Voters sent a message to Washington on Tuesday, and it was not subtle.
If Tuesday tells us anything, it’s that come this time next year, voters are going to have something to say – and it’s our job in voter protection to make sure that voters get the opportunity to say it.
Republicans don’t want to hear it – they’re working overtime to gerrymander congressional districts and insulate themselves from accountability to voters. But when voter suppression is the problem, voter protection is a critical part of the equation for how we win.
Let’s zoom in a little on Georgia, where Democrats flipped two Public Service Commission seats with an astounding 62% of the vote. There are three key takeaways from Democrats’ success in Georgia – all three of which are values that underpin our work at Power the Vote:
- First, there are no off-years in democracy. There is critical work that we have to do year round to win elections, including supporting voters as they turn out to vote – because every year is an election year. And the work we do now lays the groundwork for elections in 2026 and beyond.
- Two, state and local elections matter. When Republicans have consolidated power at the federal level, state and local elections are how Democrats can check Trump’s agenda and demonstrate to voters that we are working to deliver for them. Authoritarianism wins when voters believe that nothing matters – but wins at the state and local level reinforce a belief in the political and democratic process. That’s why, with our support, the Democratic Party of Georgia ran their largest ever odd-year voter protection program to win races up and down the ballot.
- And lastly, we have to fight for voters statewide. We can’t just focus on the major metropolitan areas. On Tuesday, Democrats made gains in every single county in Georgia compared to 2024, not just the blue counties, and collectively those votes led to a landslide victory for Democrats.
We’re celebrating these wins – even as there’s a big fight ahead of us, there’s so much reason to hope.