any rate, words, if 481 is put into effect, then there will be an

Melita Easters: 11:41

Well, these are very strong legal options, and immediate motion to use state court process to challenge 481. all of the groups are standing ready to file those lawsuits. But you have to let the federal court 11th Circuit Court of Appeals challenge play out and see what that ruling says before you begin a new challenge in a different direction. Gotcha.

Meral Clarke: 12:18

And I do want to emphasize again, that abortions are still legal at the time of this recording. They are still legal in Georgia, thankfully, because we all know abortion is healthcare. And it's also essential. So pre show you had also mentioned Georgia Senate Bill, which is Georgia, SB 456, 456. And it's a debate on abortion by medication. Yes, the Speaker of the House, David Ralston declined to bring the bill up for debate. Why is that? And will it rears its ugly head again. Do you believe in can you give us some context about the bill as well?

Melita Easters: 12:53

Okay, so that bill passed in the Senate in 2021. It was a bill which impacts the two prescription drug protocol used for more than half of early stage abortions at the current time you take these two pills and you do not have a surgical procedure. And as I said, it's a very popular protocol. The FDA has approved that protocol for tele medicine appointments and prescriptions filled by mail. The Georgia General Assembly in the guise of that Senate Bill was trying to say number one, that prescribing those two drugs had to happen with an in person doctor visit after an ultrasound and the prescription had to be filled in person at a pharmacy sort of like a walk of shame for the woman going in to get it and silly provision given the fact that young women need health care when they're at college. There was not to be any prescription of this drug protocol on any college campus. So that bill passed the Senate and it passed a House committee but on the last day of the legislative session, Speaker Ralston chose not to put the bill on the Senate Calendar and he's a very canny politician. I'm certain he must have known that that bill, if it had passed the House would cause a problem for his sitting legislators up for reelection.

Meral Clarke: 14:31

Of course. That's what it's all about. Right. So there is no doubt that should the legislature remain red that He will bring it up at that time, correct?

Melita Easters: 14:40

Well, the bill will have to go back through the process. So on sunny die at the end of any two year legislative session, all the bills that were being considered then disappear. The bills if they are to be reconsidered, must be reintroduced, assigned new numbers and studied by the committees, which may have changed, the membership of the committees may well have changed. And frankly, this is one of those years where a number of House members and Senate members left the legislature to run for higher office, a lot of people retired, some people were drawn out of their districts. So this combination of having statewide elections and newly drawn districts happens only every 20 years that it all happens at the same time. And that's kind of a fruit basket turnover year for legislative membership. So the legislature that considers things in January will be very changed from the legislature, which that and said Sani died just a few months ago, because of all these resignations and shifts to run for other offices.

Meral Clarke: 15:57

So it's going to be a completely different entity.

Melita Easters: 16:00

And it'll be a new day for proposing legislation. But Republicans all over the nation have tried to increase the protocols around the prescription of these prescription medications used for abortion. And we're seeing the Republicans offer crazy things and other states one states even offering the death penalty for I think that's North Carolina, a Republican has introduced a bill that would impose the death penalty for receiving an abortion. So the gates are open for a lot of craziness around this subject, which makes it more important to elect sane women who know what it's like to have a baby who've watched mothers and daughters and friends and sisters have babies who understand the full ramifications of the health care around a miscarriage, or the health care around needing a DNC which is the same procedure used for an abortion to diagnose whether or not you have uterine cancer, I joke and say that we have male legislators who couldn't even properly pronounce the parts of a woman's reproductive system, legislating how the medicine will be practiced by doctors who've gone to medical school, I don't want some of those Yahoo Republican men deciding how my daughters and later my granddaughters are to receive their medical care

Meral Clarke: 17:32

Agreed. It's very frightening the extremity to which these people are willing to go and now we have a Supreme Court that is comprised of a majority of these folks. So we have to keep fighting and ensure that women's reproductive freedoms are ensured.

Melita Easters: 17:48

Well, recently, Maureen Dowd wrote a column about how in Ireland, the most Catholic country on Earth, really, abortion is now more legal than in half the United States of America is

Meral Clarke: 18:03

Crazy. It's just absolute insanity. And we're going to have to ensure that we elect people who will fight this on every level, because that's the only way we're going to ensure reproductive freedom again. So tell me this, should HB 481 become law. Let's say that happens. What options do women have who need health care and abortions? And we know that abortion is healthcare and all of these essential services have now been thrown into disarray. What do you think will happen at that point? Should it become law,

Melita Easters: 18:36

if it becomes law, women of childbearing age are going to need to take pregnancy tests far earlier and they're going to need if they were not planning on that pregnancy and they don't want to have that child, they need to legally seek care very quickly. And then the other thing is, I think that if it becomes law 481 will need to be rewritten because women and doctors were pleading with the legislators at the time the bill was being studied in committee, please make this change. Please alter that wording. And those pleas went ignored because I fully believe the Republicans didn't fully understand the ramifications of what would happen if the bill became law. So our best bet for 481 is make sure that all the women we know have access to quick pregnancy tests and early care that they need. But also we really need to elect enough pro choice Democratic women to repeal House Bill 481 and to fight against any similar legislation Republicans introduce. Now it is Interesting to note that Democratic women in the Georgia General Assembly outnumber their Republican female counterparts. 3.2 to one nice,

Meral Clarke: 20:10

that's good news.

Melita Easters: 20:11

Well, that's because Georgia WIN List has worked very hard to elect women.

Meral Clarke: 20:16

Yes, thank you for that.

Melita Easters: 20:18

And the thing that we all need to do is all of us who care about reproductive freedom and access to abortion as one of the options important to our reproductive health care, all of us need to learn how to better talk to the independent women or the Republican women who don't understand the full ramifications of the policies written by the men they've sent to the legislature. We all have to talk to our women friends in the middle are from the other party to emphasize the importance of this issue. We're all ambassadors for protecting our reproductive health options

Meral Clarke: 21:03

Agreed completely. And I know your website, which we'll talk about in just a moment has quite a few of these resources available, correct? Yes. So we can access that as well. Let's talk about North Carolina. I recently read that their democratic governor I believe his name is Roy Cooper, if I'm not mistaken, recently signed an executive order protecting abortion access for women in his state, even though his state legislature is overwhelmingly red. Does a Governor Stacey Abrams have that option? Is it not preferred because it can be overturned with the next Republican governor? Or what are your thoughts on that?

Melita Easters: 21:42

I believe a Governor Stacey Abrams paired with and Attorney General JordonNo will do everything in their power to protect reproductive freedom and health care for women. I am not a constitutional law specialist. So I can't speak to exactly what they could or could not do. But electing those two women is crucial to preserving reproductive freedom in Georgia, because we already know what we have in Governor Brian Kemp. He pushed for this six week abortion ban. And we know what we have an Attorney General Chris Carr. He's defending the six week abortion ban with the full powers of his office. And so if you don't like the laws, Governor Kemp passed and proposed and you don't like the way Attorney General Chris Carr defends that laws you replace and there are two fine women who will do an excellent job in those two positions. Stacey Abrams for governor and Jen Jordan for attorney general.

Meral Clarke: 22:50

No doubt. And I would also mention that our current Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, was responsible for chartering buses to take people up to the January 6 insurrection or so the allegation claims

Melita Easters: 23:03

Not just that Chris Carr had never practiced law when he was appointed attorney general,

Meral Clarke: 23:08

Right. He was uniquely unqualified for the position, which I would say have many, many Republicans in statewide positions today. So I also want to touch on the 2022 WIN LIST of endorsed candidates.

Melita Easters: 23:25

Well, we're very excited. By the time this podcast airs, we will have had a press conference at the state capitol to announce 22 more endorsements for the 2022 election cycle giving us a total of 59 women, three women statewide Stacey Abrams for Governor Bee Nguyen for Secretary of State and Jen Jordan for attorney general and then 56 Women for legislative seats. 10 women for Senate seats, seven of them incumbents and 46 women for House seats, 16 of them incumbents and among those women are several women from North Georgia, your Paulette Williams from Senate District 50 June Krise from house district eight Kayla Holyfield from House District 11. And then other women in the Lake Lanier surrounding area and the Athens area. We are really proud of the diversity and the geographic distribution of these candidates. We're going to have women on the ballot who are WIN List endorsed this fall, who spanned the geography of the state from Rabun Gap to tabi light.

Meral Clarke: 24:37

That's fantastic. And I looked at this list and many of these women we've already interviewed and my goal would be to interview all of them for the podcast. We'd definitely love to hear from them all and it's just an amazing list. I mean, it's incredible the amount of fierce women on this list that we need to lead us

Melita Easters: 24:57

And what's really wonderful is A couple of years ago, we wanted to focus on getting more women who were mothers of young children, because they care so deeply about public schools and education, we're continuing to have women like that on our ballot, there's only one black woman attorney in the General Assembly. And we made a concerted effort to recruit some women who were black women attorneys with experience in the criminal justice system. And we found three women who are black women attorneys with incredible resumes, who are on our endorsed candidate list. So we're really thrilled about the kinds of resumes and life experiences that these women would bring to the job of representing the diverse citizens of Georgia. They're not just stale, pale males.

Meral Clarke: 25:54

Stale, male and pale. I love it. So if someone wants to access this list of endorsed candidates, if someone wants to access your resources, or get in touch with you, or your organization, where would you send them

Melita Easters: 26:07

To our website, www gawinlist.com. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter and on Instagram and reach out to us. I encourage everybody who cares about reproductive freedom and about women candidates to get involved. If you don't get involved, this time, there's no better time. And there's not a time in my lifetime when it's been more important. None of the women currently of childbearing age have before known a time when abortion was not safe and legal. And now we face that for our friends in other states already. And we face the possibility of that for ourselves in Georgia.

Meral Clarke: 26:54

And that's why we have to fight it on the state level, because SCOTUS is going to do what they're going to do. And they already have with many of their rulings,

Melita Easters: 27:03

...and Congress is at a stalemate, right. I mean, the House will pass the bills, but the Senate will lock them up.

Meral Clarke: 27:10

It's extremely disconcerting, to say the least. But hopefully, with all of your efforts and your organization's efforts, thank you so much for that, at least in Georgia, will be able to maintain reproductive freedom for women throughout the state. It's just so important and so vital. At this point, it seems like two steps forward one step back on the national level, so we have to protect the freedoms that we have with everything we've got. And the only way to really do that is to vote for Democrats. Let's face it, you have to vote for Democrats in order to ensure your human and civil rights

Melita Easters: 27:45

you do and when women vote, women win. Exactly.

Meral Clarke: 27:48

So we need all hands on deck this November, certainly. And I would urge all of our listeners to go to your website and to check out your resources and volunteer or speak out, do what they can and especially especially show up on election day. So thank you for emphasizing that. So finally, and you know this Melita because this is your second appearance on our program. Lucky for us, tell us a fun fact about yourself something not necessarily related to your work or what you do. Tell us something fun just about Melita

Melita Easters: 28:22

Well I really love to cook I have a friendship with cookbook author Virginia Willis and she even published one of my recipes and I love to reverse engineer things that I see in restaurants so out see something in a restaurant that I really really like and then I'll study it look up recipes online and make a spreadsheet of all the ingredients that six different recipes have and play with it and come up with my own recipe for things I really like and my favorite new recipe of the summer has been a peach yellow tomato gazpacho served shrimp and there are actually two recipes of mine already on the Georgia WIN List website. My pimento cheese is pretty damn good. And our big WIn List donors often get a small batch of pimento cheese with some special crackers as a thank you gift. So that recipe is on our website. And then there's another recipe on our website.

Meral Clarke: 29:25

That's fantastic. How fun. Well, I will definitely be over for dinner quite soon. Well thank you Melita for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work to support democratic ideals, candidates and policy and certainly to protect women's reproductive freedoms throughout the state. 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 Alicia Thomas Sirsi running to be Georgia's next state school superintendent. To learn more about us and the work that we're doing visit us online at Fannin County, Georgia democrats.com 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 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.