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Atlanta (Georgia) In the creative district of Little Five Points, which r
Little Five Points creatives, reminiscent of Camden in London, had gathered a crowd for Joe Biden last Saturday, “Victory Day.” They danced on the lawn with the children in their arms. Even the fire truck honked its horn in celebration.
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There was a girl with the “Stacey Abrams for Governor” sign, a relic of one battle lost two years ago and never forgotten, which Joe Biden himself attributed to the suppression of the vote in Georgia. Abrams, black, 46, politician, lawyer and author of romance novels, challenged current Governor Brian Kemp, white, 57, Trumpian anti-abortionist who drove around in a van in case he should arrest illegal immigrants. He was the local secretary of state and refused to step down, remained in charge of the electoral process while he was in the running, making suspicious decisions like the removal from the registers of 107,000 black voters who had not voted in years. For Abrams and his people it was a stolen election, while conservatives argue it’s no different from what Trump is doing now. “I was in mourning for ten days, then I went to work.” She became the icon of a network of volunteers who registered hundreds of thousands of new voters (a necessary step in America to be able to vote). And if Biden has prevailed in this southern state, it is mainly thanks to him.
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Now, after the win, Abrams didn’t wait a day. She appeared on the Cnn: “It’s not over”. Many are exhausted from the election, but in Georgia on January 5 there will be two ballots in which the Democrats will try to parade the Republicans two seats in the Senate. If they succeed, they could reach a tie of 50 seats (Vice President Harris would tip the balance). The challenge is crucial: he will decide whether President Biden can carry out the promised reforms or not. The contenders are Raphael Warnock, pastor of the historic Ebenezer church where Martin Luther King preached, against Kelly Loeffler, America’s richest senator who lives in a huge European-style residence and is married to the president of the New York Stock Exchange. ; Jon Ossoff, 33, investigative journalist who would be the youngest senator since Biden, against Senator David Perdue, who maimed Kamala’s name at Trump’s rallies.
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Across from the CNN Center is the State Farm Arena, loaned by the Atlanta Hawks for early voting: supporters of Trump and Biden, both armed, had lined up here on Saturday on opposite sidewalks. Vex, a young trans girl holding the gun: “Biden won, I defend his constituents.” But how many will now return to vote? In Georgia, Republicans participate in the ballot more than Democrats. “Much will depend on Trump’s legal battle,” says Garrett Ashley, 23, a Republican leader in Clayton County, south of Atlanta. Anger over an election they believe has been stolen could now lead them to mobilize for the Senate. Alison Amoroso, a fifty-year-old democrat of Neapolitan origins with the sticker on the car that says: “If you are against abortion, choose vasectomy”, meets via zoom with about fifty volunteers like her, almost all white, in the mainly black county of DeKalb. Abrams focuses on a multi-ethnic coalition, often citing progressive white women from the suburbs.
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In Georgia where 53.6% are white and minorities will be the majority in 2033, the strategy (which has become a model for states like Texas and Indiana) is to bring disappointed or excluded young people and minorities to the polls for the first time, rather than persuade the undecided as the party had done in the past. “Three things never seen in Georgia are happening – Abrams said on TV – there are two competitive races in the Senate together; unprecedented investments and resources in a run-off; and the promise of access to health and justice that will bring people to the polls ”. According to Amoroso, the key are Latinos: 9% of the population in the “Peach State”, employed in the harvest in the South and in the poultry industry in the North, in Atlanta, lawyers but also bricklayers, cooks and 18-year-olds who can vote (a difference of parents). “The Republicans go to their churches, convince them that they are the party of the American dream.” Republican Ashley explains, “Democrats are Castro sympathizers. They want an Orwellian society. We want the vote to be accessible but correct, they only want it to be easy ». Amoroso fears that Biden will not expose himself enough here, for fear of appearing weak if he eventually loses the Senate, or that it will end like in 2008: “Obama won the presidency, the Democrats celebrated but we lost a seat in Georgia.eand could give him a majority in the Senate. ” One thing is certain: the battle will be brutal.
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November 9, 2020 (change November 9, 2020 | 22:37)
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