Friday morning, post-election Day 3 and the voting tallies for Georgia and Pennsylvania now show Joe Biden leading. Perhaps by the end of the day we will have official state certifications sufficient to declare Biden-Harris have received enough votes to secure 270 electoral college votes. For those of us who see in Trump and Trumpism the prospect of destruction for our republic, this is very welcome news.
As the tallies in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philly and Atlanta have propelled Biden into the lead, what's become clear is that his trajectory owes its rocket fuel to Black Americans, particularly Black women.
Black women organizers on the ground in key states,
Black women candidates up and down the ticket, and
Black women strategists like Adrianne Shropshire of BlackPAC, Yvette Simpson of Democracy for America and Glynda Carr of Higher Heights.
Just look at Georgia: Keisha Lance Bottoms, mayor of Atlanta and early endorser of Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams who a decade ago set out to organize and mobilize voters in Georgia for Democrats.
Veteran activist Denise Oliver-Velez says it so well:
This tweet sums it up:
So, my hope is that 'the learning' for the Democratic Party from this cycle will be:
Center the most loyal, reliable demographic in your party when you're considering which candidates, policies and strategies to deploy;
Stop wasting resources chasing the *mythical* disgruntled white Obama-to-Trump voter; and
Deliver policies & results that fulfill your promises to the voters who made your win possible.
In the meanwhile, champagne is chilled and waiting the moment to toast when 270 votes are declared and I can celebrate a huge victory for American democracy!
As I sip those bubbles, I'll be thinking of folks like these South Carolinians I met working for Kamala Harris's primary campaign.
We owe them so much.
