Post Election Analysis w/ Pete Fuller, Chair Jackson Co Dems / DPG Rural Council Chair; Melissa Clink, Chair, Forsyth Co Dems/ Cong Dist 6 Chair; and Doug DeMoura, Chair, Fannin Co Dems
November 30, 2022Fannin Co. GA Democratic PartySeason 2Episode 46
Post Election Analysis w/ Pete Fuller, Chair Jackson Co Dems / DPG Rural Council Chair; Melissa Clink, Chair, Forsyth Co Dems/ Cong Dist 6 Chair; and Doug DeMoura, Chair, Fannin Co Dems
Post Election Analysis w/ Pete Fuller, Chair Jackson Co Dems / DPG Rural Council Chair; Melissa Clink, Chair, Forsyth Co Dems/ Cong Dist 6 Chair; and Doug DeMoura, Chair, Fannin Co Dems
Nov 30, 2022Season 2Episode 46
Fannin Co. GA Democratic Party
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.
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.
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 guests Pete Fuller, chair of the Jackson County Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Georgia Rural Council, Melissa Clink, chair of the Forsyth County Democratic Party and the sixth congressional district and our very own Doug DeMoura chair of the Fannin County Democratic Party. Welcome to the show Pete, Melissa and Doug. We're so happy you're here. Well, let's dive right in. We're here to discuss the midterm elections. What happened? What went right and what went wrong? So let's talk about this. And we'll start by saying that we presented an historically diverse slate of candidates during the midterms, and they all failed to garner 50% of the vote. What happened in 200 words or less, and why did this strategy fail in Georgia? From a holistic viewpoint? Pete? Why don't you get us started?
Pete Fuller:
what that is. Because there's smarter people than me looking at these numbers, somebody else we didn't get the votes out, looking at the list of counties and their turnout, we just did not turn out the same amount of votes than we had last time in 2018. When the same hearing at the top of the ticket face each other why that is, I don't know, some things were different with Kemp being an incumbent having a record run on instead of just a Trump endorsement like he had last time and we no longer have Trump at the top of the hierarchy to drive out people that were just terrified of him being president and looking to do something. That's my two cents and easy part of it. But I'm not sure if that's explains it all, there's a lot of logistical things as well.
Meral Clarke:
So you're referring to voter apathy in our state, because certainly voters turned out in droves, Democratic voters, I would say in other states, why is our state different?
Pete Fuller:
That's the main question. I only get paid a lot less than a million dollar standard. I don't have a specific reason why to trade with Stephen Fowler that GPB news, a little bit of analysis where he put up like the top turnout counties in the state, and they all were larger Republican leaning counties that are metro area were actually losing votes. And that's worrisome. why that is? I don't know.
Meral Clarke:
It is disheartening, Melissa, your thoughts?
Melissa Clink:
So for me, I think that it's great that we had such a diverse slate. But I think that we've advertised that more than we advertise their qualifications to run for office. And also we didn't focus on the issues that we needed to be talking about. I think that that is where we went wrong. I think that we love to celebrate diversity, when we'll make sure that our slate looks like our state, our counties look like the people that are in those counties. But we also want to make sure that we're talking about why they're the best person for this job, as well as making sure we're speaking to the issues that matter to voters, I would say a big criticism that I noticed early on was that in my area in Forsyth County, I saw a ton of anti Warnock ads coming out very early, probably like six months, you know, worth it. And we're not catching. And I felt like we weren't countering that the way that we needed to be. And so I think this time around, I hope that we are doing that we are still going to every corner of this state. And we're saying what we're going to do about the issues, what our plans are, and not necessarily focusing on the identity of the person running for office, because I think that turns voters off. I think that if we didn't learn anything in this election, I think that we need to take part in recognizing that.
Meral Clarke:
Okay, fair enough. Doug, what do you think?
Doug DeMoura:
I have some numbers to share and think, put some of this in perspective. But in 2018, compared to 2022, overall turnout in the state was down 4%. And when I look at some demographics, the white turnout was up 1%, Black turnout was down four and a half percent and Hispanic was down two and a half percent. So that already puts us behind the eight ball as far as getting the votes going the Democrats way. From a good standpoint. If I take something like the ninth district and Andrew Clyde, he actually got less votes about four or 5% less than he did in 2018. So that was a good thing. When I look at Warnock and in our county candidates average 14, 15 16%, Warnock got almost 19%, I attributed to one of two things. It's either our ability to get out the messaging and or crossover votes from Republicans who just could not get past Herschel Walker. You know, we ran a bunch of new strategies this time around, and one of them was mass mailer, and we're trying to evaluate whether that moved the needle or not, and it didn't as far as our local candidates, but it's possibly because of Warner because we targeted Republicans in this mass mailer and Warnock in our county got 450 average more votes than most of our other Democrat candidate. So we got to look at ourselves from a county wide, district wide and statewide and say, we didn't move the needle, enough to make a difference. Let's figure out what strategies next to make that next step up to get an increase in the rural areas, because without rural votes for the Democratic candidates, we're not going to win it statewide.
Meral Clarke:
Right. But Stacey Abrams spent a lot of time I mean, a lot of time up here in our rural areas, and also down south and central Georgia as well. And yet, she still got less votes than she did in 2018.
Doug DeMoura:
She struggled to capture the black male vote, and it was way down in comparison to 2018. Everybody points to that as sort of one of the key facts.
Meral Clarke:
That makes sense. All right, moving on. Do you all think that we're trying to skip too many steps in getting progressive candidates elected on the ground in Georgia? Because we've never had a female governor, much less a black female governor in that role. So should we step back as a Democratic Party? Should we step back and reevaluate our choices for statewide candidates? Because clearly, our current strategy for the elections is not working here? So Pete, your
Pete Fuller:
I think what Melissa said with highlighting thoughts? the candidates and what they're good at and who they are, is probably important. We ran an incredible slate of candidates who every one of them was highly qualified. Nobody even thought about primary, Stacey Abrams for the nomination. And that's because she was the one that came up with the strategy and actually put it in action to get us to where this point where we're even competitive. So I don't think it's an issue of skipping steps there. You look at down the ballot, we had a white guy on the ballot as well, and Charlie did about the same as everybody else.
Meral Clarke:
And you're referring to Charlie Bailey, our lieutenant governor candidate, correct? Yes.
Pete Fuller:
And Jen Jordan is incredibly qualified as well. I still think that she'd be the best person for the Attorney General. Same with be when and called out Nikita Hemingway. She was an incredible speaker. I think her biggest issue was that she didn't get the publicity that a lot of folks did just up and down the ballot. We had good candidates. I don't think that's the issue. And I think part of it is that we didn't counter a lot of what was put out there we let Brian Kemp repeatedly say that it was Washington spending that was causing inflation here. But yet he actually took that same money, and was giving it out like a party favor. All during the election, the same money that he was claiming was causing inflation. I don't think we ever called him out on that. Just issues like that. I don't think we did a good job of defining them, we let Kemp define himself. So
Meral Clarke:
I would have to agree, Melissa, you're up
Melissa Clink:
First. Before I get started, I probably should counter what Doug said, I just want to basically make sure that I mentioned that there's a lot of black men who work really, really hard to get out the vote and get everyone out to vote. And if she lost any ground, it cannot be talked about enough that she also lost ground with white women. So if you look at Forsyth County numbers, we lost ground from 2018 to now. And for some reason, all of our Forsyth County candidates performed better than Abrams but not as good as Warnock. So the voters are there. And for some reason, the message wasn't resonating with them like it was in 2018. I think the criticism that we were fighting Kemp as if he was in 2018. And we weren't prepared to fight 2022 Kemp so an incumbent governor, a governor who had stood up against a largely unliked president. So I think that those things really hurt us, especially for the independent vote. And I think that we like I said didn't do enough with talking about her qualifications and the things that would change in their everyday lives of Georgians if she was in charge rather than governor.
Meral Clarke:
So do you believe that racism is an issue in the way the race turned out?
Melissa Clink:
I mean, absolutely. There's voters in Georgia who just would never have voted for a black woman for governor, they may never have voted for a black woman to teach their children who knows. So I think that that is absolutely a factor. I think the fact that she's a woman is a factor. And I think for some reason, I have no idea really why and what determines this, but sometimes being well known nationally, can hurt a candidate. And typically, we don't see that right. We see candidates like Lucy McBath, her celebrity kind of continue to catapult her and keep her in Congress, right? Whereas it looks like Abrams was able to talk about voting rights and verify and all the things that were happening in Georgia and bring light to that, and I think it hurt her back home. And I don't understand that disconnect. But it means that we're not connecting with voters in the way that we need to be correct,
Meral Clarke:
Doug, your thoughts?
Doug DeMoura:
No one's a bigger fan of Stacey than me. But I think she had a plan for everything. But her plan was too broad, or she had too many ideas out there for everything, which was great as far as the Democrats listening to it, but if in order to win over Republicans, I think if you drill down on two or three items that were real important to even Republicans and not kind of broadband out this wide swath have plans that might have helped her. And even in our district, same thing that Melissa said she underperformed even comparison to all our other candidates, we have to really focus on messaging and exposure, I think the Georgia Democratic Party failed a little bit. I think in the future, they need to spread out more state wide. They didn't set up any regional offices anywhere, every time they were recruiting for workers or help, you had to be in Atlanta. And if you ignore the suburbs, or the rural areas of Georgia, you're going to lose the votes that you need. And they should have put offices in Macon and up here in North Georgia, somewhere in out by Augusta and down in Tifton, or something like that, and got ground and games going out there. And I think that's what I'm thinking we need to do as a party moving forward.
Meral Clarke:
Right? Well, something does need to change. Obviously, a lot of things need to change with our state party and speaking about the issues which you all brought up in poll after poll. I mean, over and over again, Georgia voters stated that their number one concern was inflation, and rising prices, yet none of the candidates addressed this issue. I mean, I never heard any of the Democrats talking about inflation and rising prices and the stock market, etc. Do you believe that this hurt us? And should we stop focusing on these overarching social issues and stick to more kitchen table issues moving forward as Democrats? Shouldn't we meet the voters where they are not where we are Pete, Youre up.
Pete Fuller:
We didn't talk about the illogical way that Kemp was talking about inflation, that it was a magical national issue that he somehow had nothing to do with, but yet was using the same monies. At the same time, Georgia was actually one of the highest states for inflation. What does that say about his leadership versus the rest of the nation in handling that we've got to talk about kitchen table issues. And that's where I think we didn't do a good enough job in talking about I know that Medicaid expansion was a big part of what Stacey was running on again, but I don't think it really flooded through the way it should have. And I think when we talk about Medicaid expansion, a lot of times people that already have insurance or just aren't in that boat, don't quite understand that that's going to help them too.
Meral Clarke:
And we don't communicate that. Democrats, that's the problem.
Pete Fuller:
No, we don't. And so there's a lot of issues that we're talking about as kitchen table issues. And especially if you're a person of color, or gay or lesbian, a lot of these are kitchen table issues when it comes to how you're going to be treated by your state government. So let's not pretend that they're not because people have gay people in their families that he thinks into. So I don't think we drop those at all. Of course, not because Republicans are damn sure not going to drop some of their concerns, they're going to run on these social issues as well. And what we don't do a good job is turning that around on them that they're basically picking on children when it comes to the trans sport ban, basically getting mean about it. And we've got to do a better job of pointing out just the hypocrisy that they're doing. And the meanness of their policy proposals. That's where I think we need
Meral Clarke:
to do okay, but you know, these issues that affect and no one's a bigger supporter of what you're talking about than me. But these issues that you're talking about affect basically minorities in the state, not the majority of voters correct. In Georgia,
Pete Fuller:
They do. But people have basic sympathies toward people as well, Republicans do a really good job of pushing the idea of everybody should just be able to do what they want to do that whole freedom idea. There's nothing more free than just being to live your life. And that's where we're not showing that that's actually what we're after to, we just want people to be able to live their life in peace without being harassed. And that's freedom as well. And that's a lot more freedom than what the Republicans are pushing.
Meral Clarke:
You're preaching to the choir. But my point is that we're not reaching the majority of voters in this state with that message, it has not been successful,
Pete Fuller:
The majority of voting age, I think, when you look at the youth turnout, and the priorities that are important with the people that are actually flippable, and the people that we actually have a good chance of influencing going forward. You matters a lot. So some of this is building on the future, and abandon that and going into I don't know where we go. If we abandon those priorities,
Meral Clarke:
I don't think we should abandon them. But I think we need to build on our messaging. Oh, no, no. Speaking of which, Melissa, what are your thoughts on this? And what's wrong with our messaging? Why did it work in so many other states?
Melissa Clink:
Well, I think once we got polling back that what most voters were really concerned about was inflation. And it's really interesting, right? Spirit, chicken or egg? Because were they worried about inflation? Because they were actually worried about it at home? Or were they seeing so much in the media and seeing so much advertisements about who was to blame for that inflation? So we were kind of like, playing defense. But I think that we were behind on that in very many ways. I think that we didn't talk enough about how all of our issues actually deal with economics. We didn't talk about the fact that the entire world is experiencing the same inflation that we're experiencing. And we're all experiencing this because of the failed policies of the Donald Trump administration, right, because he lied to the American public, he made it to where we needed to close outside for a long period of time. And of course, that affected the economy. And people who are critical thinkers are typically. And I'll probably get a lot of heat for this. But Democrats because we think more for a cause and effect, like we realize that nothing happens in a vacuum. And it's part of a lot of different things that are happening all at once. But I think the average voter doesn't think that hard about it, they just go, I went to the grocery store. And the same thing that I bought last year cost me twice as much. And so then when you have all of the media, and you have all of the billions of dollars in advertising that was spent to tell you exactly who to be mad at when he went to the poll about it, I think that we didn't do a good enough job about countering that we didn't do a good enough job about incorporating the things that we believe in, such as women's choice and things like that women's stories is directly tied to economics, and the economics of the community, the economics of that city, and then ultimately, the state. Right. So I think we need to work on translating that information, and tying it back to why we care about the things that we care about, but also what we're going to do about the real concerns that people have.
Meral Clarke:
Fair enough, Doug,
Doug DeMoura:
I'm going to disagree with you. You said on the point about the minorities being most affected by inflation and everything, the Republicans do a great job of sending across the message that Democrats are the party of lifting minorities. But the fact is that if you look at many areas of rural Georgia example, Fannin County where there's 98 99%, white and 85% GOP, there's still 18% of them living at or below the poverty level, we gotta get the message out that our policies of expanding Medicaid in order for them to get affordable health insurance that they can't get now, because they're working two or three part time jobs, and none of them offer benefits, that we can lift them up just as well as anybody else in the state and the Republicans messaging is, we will always make it better. But then once they're in power, they do nothing, make it better. We have to do a better job at reaching out to the Republicans that are on that lower spectrum of poverty lines and saying our message and why it's good for them. We always make jokes, and you see it all the time. And they didn't have their Republicans constantly vote against their best interests by voting for Republicans. And we just can't tell that to them. Because there'll be insulted by that next generation of Republicans are being raised by an older generation of Republicans that have that attitude. And unless we crack that group of people, we're not going to, again, move the needle enough in rural Georgia to make the difference in the statewide race.
Meral Clarke:
Correct. And so that segues to my next question, Pete, what's wrong with Democratic Party messaging? It's been a source of frustration for a lot of activist Democrats and progressive Democrats in the party, why can't we get messages across that resonate with all voters, not just with a certain segment of Democratic voters? And you know, it's been a problem from the national level all the way down to the state and local levels? So what are your thoughts on that? How do we fix that?
Pete Fuller:
You know, there's old adage that Republicans talk in sentences and Democrats answer in paragraphs, we get really complicated because we actually care about the policy a lot of times, and we don't see the world as black and white, we see it as a complicated, messy place where you can't just say, x is the answer it just like I think somebody mentioned, Abrams had to plan for everything. And Kemp would just yell taxes and freedom. And that's something where we define out and give specifics, when we probably don't need to give as many specifics and just let the people that like us kind of fill in the blanks in a way that they can do something that's important to like when it comes to how Georgia fared versus a lot of other states. We let Kemp somehow define himself as being the anti Trump, when he was the OG Trump backs primary candidate back in the day, we let him be this paragon of courage for not committing a major felony by helping find votes and calling the legislature back in session that he had no power to do that. Let people think, Oh, he's a quality independent that will do the right thing. He just didn't want to go to jail. That's a pretty important distinction to make. And we just never hit that. I think there's also a lot of cooks in the kitchen this time around. It seemed like every time it turned around, there was another group that was affiliated either with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign or some DC group that had come in to help drive messaging for this. Abrams had won Georgia, but then we also had the coordinated campaign. Then we also had five other groups same like that. We're all doing different things, messaging and everything else. And it just got really messy I think a lot of times, so we didn't have a Top Down, driven, this is what our message is gonna be and it hurts.
Meral Clarke:
So how do we fix it?
Pete Fuller:
Well, you know, we've progressed since 2018, I think we did a much better job in 2018. And in 2020, Trump kind of basically just gave us message to run on, not him. And that works. But we got to simplify it down in Drive, common ideas that people can understand, we need to be answering in sentences that your life will be better with democratic policies.
Meral Clarke:
Right? And then back it up, of course, Melissa, what are your thoughts on how we fix our messaging? why Democrats messages went so awry in this election? And do you think we reside in an echo chamber, sometimes your thoughts?
Melissa Clink:
I think it's easy to do that, especially like on social media, I know that I typically engage with a lot of people who think just like me, right, there was another point that I was gonna bring up, I think that we really need to make sure that we say like, some of us did get slaughtered in our areas, right. But the slaughter would have been worse if it wasn't for people like Pete, myself, and Doug, and all of the people that work with us and volunteer with us. And the reason for that is the gerrymandering. So we cannot ignore the gerrymandering and what it had to do with this year's outcome. I know, as far as my area goes, especially for the state's congressional districts, like if you really take a look at how they changed precincts around, they made it to where all of their people needed to kind of stay home, or we needed to flip a really good portion of them to have a chance. And I don't think that the average person that they actually knew that would see that as democracy or see that as fair by any means. So I think that we can't ignore the impact that gerrymandering had on this year's election. But as far as messaging goes, he I really love that paragraphs instead of sentences, because you're so right, especially when you start talking about climate change, like people's eyes start rolling in the back of their head, it gets boring, you know, let's just be honest, and normal, average person who doesn't get excited about science and environmentalism and things like that the message never hits, right. But I feel like we're really hard on ourselves about messaging, when the other side doesn't really care about that. Because if messaging mattered as much to voters, then when Herschel Walker said in the debate, that if you were able bodied and employed, you have health insurance, then if anyone that was actually paying attention to that in rural Georgia, they would have gotten, that's actually not how that works. You know what I mean? It's not at all how life works. And it shows how far away he is from the average regular person, because he thinks that if you have a job, that means it comes with health insurance. And that is just not the case. And it's something that Democrats fight for. And those people still went and cast their vote for Herschel Walker. So I'm not so sure messaging matters as much as a simple message that is repeated often. So I think that our message is good. We got to stop trying to have a plan for everything and make sure that they know we have a plan for really big things in their life, and we're gonna make them better. Because at the end of the day, we know that that's why we get so frustrated when we see people, especially in rural areas, vote against their insurance, the fact that we had six hospitals closed under Governor can't that's a failure. Any way that you look at it, you can like that he didn't break the law. And that's exactly right. Pete, maybe that speaks to where we are as a nation, as far as how far our leaders have really disappointed us is that we applaud when people do what they're supposed to do. And we're not giving any kind of credence to those that go above and beyond that, because Kemp in Raffensberger didn't go above and beyond they did what they were supposed to do at their jobs. They did do the right thing. But it was their jobs, and what congratulating them for attending work that day.
Meral Clarke:
And doing the right thing, which everybody should be doing, but they're not, which is why I think we're so hyper focused on that, as voters, you are absolutely correct, Doug, your thoughts on our messaging? And how do we fix
Doug DeMoura:
We need to be more streamlined and concise with our it, messaging. But, you know, a lot of times you get messaging starts at the top. But I'm gonna disagree with that. Because when you look at the way the DPG is historically been structured, you know, 90% of us are out there as volunteers and busting our butts to get candidates elected and being basically fed messaging by the few people that are higher up in the DPG. And a lot of these people that they bring in from out of state and give them a good paying job. And their job is to go out in the field and talk to organizers and stuff. And as soon as the election is over, they're gone. And the people that are here and in these counties in these districts, their voice needs to be taken more serious by the DPG. Because we know what the messaging is important in our county or in our district. And until we come together with that and have the DPG recognize that there's a core of people that is the most important part of the Georgia Democrats and that's everybody that's out here in the field working. And I think when we take off for the next election cycle, we need to come together with the DPG leaders and say, Hey, we need to have our voices heard because We know what's important as far as messaging in our areas.
Meral Clarke:
Right. So apparently hobnobbing with celebrities is not the answer for our candidates. And I hate to say that, I mean, it just seemed like Natalie Portman coming down, and even President Barack Obama came down, which was wonderful. But Kerry Washington excetera. It just seemed like Democrats were so excited about being able to travel with celebrities, and I don't believe that resonated with local voters, and certainly not with rural voters. I believe it was a turn off for a lot of rural voters. Would you agree? Pete, you had also asked to add one more message.
Pete Fuller:
I don't know if they cared or not. I think Obama coming is always going to be a good thing for the voters that we have to point it out.
Meral Clarke:
Sure, absolutely. But he's a former president, and he's a democratic icon.
Pete Fuller:
And we're Democrats, we're running as Democrats. But and that's something we ran away from President Biden, everybody knows he's a Democrat. So pretending like he doesn't exist, and instead building up the accomplishments he has made, which he has solved, that are helping people we should have been talking about that more instead of Nana, we don't know who that is, when Republicans were making a big part of that. And let's not forget to the Republicans have Fox News. They have a multimedia empire of that and own and all the other things that are telling people lies every day for hours at a time. We don't have anything like that at the best we got CNN that's like a cat chasing shiny objects. We don't have anything that's focused and structured to elect Democrats in the same way. And so when we're out talking to voters, we're trying to first of all, dissuade whatever lies they've been told before you can even get to anything about how we want to make their lives better, and how you fight that when there's billionaires funding. That is the question too.
Meral Clarke:
That's a great question, Melissa, do you think we need to have a vehicle like Fox News that will reach voters where they are? And what are your final thoughts on our messaging and what we need to do to fix the issue? Do we need a vehicle like Fox News? What else do we need to do?
Melissa Clink:
I think the show is actually a counter to that this show existing and doing as well as it's done. And having the listeners that has you guys have filled a void that's out there for talk radio, I think that the fact that it's a podcast is wonderful. But if there's ever an opportunity for you guys to transition into a radio situation, I mean, if you have ever driven you guys are all in rural Georgia. So I know you have driven in rural Georgia, there's a part in Jackson County, Pete, when NPR just doesn't work. So there goes any kind of balanced news. So I think that that's unfortunate, I think we don't have the kind of constant outrage G commentary that they have, I think they're always really against something and they're always angry, and they feed into people who want to be angry. So that message really resonates. And what we are trying to do as Democrats is always like, we're trying to make your life better, we want to improve things, we want to fight for the people who can't fight for themselves. And that just doesn't resonate in the same way that screaming on a talk show does. And I think that that's unfortunately a part of human nature. So we need to figure out how to tap into more, I think that we're missing a big part of the working class. I'm working class. And the reason that politics got on my radar is because going to college, so when I went to college is when I realized, Oh, well, like I've taught these things are unfair for a really long time. So I think that I could do something about it. So I'm gonna try to organize and see what I can do, because I don't have the financial means to to elevate my voice, but I can organize, I can meet with people, and I can spread out that impact. But I think that there's no way currently that is really legal or acceptable, right, to reach out to the working class. And I think it's easy on the right to get the working class riled up through things like Fox News and one media and to be able to listen to conservative talk radio. And I think Pete is exactly right, that there's something that doesn't exist like that, for liberals on the left. And until somebody creates that, I think there's always going to be that void. And we really need to start getting creative about talking to people where they are, like you said, a lot of my conversations that I had with young people happened when they were in a service industry job, and I just brought up the election and said, Hey, are you voting? Are you registered to vote, and we had some really great conversations. But there was other situations where I was at a grocery store and say, Hey, Joe, you know, and you could tell if they did not feel comfortable talking about voting? Like I didn't say, Did you vote for Democrats or anything? I'm just like, starting the conversation. And because we're culture is like, we don't talk about politics here. That kind of thing. How do we reach those people who don't have time to pay attention? whose lives are affected by what the decisions of the people in office are making? How do we make that connection because I made that connection through education. So that's why I was able to tap into what I could do about the problem, and where I fit into it. And without that, how do we get the person who didn't go to college? How do we get the person who went to trade school? Right?
Meral Clarke:
It's really tough. It certainly is and we appreciate your kind words about our podcast. But we're certainly not able to hit everyone nationally for that matter, although we have gotten listeners from all over the nation. So I do thank you for that, Doug, you get the final word on this, your thoughts.
Doug DeMoura:
I travel all over the country with my job. And I've been to 40 plus states. And no matter where I go, when I get in a rental car, I can find a conservative talk radio show in almost every city in every state. And we don't find progressive radio that will get the messaging out that we need to our people out there who maybe want to listen to that type of messaging. I've been to Detroit and in Minneapolis, there's some progressive stations. But there's no national progressive station that's out there that broadcasts national talk show host like rusher the other guys that are on every day on conservative talk radio. And I think that's an untapped market that Democrats as a whole and and there's enough of us around the country that they're not seeing that part of the picture where we could get that outlet available to people, especially in rural areas when you have a progressive Talk Radio Network.
Meral Clarke:
I think that's a great idea. And it's something I would love to see happen. And certainly it would require some funding. It seems the Republicans always have tons of money to do what they want to do, and we don't have that option. Pete, I wanted to turn very quickly to the Warnock Walker runoff. How do we get Democrats back out for that? What are your thoughts,
Pete Fuller:
I don't know if it's better or worse that the Senate is already in Democratic hands. I think that takes a little the pressure off in some ways, but basically cuts both ways. We don't have the big push, like we did in 2020 to kind of get our guys on the line. But the Republicans that didn't really want to vote for Walker don't have to come out to vote for him again. And the drop off is substantial, like across the board from people that either didn't vote or most of them looking to Jackson County, they actually split tickets, there were not a ton of libertarian votes. And the drop off in total votes wasn't that big. They split tickets and voted for Kemp and Warnock. A lot of times like 2000 people did. So getting them out is a horrible time. We're right in the middle of the holidays, and nobody wants to deal with it. So hopefully we can narrow in on a message. But at this point, if you're not convinced to vote for Warnock ever Walker, I don't know what else we can say. Because Walker is basically impeached himself and anything that I thought I knew about what Republicans believed in, but yet he's still here, and people voted for him. So we do all the things we call people, we knock on the doors. I've gotten several things today of different events to go to different ways to take part. And that's one of the things I'm going to be pushing with my local party members today. And hopefully, we can do it.
Meral Clarke:
Melissa, your thoughts on the Warnock Walker runoff. And it's going to take to ensure that Reverend Warnock is reelected, because let's face it, Democrats nationally pour tons of money into the 14th District race between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Marcus Flowers and Marcus Flowers garnered maybe 30% of the vote, I don't have those exact numbers. But what are your thoughts?
Melissa Clink:
Well, my first thought says probably just like duck and Pete and saying that I hate that we're doing a runoff just because it's a lot of work. There's a lot of volunteers and a lot of money goes into running this election again, rather than have it right choice voting. So I want to make sure that I just advocate for rate choice voting in the future in Georgia to prevent runoff from having to be held because it kind of delays everything that we have going on in our personal lives. Now we're back in the boat mode, we're going to shorten the time to do that in I think it's going to be just like every election, and it's going to be who shows up to vote right. I think it's important to remind ourselves that in this midterm, only 40% of voters and Forsyth turned out only 39% of voters who could turn out in the sixth turned out. So the other way to look at that is 60% of voters didn't turn out right. So there's a ton of up in the air. We don't know how they would vote, that kind of thing. I think it's important to make sure that everyone voted in this general election comes down again for the primary, and we're going to do everything we can in the sixth district as well as Forsyth County to make sure that that happens. I think we're gonna see some drop off in Republican votes, you are going to have some people who don't get there and they just want to control the Senate. So they're going to make sure to make time to vote. But I think that if we just allow Walker to continue talking that that will turn away Republicans in and of itself, I wouldn't work too hard on disparaging him or anything like that. I think he does a pretty good job of that himself. But we know that the best candidate doesn't always win right? Or Stacey Abrams would be getting ready to take her oath and we're not there so we have to put our faith in the voters that they're going to do the right thing you know, sometimes it's especially in the South that disappoint us but we are already working with tons of coalition's we are hosting Senator Warnock in Forsyth County on Saturday. I believe he's making his way around the sixth congressional on Saturday, and we'll make sure that he's touching base with his voters and the supporters in those areas and everybody is working hard to get out that vote for him.
Meral Clarke:
Okay, Doug, do you think that national Democrats tend to pour too much money into candidates that aren't necessarily electable in their districts, and what are your thoughts on the Warnock Walker runoff as well,
Doug DeMoura:
The Republicans are also going through this same gut check about where they're dumping money into elections. We just need to put our resources to states that are winnable, as far as Warnock goes, I'm hoping that Republicans messages you have to vote for herself because everything's on the line control of everything's on the line. And people held their nose that didn't like him and still voted for him. And I'm hoping they say, now it's not on the line, I'm I can't do it again, I'm going to stay home. And we know that was crossover votes, because it reflected in our totals here and fan. And so again, like everybody else said, it's going to be who shows back up. I mean, historically, we're lucky to get half the people that voted in the general to come back out for the runoff. And we just gotta hope that the Democrats do a better job at getting them out there. We're doing everything we can here and Fannin. And we're running reports and going to be physically calling every Democrat in this county to make sure that they vote and that this is their options, and absentee ballots and early voting and all that stuff. So we are not going to let one stone go one turned here and fan and to get these people back out. And if enough counties take that same attitude, I think we can come out on top. I think experience matters. And I think some Republicans secure you've got to realize that experience matters. I've heard Republicans say that Warnock is one of the most experienced senators as far as legislating, and they might want to see him in there more than they want to see a guy like Hershey who wouldn't be able to write a bill or draft a bill or read a bill
Meral Clarke:
But he can be controlled by the GOP.
Doug DeMoura:
Correct, he can be controlled. So
Meral Clarke:
obviously, they're putting forward unqualified people, especially in Georgia, just because they can be controlled. That's my thought on that matter. But you're right, he's certainly not qualified to legislate. So finally, in this is my last question. And if anyone has anything else to add, I'm all ears. So where do we go from here? Pete? How do we win the state moving forward? Since we miscalculated so badly this topic,
Pete Fuller:
There's outreach to be done, because a lot of times, it doesn't matter who you run, a lot of districts, if they have a D next to their name, there's basically a threshold they've got between cycles, we've got to do a better job of getting just that D to mean something more than an automatic disqualifier for a lot of voters out there. Otherwise, we can run doesn't matter who we run, they're gonna lose, and they're not even gonna be close, they could be the same color Mother Teresa, it doesn't matter. So before we even get to the stage of having candidates to put a name against, we've got to do a better job of rehabilitating the name of that D in rural areas. And statewide really, that we can do a good job and how you do that people that get paid a lot more than I can help figure that out. But we got to do that, because that helps recruitment of actual quality candidates, if you can actually say you might be able to win this race, it helps in fundraising, it helps with all the things if you can have a baseline like that. So that means building up a party structure. And a lot of counties that don't have a party structure. Things like coffee county don't happen if you have a strong party structure in the county where the elections officials decided it was okay just to let lunatics in damage all the equipment, we're going to do better if we have a strong party structure. And we are in the process of standing up a party and coffee County Down south Georgia. So that's good thing. Brockington ran a really great race down there. And I'm hoping that she continues to do that that's something going forward is actually trying to make the party stronger in statewide.
Meral Clarke:
Melissa, your thoughts?
Melissa Clink:
I agree with Pete, I think that we just need to go back to the drawing board, I think we need to continue to offer multi layered levels of outreach to people, I think that we need to make sure that we're making room for newcomers to the party. And if anyone who's kind of gatekeeping. As far as messaging goes, and things like that, we need to address that. Other than that, I don't think I can make it any more concise than what Pete has already said. I know for myself, and for Pete, what we're going to do is we're going to keep doing what we always do, we're going to go to our county committee, and we're gonna see where we go from here. And how many of our volunteers are willing to push themselves to the absolute max to help save democracy?
Meral Clarke:
It's a lot. It is a lot. And we recognize that we have to keep fighting. So thank you for bringing that up. Doug, Final Word,
Doug DeMoura:
Final Word, we have to expose ourselves more to the public. And when I say the public, I mean Republicans in the public, so holding more public events that are not necessarily meetings or candidate forums, but actually a cookout or a fundraiser that we can get Republicans to join in and learn more about us and see that we're not the devil and that we are looking out for the best interest and we are a party that is inclusive, no matter who you are. And I think that's kind of attitude going forward, is going to help us as far as trying to move this needle that we need to move if we're going to be successful in the future in Georgia.
Meral Clarke:
So reaching across the aisle is very important and maybe not being quite so xenophobic about Republican Voters Do you believe that would help? That's correct.
Doug DeMoura:
I mean, I've attended Republican meetings in my county, I've gone to three or four of them. And I've got a pretty good rapport with the chair. And I'm not his best friend, and we don't go socialize. But he wants to come to one of our meetings. And when I went to the meeting, I didn't get booed out of the building. And it was 40 or 50 people there. And a lot of them talk to me after the meeting outside and we had some great conversation about finding things that we could agree upon. And that's what we need to do, we need to reach out to them and find things we can agree upon. And that just opens the door a little bit to allow us to get our message to them. And that might make the difference.
Meral Clarke:
I think that's a great point and a wonderful way to end the show. Well thank you all for joining us today and sharing more about your critical work to advance our goals 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 to learn more about us and the work that we're doing this 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 podcasts 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.