We were hearing the National Media talk about black folks. Vote but more importantly we wanted to build power in our community so we could have impact on policies that were impacting us. So we started black voters find and black in order to have a really robust democracy you have to do work to engage voters on the ground level, on the local level so that they could chip the policies, and take a chip representation for the communities. Why did your organizing approach look like this year . With did you do at on the ground to get more black voters to not only register, but the show up and vote. A couple of things. When we did start this, year we started into thousand 16 and we never stopped. One of our things is cant, stop wont stop. Oftentimes in the black community you often see people come around election time, right, and its not like if a friend who only close when they want something, you never excited to see them. But for us the way that we felt we would build power is that we would build a base. We had to continue to engage communities, and the first thing that we learned is that all politics are local. We started working with many of the communities including from georgia and the other 11 states that we are working in to support them around local elections, to hold referendums, so we have been building a relationship and our support of them overtime, for the last four years. In addition to that, we actually show up and support as we see power. So as theyre working around the School Board Races or other races and really be able to educate people around voting, at the process of voting, we support them on that. We actually provide grant dollars for groups this election cycle, over 600 black lead grassroots organizations, we were going to make an investment into resources so they can build their own programs. In addition to that we were able to give them tools, from phone banking to text message in campaigns, and we were able to create a coordinated campaign so that we working in concert with each other all across the region, all across the states that we are working in. So i think that the things that weve done have made a difference. One, recognize the politics and local real the capacity of groups where they exist. The second thing is the way that we talk about voting. We talk about voting young. The idea is about participation. But for us, voting is about, power and really be able to educate and connect our community is not the panacea, it will resolve all of our problems, but its certainly a leverage of power and we want people to use their agencies so we can have more influence on people to select the representation for our communities. Being able to hold people accountable, take people out of office that need to be removed and really be able to shape policy. And the third thing that we thought whats really important in order to influence the narrative and what i mean by that is i know as a black senator i was extremely frustrated that even in the National Media platforms you would hear the sound talked about as if we were just a football team. Theres a red team and blue team. No im part of the humanity team. Its not who i am as a label. Its who i am as a human being, and what we want and our communities what are better schools. We want more access to resources and Economic Development opportunities. We want to it all other americans want sos really important that we were shifting the narrative who we are in the south. And that theres a new south or new coalition of people in the south that are rising to really be able to shape this country at shape our state that we want them to be so that theyre more accountable to, us and so that we actually benefit from the fruits of our labor. Do you consider your organization a partisan organization . Are you reaching out to just black democrats or black democrats, black republicans, black independents, black libertarians . Are you registering everybody . Our organization black voters matter our goal is that we would let black voters in. Thats our entire goal. To provide civic representation and engagement. When registering people we dont ask them what party they are voting for. What canada. What were interested in is are we able to talk to black people around their process, around the agency, and really understanding the political process. We do have other organizations, that oftentimes in that organization were really able to resolve all candidates, not necessarily just belong to a particular party but because the community that we are working with has decided this particular candid is the best candidate for our agenda. Our focus is on building independent black political power in a way that we can leverage, make some changes, and ships in our community. Now were you able to see any specific results from your strategy that you said you have been working on since 2016 . Can you point to any specific results from the 2020 election . Absolutely. I think weve got many receipts. The biggest result that weve seen it in georgia. Their lot of people that did a lot of work in georgia. We are so proud that we were one of the organizations that work with the coalition of groups in georgia. Georgia has not particularly in the last election cycle, a state that you saw, particularly when you look at a anticipated election, there were more black voters that participated in this election that would effort present elect biden that voted for obama. Part of what we wanted was to increase engagement. When you look at the counting areas in the black belt region of, georgia oftentimes theres a lot of focus and emphasis on the urban areas, and the metro center. But when you look at the numbers around, when you look at the home you also saw a increase in the savannah, albany, other places in the black belt of georgia that are a little bit more rural. When you look at how i think a lot of the messaging, the young, people the National Percentage of voting this election is 70 . In georgia it was 21 , so it works. The bottom line is that part of our work is to get people to get engaged. Part of what we believe is that america currently, 45 , almost half of the country dont bother to participate in the election cycle. We dont believe is a country we dont care, we believe that people in the country are disconnect to the process because you dont sense of power. They dont feel a sense of their own agency to really understand how voting in that elections could help advance or cheat or shift their lives. So lot of the work that we are doing is really getting them engaged in those populations, and young people, and other marginalized populations who are often not tot or sought for their support. So what we are really proud of is that we think with outcome of georgia, to have such a high turnout, the young people voting, people of color voting, we believe that resulted in work from organizations and others that i can go from the georgia project, georgia stand up and others that have created the space to really be able to increase our voting education and impeachment strategy that is centered around people in their power. Not necessarily political candidates and their party. Let me remind our viewers that they can take part of this conversation. That means democrats, you are at two two seven eight, 4000. Republicans year at independence, [inaudible] , and you can always text us. We are always reading on social media, twitter, facebook, facebook. Com slash cspan. I know that part of your story starts with your run for office in 1988 for a alarmist eat, tell us about how that affects your race and what youre doing now. You know its interesting. Its amazing that that was 20 something years ago. I think of Voter Suppression. Thats when i knew a Voter Suppression but i actually experienced it. I was a young woman. I was 28 years old. Owes running for state board of education. I have done a lot of education reform and Youth Leadership work, so i wanted to make it impact in the state and really be able to lift a policy issues that i felt like would be needed. So ran for office. I was certainly the under god. I ran against a 12 year incumbent who is a minister, who had been a favor for, years here i am a young single woman who had never run for office in her life. Quite frankly, he didnt know what she was doing other than i knew the cars that are supporting. As a matter of fact, i ran the campaign and it cant. Goes i had my front random so that was the campaign office. As i ran the campaign and was able to organize on the ground, i also learned a important lesson in the organizing. Works when you talk to people organizing works. I went all around the state to talk to people in all of the areas that i was working, ken and ultimately, what ended up happening was two weeks before the election i got a phone call to calm and see someone whos very powerful in the state, only to discover at that point that the people had as running neck at neck, which was remarkable that i was running in case such a strong incumbent. So Election Night the race was so tight that they can call. It seven days, back, so i understand these drawn out processes, so the seventh they they called the election and the results were that my elect opponent had 117 where votes that i had. I accepted it, i conceded. I called him and congratulated. Him i was prepared to move on. In the state of alabama, i was running the state of alabama. After the Election Results, the state certifies the election. The state certified Election Results at 12 noon. Ive got a phone call at 12 05 from my mentor to tell me, senator handke sanders, said to brace myself that the head of the Democratic Party was going to give me a call. I said okay. So he called me. He said the tasha, i just want to let you know that im so sorry to make this call to you but theres a sheriff in one of the counties that you ran, each county that i carried, i did very, very strongly in that county. The sheriff said that he found 800 votes that he had placed in the safe that he had forgot. I guess he remembered three minutes after the race was certified, and me in my navy i said thats great. Kept the votes. In my mind thats another chance. I just wanted those votes counted, so 800 votes, you got the votes, you know their legitimate votes. He says its not the simple. The race has been certified. We cant get the votes because the race has already been certified. So back to the moment, i felt completely powerless. I was like theres nothing you can do . So here is a person who has had votes. That conveniently remembered that he was interested by the people to be able to protect those votes, and he conveniently remembered seventies after and three minutes after the race was certified. Thats when youre working face to face against Voter Suppression. And nothing happened. When i asked what was my recourse it was you can seek legal remedy. We know oftentimes that those cases are often very hard to over turn, but at the time i was a first term candidate who had run on a grassroots campaign, there was one of the first thing i learn from the race was how insidious Voter Suppression how common it was. As i started to talk to other candidates and other people, particularly those rural areas, i recognize that Voter Suppression was an issue. It was a issue that identify. If people voted that they should actually have their vote cant. So i became a major proponent for the rest of my life making sure that peoples vote can outs. The second thing that i learned in that process as well was how we need to create more accountability measures. Those who are bad actors in this process, we have to hold them accountable. If they lived those stories up to let people know. The third thing that i learned in that process is that organizing works. I as a young woman to know what i was doing. I had never run for public office. I was running against a incumbent. But would i knew how to do was and you had to organize. I knew that i should go to get people and talk to folks, listen to them, and you can actually make a difference. All of those things have been part of shaping my work as i look 20 years later im still doing work thats informed by that moment. Its informed by that experience that i had. And it has actually field my commitment of why i fight so hard for Voting Rights, and why i fight so hard to make sure that every person has their voice and their vote counted. Some of our viewers joining the conversation. We will start with calling from atlanta, georgia, on the independent line. Good morning. Tom im an African American. Me im not a republican or democrat. The democrat party, [inaudible] most black people vote democrat. Joe biden is the biggest races there is. He has said many racial things before. He had friends that were kkk, segregation, they said we understand whats our. Vote for him. How can you called donald trump a racist when joe biden is the biggest races there is . And even if you overlook his racial statements, [inaudible]. You wanna respond . A couple of things, i think its really interesting that when we talk about comparison, even when shes raising around biden, youre talking about 20 years ago. I can give you examples around donald trump just a few months ago, a couple of weeks ago. Who aligned himself with the proud boys. Who said to stand down and stand back, which is known by even the fbi as a white supremacist group. This is a woman who has done work around structural racism, i dont take that. I think you align yourself with white supremacist, thats a problem. Donald trump has a consistent long history around discrimination, including, in his own property. And you know what donald trump has done. So im not gonna waste my time with trump, because we have other things. But aside from that, but i would like to raise, is that part of what black people have voted for is there is an assumption that we are voting for something other than what were voting for. We have a tactical strategy, and black people vote. Black folks voted and made a decision. At the majority of us made a decision despite all the misinformation. Because some of the information that the colors, raising im not familiar with. And i have not heard of, i havent even checked into some of that. Ive seen some of that align, and some of that could be substantiated. What i do know, is that there is a African American woman that is on the ticket. Kamala harris, that will be the Vice President elect, that makes me happy as a white black woman who has dedicated my life to black representation. That makes me happy. And i look at some of the policy issues, things that i want, but the biden platform, that resonated with me. With whom he surrounding himself, i saw black women in his campaign, i saw black people in his campaign. Black women that i respect and admire. Folks who i know are committed to our community. That makes a difference, to me. So for me, the candidate with who were doing work, and this black voters matters, i work as necessarily around as just a candidate or the party. I work, and we are talking about us, were making a practical decision of who can we represent, who can we support, that wants to help reduce to harm happening to our community. That will be more accountable to our community. And has at least a track record of engagement in our community, around the things that we care about. So the fact that the matter is, i think we are keep going back and forth round two candidates, that i think are distinctly different. Because yes, i understand that this shows that america is way more than one race in this country. Theres quite a few of them. But i also know, as someone who has dealt with that issue, that there is a distinction between even racism and white supremacy. And we have to be able to draw a distinction in that line. It creates a very dangerous environment for me, my community, and the people that i love and i care about. And there is an unraveling of democracy. One of the pieces that i think was very dangerous around donald trump, and he continues to do as we speak, is to unravel democracy. As a person who is a native from selma, alabama, where people were being on the bridge 55 years ago, because we understood that our protection and safety, of having a democratic government, was far, far more safe for us. Right then, fundamentally, he has done everything to unravel democracy, which creates another danger for our community. So i am certainly happy with the results that we have, and i am certainly happy that most black folks are sophisticated voters enough to know the difference between racism and white supremacy. We are also sophisticated enough to know that there are many people who seek to exploit black pain, and well come up with misinformation, not because they really care about racism. We heard that coming from the trump camp. Its not like they really care about racism. We see his actions every day. That he would also use it as an opportunity to exploit black pain. And a third, and final thing that i will say, is that i think there has been a movement of folks in a racial intergenerational coalition, that has been building ourselves, growing and organizing, so that we can shape whoever is in office. And we can actually put pressure on whoever is elected in office, to make sure that our gender and our issues are also considered and are part of the gender general agenda going forward. We have a lot of calls waiting here. So lets go to robert, who is calling from utah. On the democratic line. Robert, good morning. First thing, you are the sharpest dresser there is. You are looking good. Miss brown, i am hearing, i dont know, but im hearing that black men are not as enthusiastic about voting democrat as they may have once been. Im wondering, i mean nobody would understand blackmon more than a black woman, so is there an effort to focus on that and get the guys back into camp, because we are going to need everybody. You are looking at the run numbers, the overall numbers over the nation, we cant afford to lose anybody. I was wondering if you are making an effort to do that, and thank you, and i will take off the air. Thank you for the question. What i will say, i think there is an issue around, not just men in general. When you look at black man, let me offer this, black man voted for biden at a higher percentage than any other Constituency Group in this country. White men, white women, let next, native americans. Black man voted at a higher Percentage Rate for biden, than any other Constituency Group in this country, with the exception of black women. And i