Jessica Newton Orvis, Vice-Chair of the Bulloch County, 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. 

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Transcript

Meral Clarke: 0:17

Hello and welcome back to the North Georgia Blue Podcast produced and distributed by the Fannin County, Georgia Democratic Party. I'm your host Meral Clarke and we're getting into some good trouble today with our special guest Jessica Orvis vice chair and former past chair of the Bulloch County Georgia Democratic Party. Welcome to the show, Jessica. Happy to have you with us today.

Jessica Orvis: 0:41

Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Meral Clarke: 0:45

Of course. Let's let our listeners know a little bit about you. Jess lives and works in Bulloch County, Georgia. She holds degrees in chemistry from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Vanderbilt University. Jessica is past chair of the Bulloch County Democratic Party and current vice chair and serves as vice chair of communications for the 12th congressional district Democrats. By engaging voters in the 12th, she believes we can elect leaders who truly represent us all and secure a more prosperous future for us and our children. So Jess, Statesboro is a blue dot in a heavily red area much like we are here in Blue Ridge in our district, the ninth district. So how do the Bulloch County Democrats work to ensure progressive change and reach your goals of electing Democrats? It's about 80% red to 20% blue up here. Is it similar in Bulloch County as well? And across the 12th?

Jessica Orvis: 1:44

I would say generally, yes. And Bulloch County, that sounds about right. But here in Statesboro, within the city limits, we are a blue dot. We are a blue city. And so what we do as a local committee is that we really focus on these local races. It's so important to build, build a bench, right? Build your local representation. So we get into some of these non partisan races. I love nonpartisan races, because candidates can just run on their values, and they don't have to worry about labels. And we've had a lot of success getting our Democrats into some of these local positions. And I think that's what we need to continue to do. We need to build up more of our local leaders, and then they are on the bench. They're ready for something big next, and we can build out from there. But that's what we do.

Meral Clarke: 2:39

Fantastic. And I wanted to ask you, how are you navigating the repressive voting restrictions that Republicans in Georgia have enacted into law? And I'm specifically referring, of course, to Georgia SB 202, which is now law and one of the most restrictive violations of our civil rights to vote. What are you doing down there to work around that and ensure that everyone has the ability to exercise their civil rights?

Jessica Orvis: 3:07

That's a great question. Really, with these local elections that we just had, the biggest thing that we had to worry about were the changes involved in the absentee ballot application. Before SB 202, you could go to an online site and request your absentee ballot online, and then it would come in the mail. And of course, you had to fill it out and mail it back in. But now after SB 202, you have to actually print the absentee ballot application, sign it, mail it in, and then get your actual ballot in the mail. And that was just going to be way too much for our voters. So we really focused heavily in these local elections, on early voter participation. Whereas in the past, we had tried to encourage, you know, the vote by mail process, we encourage people to do that if we thought that it was going to be more conducive to their lifestyle, but not this last cycle. We really had to push early voting hard. People don't have printers.

Meral Clarke: 4:09

Exactly, especially in the more rural areas. So it makes it that much more difficult. Did you lose any dropboxes? Or did you encounter any problems with that aspect of law?

Jessica Orvis: 4:20

Well, here in Bulloch County, we only had one real dropbox, and it was outside of the elections office. And so now instead of outside the elections office, it's inside the elections office. So I don't think the dropbox really impacted us that much. We were just at the point where we were going to request more drop boxes, but of course, you know, so much for that.

Meral Clarke: 4:44

Right, they've made that nearly impossible. So what are the specific things that your group is doing down there to educate voters and get them out to the polls with increased participation?

Jessica Orvis: 4:56

Well, one thing that we've just started recently is our coffee and democracy group where we've got a local brewery that's friendly to us that will let us use some of their space. And so we're using Saturday mornings to kind of try to engage a lot of our activists. In this community, we have a lot of young folks who are 30 or so a lot of them, they work a lot. They're raising children, it's really hard to get them to attend meetings. It's hard to get them to volunteer a lot of time, but they're very engaged and interested in what's going on. And so by trying to have some of these meetings that are drop in, meet a few people have some coffee and just network a little bit. We're trying to kind of pull that energy. And so that's what we're working on at the moment.

Meral Clarke: 5:45

So you just re elected your mayor in Statesboro. Yes, who is a progressive Democrat and well loved in the community, and also the first African American mayor of Statesboro, which is quite impressive. So tell us how that came to happen. How did your group help to make that happen?

Jessica Orvis: 6:05

Well, I've got to give our mayor credit. He has been a core member of the Bulloch County Democratic committee for a very long time. And he worked very hard. He when he first ran for this office, he didn't win. But he learned. And he gathered a team of folks around him, activists who are part of our organization and people who had not really been part of Democratic politics that much, but they believed in him. And he formed a team and a group of people who worked really hard together. And they came together to get him elected four years ago, and that same team came together again. So I think our Bulloch County Democratic committee were part of that effort. We were part of that team. But there was a lot of that, that he did himself.

Meral Clarke: 6:48

Happy to hear that I would love to increase our blue dots across the state outside of Atlanta. So also two years ago, you work to get three women elected to Statesboro City Council, and there had never been any women on the city council. Exactly. So you have five council seats, and you change your small city for the better with big improvements and a complete change in the conversation. How has the perspective of the city council changed since the women came onto the council? And what did it take to get them elected?

Jessica Orvis: 7:22

Well, we had wonderful women to step up and say they want to run that was the start. And then again, we formed teams. And we communicated together to make sure that these teams were out there. They had the data that they needed, they had help that they needed people who would be willing to go knock on doors, lay fliers out, wave signs around. And it all came together. And it was a wonderful thing. It was extremely exciting as well to have those wins on election night. We were all out in front of City Hall. And everybody was just you know, it was like a street party. It was so exciting. And there's energy that comes from that. And I think the mayor's race led to a lot of that there was so much excitement in the mayor's race, that team of people and those sorts of things are contagious. You get people who are part of that team who say, hey, maybe I'll run for office too. And yeah, that's the kind of thing that happened.

Meral Clarke: 8:21

And it's so important for people to step up and run for something if they have the ability to do so. How does that work across the 12th congressional district? How are you going to parlay these victories into a county wide experience versus just a City of Statesboro experience?

Jessica Orvis: 8:44

Excellent question. And we are working on that for sure. It's absolutely a challenge to find people who are interested, willing and able to run for office. But we're always talking to people. And we're trying to capitalize on all this energy and excitement that we build from these races that I know that there are people who are interested. So I tried to get in touch with as many of these people and talk to them and and try to show them how we can help them what we can do what we can offer them. And that's a big challenge.

Meral Clarke: 9:16

It really is. And it is a challenge across the state, again, outside of Metropolitan Atlanta. So we really appreciate you and all you're doing. I wanted to ask you about your group 12 Tomorrow, which you recently started. 12 Tomorrow is a C 4 versus a C 3. I'd like for you to explain the difference between those two and what you do with your C 4. And also you've stated that 12 Tomorrow exists to support Democrats in more progressive values focusing on health care, social and economic justice and voting rights. Can you expound on that conversation?

Jessica Orvis: 9:57

Sure. I love working with local Democrats. But as you pointed out, we have to get that success and that energy. And that level of communication has got to get out of the small city. And we've got to be reaching out across these counties. And we've got to get ourselves into areas where we just are not all that active right now, whether it's in the rest of the county, or if it's in neighboring counties, or in other districts across the state, we have to build that network. And that's just been a tremendous challenge within the party. And I think it's not the fault of the party. It's hard. I think when you're affiliated with a partisan organization, that sometimes you can't get your foot in the door places. For example, if you want to do voter registration, you tell them you're with the Bulloch County Democratic Party, and they'll say, Oh, well, we don't want partisan politics here. But you tell them you're with a rotary or something and you want to register voters are like, oh, yeah, fine, fine, you can do that. Right. So So we realized that sometimes getting outside of partisan politics can give you a new avenue to work and connect with people. So with 12 Tomorrow, we were looking to take our 12th congressional district and build an organization that could be focused on issues and could help draw attention to some of these issues in our district and help hold leaders accountable. So we formed a C 4 because we wanted to do that. I mean, really, what I had in my head at first was I just want some billboards calling out Rick Allen. What does it take to put up a bunch of billboards and say, We're just mad? Right. You know, how could you do this? I want

Meral Clarke: 11:38

Right? everybody to know, that's the way I feel. And so, you know, we started on that line. We haven't gotten the billboards yet. But I am determined to get there. And I'm sure you will, I have no doubt.

Jessica Orvis: 11:53

I am sure that we will, too. We have done postcard writing campaigns letter writing campaigns. We've tried to hold online meetings and that sort of thing, letting people know that we're here, and this is something that we want to do. And I think we can be supportive of the Democratic Party. I've been telling my friends within the 12th congressional district that we're not competing with you. We're working with you. I mean, not officially we're a C 4 but we have values and goals that are similar. And I think it'd be a positive thing to have this organization within our 12th district.

Meral Clarke: 12:24

So to clarify, 12 Tomorrow is a nonpartisan C 4 entity, correct? Yes. Yes. So you're also not restricted in any way by partisan politics, because that organization is nonpartisan. So I just wanted to make that clear. How did you decide on the three issues? Why only three? And how did you decide that the most important issues were health care, social and economic justice, and I don't disagree with you and certainly voting rights. Right. So how did that decision come to be?

Jessica Orvis: 12:56

Well, the chair of our board Jim Sheppard has an organization in Screven county called Screven Forward and he did on the county level what we are trying to do on the district level, Screven Forward is now part of the indivisible network. But he built a coalition of people in that county who wanted to support these values within that county. And so when he built out 12 Tomorrow and invited some of us in to help him with this, we got together with our group and we talked about okay, what are some of the greatest needs in the 12th congressional district, we need to focus. And part of what we need to do is hone our messaging. And as Democrats, we're saying this all the time, oh, my gosh, we got to get the messaging, right. You know, we're losing the battle of messaging, we've got to do better with that. And we can't always wait for someone else to give us the messaging. Sometimes I think we're waiting for someone at the state level or the national level to come up with oh, this is our messaging. But we have to create the right message on the ground because we're out in the community, right. We know what our neighbors are going through what we're going through. So we need to be part of that creation process. And so narrowing it down a little bit is part of trying to help develop a solid message here in the 12th District.

Meral Clarke: 14:18

Well, I agree with you about Democrats seeming inability to get the messaging right. I mean, let's face it, Joe Biden is actually doing great. And Congress just passed infrastructure, which is huge. It's also essential that we pass the social safety net program that goes along with that build back better, but unemployment is down, wages are up. Wall Street is up, the economy is looking rosy, why can we not get that message out versus the Republicans just complaining about us spending too much money? Of course, we spend plenty of money on the military and the Pentagon billions and billions of dollars every year but the GOP seems hesitant to create social safety nets for our citizenry. So why do you suppose that messaging has consistently been a difficult issue for Democrats? Not just on the local level, but also on the federal right, and the statewide level as well?

Jessica Orvis: 15:15

Right, right? Well, you asked a very good question. And I hope that we can be the party of the future. With our infrastructure bill, we need to catch up to the future. And then we need to burst ahead with the future, we need to be talking about the future. And we shouldn't let Republicans steal the voice of parents away from the Democrats. We're parents too. We care about our children, we want our children to learn to think critically, we don't want anyone to tell our children what to think we want them to read and think for themselves. And that, I think, is the kind of message that we need to try to get out there. I think there's fear behind the Republican message of wanting parents to take control of the schools, and they're afraid that their children are being taught things that they don't agree with, or they don't understand. And we need to point out to them that this is an issue of freedom. Children should be taught history, but children should be able to make their own decisions. And we should give them that freedom. And we should support that. They should learn to think for themselves. So why do we struggle so much with getting messages out? Sometimes we get lost in the weeds, our messages are complicated ones, we need to simplify them. And sometimes we worry too much about answering Republicans. And maybe we should change the subject in some ways and to talk about the future talk about things. I mean, Republicans often don't answer us directly either. So we need to find ways to change the subject and keep it simple.

Meral Clarke: 16:40

I agree. And certainly critical thinking and reasoning skills should be taught K through 12. As far as I'm concerned, and I never really learned to actual history. It was all whitewashed when we were growing up. Right, True. True. I mean, we didn't learn about the Tulsa Massacre, right. We didn't learn about Tuskegee. We didn't learn the truth about slavery. It was all bleached history, whitewashed history as a friend of mine calls it Yes. And it's essential. But look at Glenn Younkin. In Virginia, he was able to win because Terry McAuliffe said parents should not be telling schools how and what to teach. And that seemed to be a death knell for the Democrats in Virginia. So how do we get that message out to parents that yes, school board meetings are very important. And thank you for your participation, but don't participate because you think your kids are going to learn something different than you did. Which is the way it should be. How do we I don't mean to harp on this, but it's frustrating. Sure. It's frustrating for me, right? That we can't seem to communicate that to parents in a more simplified fashion. I agree with you.

Jessica Orvis: 17:51

Right. I wish we could say that we just want our children to be taught the truth. We want them to be taught the truth about our history. We don't want to give them some whitewashed version or some sanitized version. We want them to know the truth. And then what they do with that truth is going to be up to them how they interpret that truth is up to them. And I don't think that any of us should be afraid of the truth.

Meral Clarke: 18:13

I agree. It seems that many of us are well, not us, per se, but many folks are right. So that is another battle. But right. Of course, this is last gas for the GOP as our country is becoming more diverse. It's certainly changing. White people will be a minority soon enough. We're not doing enough for climate change for future generations. And millennials and younger generation folks are understandably upset about that. So I'm hoping that as our country becomes more diverse, it's going to be easier for folks to understand what's going on, because the kids are all right. They know what's going on. They really do. Right, right. And we can all take that lead from them. Was there anything you wanted to add about health care, social, economic justice, and voting rights?

Jessica Orvis: 19:06

Well, that's a loaded question.

Meral Clarke: 19:08

Let's start with health care, because that is so important. We know that Medicaid expansion is vital. And we certainly don't have that in a red state. So what are your thoughts on health care specifically, and why everyone should have access to it?

Jessica Orvis: 19:23

Well, we've looked at a lot of data in the 12th congressional district with regard to health care, and we can just see how far behind a lot of our counties are. We have high rates of diabetes and heart conditions and high rates of adults with disabilities. And then of course, the higher poverty rates and you have a large number of people who are really in need of good health care, we're all in need of good health care. And we know that in the smaller counties, we don't have as much healthcare available. And as you said, the expansion of Medicaid is just something that we have to have for our citizens. So I think that that message still has to be there. It's not something that seems to be out there right now in this most recent election cycle, that we weren't really talking about healthcare. And I think the pendulum swings back and forth on some of this. We do have the Affordable Care Act. And so attention gets diverted away into something else. But we can't take our eye off the ball. We have to keep health care in front and center to make sure that we get some action on that.

Meral Clarke: 20:21

Yes. And there are over 1 million uninsured Georgians as well due to the lack of expansion, right of health care options in our state. So yes, absolutely. Senator John Ossoff visited Statesboro, before his election, it was floored by the participation, the high level of participation that you have from your people down there. His team told you that he was highly impressed with the Democrats in Statesboro, and Bulloch County and across the 12th and your group. What were the reasons for his kudos? And how did you go about impressing him? Because I'm sure that's not an easy thing to do. So tell us about that visit.

Jessica Orvis: 21:03

Oh, it was so exciting. We had some space outside and kind of a parking lot sort of area that was in downtown Statesboro. And a lot of people came out. And they were just so excited to have a candidate come to our little town of Statesboro at such a pivotal time. I mean, we sometimes get candidates in the early parts of the election season or whatever, if they happen to be driving on their way to Savannah, they might stop in and see us but to have a candidate come at the height of the election season. This was just what was it maybe a week or so before the election and the big campaign boss comes in. And wait, everybody was just so excited. We had a bunch of people who were standing there, and we were singing, we were shouting, we were jumping up and down. And it was just really electric energy. Everyone who spoke at that was just energized and excited. And it was a different experience for us. And yes, the people on the bus with Ossoff were talking to us about Wow, we can tell something is happening. We feel really good about this. If we can come to a place like Statesboro and feel this kind of energy, there's something good going on. And all of us who were there, we felt it too. It was very exciting.

Meral Clarke: 22:15

Oh, that's lovely. And do you perceive that there will be a difference in the energy level come 2022 midterms, because a lot of us are very, very tired after the past few years, and we need to keep that level of voter participation up. So what are your thoughts about going into 2022 at least for your area?

Jessica Orvis: 22:38

Oh, I am quite hopeful that we can build that energy back up again, because I think it will be there. I know what you're talking about with regard to being tired. I'm really tired, too. I put a lot of energy into the local elections as well and just thought, Oh, my goodness, I'm just tired. And then there are all these bureaucratic things with the local party trying to get things set up for next year too. And everything is sort of tiring. But I think there's going to come a moment as we move into next year and get past the holidays, that we are going to look around and say, Hey, this is important. We're going to be sharing that message. We're going to be feeling that I think and I think we can pull that energy out again, I think it's gonna be there. I'm counting on it.

Meral Clarke: 23:21

I am too. So that's really good to hear because it is essential. Yes, that we flipped 41 seats. Yes, Republican seats, we flipped 41 seats in Georgia, and no one is talking about that, you know, outside of the party. So we need to get that messaging out as well. We need to continue that trend and vote as Erick Allen, Representative Allen, who's a candidate for lieutenant governor has stated on our program, we have to vote on the ballot from the top down. Yes, yes. And we completely agree on that. So if someone in your area or in the 12 wants to get involved with your group, or your groups and volunteer, donate, what have you, where would you send them?

Jessica Orvis: 24:06

Oh, well, that's exciting. I have websites. We have BullochDems.com

Meral Clarke: 24:12

And that's B U L L O C H Correct? Yes. Okay.

Jessica Orvis: 24:18

BullochDems.com. And then we have TwelveTomorrow.org. And that spelled out 12. Tomorrow.

Meral Clarke: 24:25

Okay,perfect. And that's good to know. And also, I ask all my guests this question. So I'm going to ask you as well. Tell us a fun fact about yourself something not related to your work with the Democrats or your groups or anything political. Tell us a fun fact just about you.

Jessica Orvis: 24:43

Oh, goodness. Well, I'm an amateur violinist. And I play with a Georgia Southern Symphony. That's so cool. Yes. It's my other life.

Meral Clarke: 24:53

I'm so impressed and congratulations on playing with your symphony. That is really cool. Thank you. We actually We have a lot of very talented musicians who are Democrats across the state. We're going to have to get a band together.

Jessica Orvis: 25:06

That would be fun. That would be really fun.

Meral Clarke: 25:08

That would be great for a fundraiser, wouldn't it? Yes. Well, thank you, Jess, for joining us today and sharing more about your campaign and your critical work to support Democrats and maintain our democracy. 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, visit us online at FanninCountyGeorgiaDemocrats.com. And please share the North Georgia Blue Podcast with your friends and family. Be sure to subscribe and follow and if you enjoy our podcasts become a founding patron and friend of the show at NorthGeorgiaBluePodcast.com all spelled out just like 12 Tomorrow slash patron so we can continue getting into more good trouble.