Despite her recent loss, her brand of politics isn’t going anywhere (John Bazemore/AP; iStock; Lily illustration) Anne Branigin
Jan. 15, 2021
Sen. Kelly Loeffler was far from the only conservative to lean on the anger of White voters during the 2020 election, but for a moment, she was among the loudest.
Her recent loss in Georgia’s Senate runoffs is disappointing for Republicans on many levels, the most obvious being that her defeat, along with fellow Sen. David Perdue’s, cost their party control of the Senate. But unlike Perdue, Loeffler’s ascent to power was, in and of itself, a gamble. The rationale of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for tapping Loeffler, a political novice with a Wall Street background, to replace Sen. Johnny Isakson in late 2019 was aimed at keeping educated, suburban White women believed to be turned off by Trump’s rhetoric from jumping ship.
Biden transition spokesperson Jamal Brown told The Hill that the former vice president “will work to enact the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act when in office.
The bill prevent state legislatures from unilaterally making changes to voting procedures, which they’ve been able to do since the 2013 ruling. In states where voting rights activists were successful in boosting the turnout of voters of color, proposals already exist to have sweeping roll backs of expanded voting rights that many states reluctantly introduced because of the pandemic.
Such legislation has appeared in Texas and Georgia, two traditionally red states that became battlegrounds this election cycle.
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After Ossoff and Warnock wins, organizers fight for voting rights, criminal justice reform and more on state and local level
Supporters of Jon Ossoff and the Rev Raphael Warnock in Atlanta, Georgia, on 4 January. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Supporters of Jon Ossoff and the Rev Raphael Warnock in Atlanta, Georgia, on 4 January. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
MaryRetta
Thu 14 Jan 2021 08.00 EST
Last modified on Thu 14 Jan 2021 10.31 EST
On Wednesday, 6 January, Georgia Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Rev Raphael Warnock clinched two Senate seats, bringing the US Senate to a 50-50 split with a Democratic majority once the Biden administration begins. This historic win was due in large part to the work of Black and brown organizers across the state, who spent weeks canvassing Georgia and helping people register to vote, which was often complicated due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The mob smashed windows then stormed into the U.S. Capitol. They brandished flags that supported Donald Trump and the confederacy, and messages that proclaimed stop the steal and no more bullshit. They created an armed standoff at the doors of the House floor, disrupted the constitutional process of certifying the presidential election, and forced lawmakers to barricade themselves behind closed doors fortified with chairs and file cabinets.
Then, many hours later, as a nation reeled, after news anchors spoke of sedition and insurrection in our own capitol, even a coup, determined lawmakers returned to both chambers to finish their work. They filed past broken windows, ransacked offices, even walls newly marked with bullet holes. And then a majority of House Republicans and two ambitious senators eager to seek the White House voted to overturn the results from Pennsylvania and Arizona, citing fraud they could not prove and baseless irregularities no court or state e
Whether we want to admit it or not, Trump's tactics are now a part of the electoral toolkit, and American history unfortunately shows that once in the toolkit, no strategy is off limits.