Doug DeMoura - Chair, Fannin County Democrats (FCDP)

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 comprises a 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 will 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 who are working to overthrow the suppression tactics of the GOP and ensure democracy and our values, grassroots efforts, and goals remain intact. 

#podcasts #politicalpodcasts #democraticpolitics #democraticparty #stateofga #democraticactivism, #democraticgrassroots #community #gademocraticparty #georgiademocrats #democraticpodcasts #bestdemocraticpodcasts #freedemocraticpodcasts #deepdemocracypodcasts #gademocrats #democracy #republic #democraticpodcastslisten #fightthegop #votersuppression #voterrights #bluestates #podcastsaboutdemocraticpolitics #grassrootsactivism #climatechange #environment #Fannincountydemocraticparty #Doug DeMoura #FanninCountyChair

Episode is Not Live

Publish: May. 08, 2021 @ 1AM Edit

Publish

Add Chapter Markers

Listeners can tap through & see what’s coming up.

Create a Visual Soundbite
Best way to share to social media for engagement.

Share Episode On

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

More Options

Email Link to Episode
Copy

Direct Link to MP3
Copy Download MP3

Embed this ONE Episode

Transcript

Meral Clarke: 0:03

Welcome to the North Georgia Blue Podcast. I'm Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble as we discuss all matters politics across the ninth district and Georgia. Today, I would like to welcome Doug DeMoura. He is the chair of the Fannin County democrats since January of 2019. He was born in Massachusetts and resided there for 35 years. Back in 2001. He married the true love of his life, Susan demora. He has worked in the construction industry since 1989. And he has been a lifelong Democrat. Much like myself, how are you today, Doug?

Doug DeMoura: 0:44

I'm doing fantastic, thanks.

Meral Clarke: 0:45

Okay, great. I wanted to ask you, what was it like in Massachusetts back then back in the 80s and 90s? Were the Elizabeth Warren's of the world, the most popular folks there, or was it far more conservative than we know?

Doug DeMoura: 1:01

You know, Massachusetts has been a democratic stronghold since the 20s. But I have to mention when I was 12, when the state was the only state to vote for George McGovern in 1972, which was pretty embarrassing. My first eligible presidential election that was 1980, I turned 18 and 78. And I was allowed to vote presidential in 80. I voted for Jimmy Carter and Reagan, of course, defeated and nationally, and I would have thought Carter would have won Massachusetts, but he didn't break in one by by less than 4000 votes. That's surprising. Yeah, there was this third party guy named Johnny Anderson. He was on the ballot as an independent, but he was actually on the Republican ticket primary against Reagan loss. And he went nationally as a third party. He took 50% of the vote in Massachusetts. So that really was the difference in Carter not winning Massachusetts.

Meral Clarke: 1:54

I assume your parents were democrats as well.

Doug DeMoura: 1:57

My parents were Democrats, they weren't they weren't outloud democrats about who they supported or what they did, but I could tell by their way they reacted to politics, that they were Democrats, okay. You know, my my siblings are a mixture of independents, Democrats and Republicans and that and that's sort of how Massachusetts has evolved over the over the years where, you know, lately in the last decade or two, we've had a lot of Republican governors running Massachusetts, although we're a very democratic national stronghold, when it comes to senators and congressional leaders. So you know, I endured a grueling years of Reagan and four years of bush while I lived up there. And then finally, finally, Clinton won in 92. And I felt like I was able to, you know, get over this whole republican stronghold in the nation,

Meral Clarke: 2:45

that that did change our climate quite a bit. And I'm, I'm reading from Susan, who is our tech guru here on the show. The shoven was just found guilty. On steric shovin. With the George Floyd trial, thank you for sharing that. Susan. What what are your thoughts on the chevron trial, by the way,

Doug DeMoura: 3:06

you know, it's rip the nation, it's made some division in the country as, as usual, because of the police crimes on blacks. You know, I think justice was served in this case, but we've got a long way to go between educating police on how to react when pulling people over. I've told people in the past, you know, when I get pulled over from the police, they basically tell me to stay in the car if I try to get out but and then the opposite when a black person gets pulled over, they've usually at gunpoint been told to get out of the car, you know, that's has to change.

Meral Clarke: 3:42

Exactly right. Right. It must it's, it's an it's a system that was devised back in the I believe 1700s when we first came to the shores and you know, Europeans first came to the shores and it does need to be rebuilt as a as a more just system, no doubt. So when did you move south? And why? And how did you find the political climate different in the southern states?

Doug DeMoura: 4:12

I moved south in January of 96. for work, I'd met a gentleman at a conference in Washington DC and he convinced me that I can move to Charlotte is the place to be and you can go far in this industry and move and it was quite shocking. First of all, I had to wrap my head around what grits were, cuz I'd never even heard I never even heard of seen a waffle house or my entire life until then. Personal adjustments to be made for sure. But you know, politically I wasn't active other than my usual constitutional right to vote. I felt the country was in a good place with Clinton. The economy was booming. Everyone was doing good. The shocking part was I was exposed to the right wing christian conservatives, and then found out I'm this small fish in a big pond of Republicans And they were laser focused on conservative values God guns, anti abortion. And it was an entirely different experience for me. But I kept focused and still voted democrat consistently over that time.

Meral Clarke: 5:11

And what was it about Southern politics that encouraged you to get more involved in? When did you get actively involved with the democratic party?

Doug DeMoura: 5:20

Two words come up Donald Trump. You know, Susan, and I wrote it regularly in our elections and you know, supported Obama and everything. We moved up to Blue Ridge in late 2010. And even though the politics in the area appear to be more conservative, we had no idea how different it was compared to Gwinnett County where we moved from. And so when Trump got elected, we we sort of got angry and felt like we needed to do something to get involved. And we had no idea what to do. And Susan found out there was a Fannin County Democratic Party here in the area. And they met once a month at the Days Inn and Blue Ridge. You know, we went to that January 2017. Meeting before Trump was even inaugurated. And we found about 20 to 25. Democrats welcomed us in and again, we still had not come to terms with us living in this third most conservative district in the country.

Meral Clarke: 6:09

Yeah, sure. So what made you you know, becoming involved in getting to know other like minded folks, which is always a great thing. What made you decide to step up into the role of Chair of the Democratic Party up here?

Doug DeMoura: 6:23

Well, during the first two years, we found the group was growing, and we realized republicans up here had pretty much been running unopposed for years, right. So we stepped up and approached Todd Baker, who was the chair at the time and said, we need to put some Democrats on the ticket, we need to form committees and find local Democrats to run it, Susan made it a mission to hers. And she found out the you know, in the course of the 2018 election, there were 116 seats available in the ninth district come to come to find out at the end of the day, we only had 16 people running for those seats, including Susan, she put her name in as a candidate for a school committee. And we actually had a candidate run for every single open seat. And in 2018, which is a first in history. That is phenomenal. Yes, it was fun, awesome. People step up. And then when Hart decided not to run for election, 2019, I felt like if I didn't step up, and the everything would work for over the last two years with step backwards. So I decided to, you know, throw my name in the half as much for the chair position,

Meral Clarke: 7:25

even though you haven't always been an activist, correct? That's correct. This is a relatively new foenum. And I do believe that Donald Trump did encourage many of us to get more involved than we have been and to assert our viewpoints and perhaps a more just system moving forward. So as the chair, how do you feel the party has progressed under your leadership?

Doug DeMoura: 7:52

Well, first off, this is a group effort here and fan and I'm the Chair but by no means, in my opinion, do I consider myself the leader, we have so many talented people here, and that the energy levels there, our party has grown tremendously, both in participation and fundraising the last two years. So I feel like my role is more of a conductor motivator. You know, our main goal was to get people to realize that although we don't win seats in this county for quite we won't win any seats for quite some time. We will, however, by turning out vote help state and federal elections. And that and that was the key because I feel like our biggest accomplishment was reached in the 2020 Senate rules. Oh, no doubt, because you know, historically, Democrats do really poor at runoff, because they don't get back out and vote again. And I go out goal was to make sure that didn't happen. And we did a massive mailing and phone campaigning in the month of December when we had that nine weeks before the runs. And out of the 20 counties of the ninth district in and had the highest return rate of, of democrat voters at 99.8%. Fantastic. Republicans only average 93%. So we in the ninth district actually gained 35,000 votes over republicans from the November general election to the runoff. So it was it was a phenomenal turnaround. And I couldn't have been more proud of the of the vein of Democrats, and it was on the fifth of January.

Meral Clarke: 9:14

Excellent. Excellent. I completely agree. Now that Trumps gone, thank goodness. And we have Joe Biden, who is the centrist democratic centrist in office, what do you what do you perceive are our next steps? By no means is this turnout guaranteed, and of course, Georgia republicans are doing their best may I say to get rid of extra voters and people who voted in the runoff election and to make it as difficult as possible for minorities and other people of color to vote. So what do you see as the next steps?

Doug DeMoura: 9:54

Our next step is the battle over voters, right? Sure. You know, Republicans across the country, they will be We're unhappy with the election results, including Trump, they began immediately crafting new voting laws aimed squarely at ways to suppress our votes suppress voting rights throughout the country and throughout Georgia, right.

Meral Clarke: 10:13

And there are, I believe, several 100 bills across state legislatures in the country, Republican state legislatures and Republican leaders who are trying to pass similar bills to Georgia, SB 202, which is all about suppressing votes. And tell us tell us more about Georgia SB two and two, and how that works and how we're looking to fight that bill.

Doug DeMoura: 10:42

You know, the republican led Georgia legislators after the election immediately looked at the fact that Democrats turned out record numbers and flipped the state blue, right and, and that made their heads explode. So they immediately started crafting these horrible bills to combat any way they could feel that would cost them the election to try to fix it. from trying to add no excuse absentee vote and cutting back early voting timeframes, eliminating drop boxes, they pulled out all the stops. And then they finally mixed a bunch of bills together and came up with 202. And the sad part is camp had to go on this media tour, not only in Georgia, but nationally to defend the bill and claim how it expands voter opportunities. And I've always felt like how was cutting back the period voter registration and half expanding the opportunity. I was cutting runoff voting by more than half expanding voting opportunity, housekeeping dropboxes, inside a precinct closes at five o'clock, expanding voter opportunities. It's crazy, it is

Meral Clarke: 11:39

crazy, and not being able to give water or food to voters who have to stand in line for hours and hours on end. I mean, that to me is completely insane. What do you see as the biggest hurdle in this bill that we have to overcome? Because, as you stated, it's so convoluted and there are so many different components to it. What What do you see as the biggest hurdle and what are we doing to help overcome that hurdle?

Doug DeMoura: 12:05

And you know, you just mentioned it because I you know, it's given the biggest part of that bill is giving the legislation authority over county election boards, and allowing them remove members, as they see fit the hole right now water and food, and to me, it's a shiny distraction for all of us to focus on. So people don't see the dangerous part of the bill. And that's the dangerous part of the bill. It's exactly what Trump was asking for, as he was losing the state. And so, you know, so we started in Fanon. Here, we started a task forces. And our main task force is our Voter Protection task force, which is led by Mike Cobb. And he and his team members have done such a good job at putting together a platform that the whole nine district is using it was a means to get the other counties to adapt their strategies. And to me, it's a testament to the quality of the people that we have in Fanon that have stepped up and, and led the way

Meral Clarke: 12:55

right, right and both Fannin County Blue Ridge area and North Georgia is growing exponentially. So we probably expect to see some more folks hopefully stepping up and getting involved. Tell me more about Mike Cobb and his task force What are in his task force doing specifically to fight this bill,

Doug DeMoura: 13:19

they have dissected the bill and took the most important aspects of it and put it into presentation format to roll out to not only us here in Fannin, but all the other counties in the night to form a strategy to you know, combat what this these bills do let people know what the change was what it used to be under the old law and how it will affect them. So when they you know, we're not going to get them to rescind the bill, the only way that's going to happen is in a court of law. But what we can do is educate the voter through this task force that these are the things that have changed, this is how it's gonna affect you. And this is the strategy we need to do in order to combat it and keep the vote turnout going. So Pete when people find out that they only have 78 days to register instead of 180 we need to let them know that so they they don't get left off the books when they need to know that absentee mail in ballot drop boxes are no longer gonna be conveniently located somewhere to drop off, you know a ballot to Yeah, and that the most likely we're gonna encourage a lot more people to early vote in person and even then they've cut back some of the hours and days on that. So it's it's going to be a challenge but I think Mike and his team have put together a good plan. Once we once we fine tune it and they meet almost weekly this taskforce. They'll be able to roll out some some game plan for us to educate the voters in the ninth district of the importance of looking at this bill and seeing what they need to do to make sure they're included in the 2020 To election.

Meral Clarke: 15:01

Right, that's great. So education is the main component here. letting people know that's that's what I'm hearing. Okay, great. And I believe he has a presentation up on the Fannin County democrats website, correct? That's correct. Can you give me that link to the website?

Doug DeMoura: 15:18

Yes. website is www.fcdpga.com.

Meral Clarke: 15:25

Excellent. Excellent. And how are you? How are you working throughout the ninth district to get this message across, I'm sure that we're going to have a June Crus, who is the chair of the ninth district Democratic Party over a sprawling 20 counties, which is unbelievable. But we are going to have her on our inaugural broadcast. How are you working with June to get this message across and make sure that all 20 counties are aware of what we're doing and how we can help.

Doug DeMoura: 16:01

June has a monthly county chair call on zoom to kind of keep us in the loop on where everything's going. She is actually recruited Mike Cobb, and he is now a first vice chair with the ninth district and he's in charge of Voter Protection. So not only has she impressed he has impressed us here in vain but he's impressed June and her team so much that like I said, they're adapting our platform into their into the entire ninth district. And then she's also has some other teams of smaller than maybe five or six chairs, or some other different communication people that are working on things like candidate recruitment and and social media platforms and stuff like that. We have social media platforms here and Fanon, which is we are what, which is terrific.

Meral Clarke: 16:52

Oh, yes, it is. And we're all working on that as well. And hoping to get more folks involved up here in North Georgia, as the area changes evolves and grows, there's there's no doubt. So what you believe is that we should all work together throughout the knife district to ensure that democratic ideals are known tall, and that everyone knows who we are and what we're doing correct?

Doug DeMoura: 17:20

Absolutely, if you know, we can work together as teams, because you know, feynan has been a pretty successful group over the last four years, as far as a Democratic Party up here, there are some of the other 20 counties that are just getting their feet wet, and barely can put a committee together. And we're trying to, you know, help them as well as some of the other counties that are more well established to get their get their group up and going up to speed where we are. And and I think we can do it, you know, our main goal is to continue to grow the party and grow, grow the party in each county grow the party in the ninth district as a whole. Because again, it's an 8020 County, we're not going to turn a seat and flip it blue in the next few elections. But what we can do is add votes to the tally, get the voter turnout and make a difference in state senate and state house seats, and federal Senate and House seats. So

Meral Clarke: 18:19

you do believe that we are stronger together? Correct, that you shouldn't we shouldn't be working piecemeal. Um, you know, when we share the same democratic ideals with others, so that's, that's terrific. And it helps to grow the party as well. How are you working with state level, Democrats and the and the state Democratic Party to make these changes

Doug DeMoura: 18:44

we hold as well, monthly chair calls with all 159 counties, I would say the average participation is about 50 or 60. Counties get on the call. They do twice a week on Monday, and then they repeat it again on Thursday for those who couldn't make it on Monday. And they share again ideas. We also have what's called Blue school training for and all the county chairs and vice chairs, and anybody else who is in need of some more education as far as being able to roll out the democratic platform, this blue School, which is held once a month on a Saturday. It's just a fantastic program that the democratic state Democratic Party has rolled out.

Meral Clarke: 19:24

Fantastic. And and so you're in touch with party leaders throughout the state, I assume and and getting involved with all politics are local. Right. So involved on a local level toward a mutual goal, correct?

Doug DeMoura: 19:42

Yes, yes. It's interesting, you know, because the night again was 159 counties. So to find out, example, Chatham County, which is Savannah, which is a Savannah, Georgia to find out what they're doing as a group of Democrats, when we get on these group calls is is just you Pick up one or two things that you're not doing, or they pick up one or two things that we're doing that they're not doing. And it helps, you know, again, expand everybody's minds everybody's thoughts about how the direction we got to move going forward.

Meral Clarke: 20:15

Terrific. So if someone wanted to get involved with Fannin County or ninth district Democrats, how would they do so

Doug DeMoura: 20:23

we can start by checking us out. And we have we're on almost all social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, we have a fantastic website that you can they're not only navigates you to what we do locally, but also we have a lot of things on that, that both ninth district and statewide and nationally that on this website, we also have a store page where there's some great merchandise you can buy to support us sure there's an act rule link on the website that if people want to help us financially, they can't necessarily pitch in timewise. You know, there's so many things people can do. And like I said, we've had a lot of we set up this website three years ago, and most of our new members found us through the website, okay, by just googling fant, you know, Fannin County democrats and boom, there it is. We never had that before.

Meral Clarke: 21:13

Oh, that is fantastic. And tell me more about how the State and National Democratic Parties work with the local groups. They're they're there for support, correct? Yes, they're

Doug DeMoura: 21:25

there for support in both like training materials, occasionally financial support, but mostly in making sure that we are all following the same platform. They don't necessarily come down on the hammer with us and say, This is how you need to do things, because they know that some parties or some counties do things differently than others. But as long as the messaging stays consistent, right, we have a liaison between the Democratic Party of Georgia and us. Her name is Sarah Todd, and she would be a great podcast interview for you in the future. I don't personally talk to the keema Williams, because she's a busy person. I don't talk to Stacey Abrams, but Sarah Todd, and there's a bunch of other people in her level of the party that help us tremendously.

Meral Clarke: 22:10

Right. And I did want to also, of course, give a shout out to firefight, Stacey Abrams group and all other groups that are working toward similar goals. You know, all the goals that we have. What do you foresee happening in 2022? I believe that Senator, Reverend Warnock is coming up for re election, and how do you foresee the voter turnout in getting that same excitement and turnout in Georgia for that upcoming election?

Doug DeMoura: 22:44

What I think is the the the encouraging part about that is that they republicans went out and wrote this horrible bill, SB 202. And if anything, makes democrats more mad is taking their way their right to do something, or or honestly taking it away, but tamping it down, and nothing's gonna fire up a democrat more than say, you can't do this. And they're gonna say, Oh, yes, I can. And I think that's that if they didn't do that we made there a lot of democrats it might not have showed up in 2022. I truly believe that. I think that I think that Republicans are digging their own grave when they do things like this.

Meral Clarke: 23:22

And they do it all the time. Which is highly disturbing. Well, Doug, I want to thank you for being on our podcast today and for conversing with me about the Fannin County democrats and all, you know, all Democrats, state and local, and we hope that you will join us again,

Doug DeMoura: 23:44

I will definitely make myself available. And I wish the success of this North Georgia Blue Podcast to take off and I see it really helping everybody in the ninth district and I can see eventually helping everybody across the state.

Meral Clarke: 23:59

Thank you. Thank you, Doug. And thank you for joining us today on the North Georgia Blue Podcast. Join us again, as we get into more good trouble with Democrats across Georgia and the ninth district. Thank you so much.