Georgia turnout efforts ramp up with November lessons in mind

WASHINGTON – Both parties are ramping up their turnout efforts for the pair of Georgia Senate runoffs on Jan. 5 as early voting starts Monday. And they’re also keeping some lessons from November in mind.

For Democrats, that means expanding in-person campaigning, which was largely put on hold before the November elections because of the pandemic. Republicans are working to make sure their voters, who believe President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the Georgia election was stolen, still cast their ballots.

It’s not just the campaigns and state parties working to mobilize voters. The national parties and a constellation of outside groups are barnstorming the state, with Senate control on the line. If

Jon Ossoff, a former congressional staffer and documentary filmmaker, defeats GOP Sen. David Perdue and Raphael Warnock, a pastor, defeats appointed GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Democrats will control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

“It’s really not an exaggeration to say we are in an unprecedented situation,” said Tim Phillips, senior adviser for Americans for Prosperity Action, a conservative group that’s spending $12 million on turnout efforts in Georgia, with more than 200 staffers on the ground and plans to knock on 1 million doors.

These mobilization efforts are critical because turnout historically drops in special elections and runoffs. The last time the Peach State hosted a Senate runoff, in 2008, turnout dropped 43 percent, from nearly 3.8 million voters in November to just over 2.1 million in a December runoff.

Turnout in the upcoming elections is expected to be higher than past runoffs, given the attention and money flooding the state’s airwaves. More than $400 million has been spent on ads so far.

“There is so much attention on this race, there’s got to be very few people who don’t know that the runoffs are happening,” said Shaniqua Mcclendon, political director of Crooked Media, a company that was founded by former staffers for President Barack Obama and has recruited 7,000 volunteers to help with the Georgia runoffs.

“Getting them to turn out is a different story,” Mcclendon added.