On this Election Day, I am reflecting on the many elections I’ve been privileged to participate in as a voter, a donor, and a campaigner — and how good it feels when the choices I make on the ballot are the winning candidates. In every case, even the ones in which my candidates didn’t win, I had the satisfaction of knowing I had done my part as a citizen in a democracy.
I’m feeling that this morning, casting my vote in this vitally important election in my home state of Georgia. We made history here in the last election, sending the first African American and first Jewish senators from Georgia to Washington, balancing power in the Senate, and turning Georgia from red to purple.
In this election, there is an opportunity to make history again and “bend the moral arc towards justice,” as Martin Luther King, Jr. demonstrated is possible. Our state is one where the scales of justice swing widely between a legacy of racism, religious fundamentalism, and misogyny and a growing community of people with a commitment to inclusion, innovation, and envisioning the possibility of a very different future. A future where the governor can be a dynamic and experienced Black woman leader and where our representatives in state and federal governments will fight for the restoration of essential rights for women, a fairer, more inclusive economy, and a more sustainable environment.
Such is the nature of today’s choices for voters — not just in Georgia but in so many other states — voting for leaders who will lead forward, who will commit to reunite our polarized communities and country, who are committed to solving the climate crisis so that to our children have a future, who will reclaim rights for women, and restore the respect necessary for the US to have a positive role in an increasingly discordant, polarized, violent and vulnerable world.
Yes, all that is at stake in this election — nothing less than the future which can either be our "best times" if we make fully informed choices or our worst times if choices are made based on dark money attack ads — one of the biggest threats to our democracy, along with voter suppression and efforts to limit this essential right to vote.
So please vote today and make sure everyone you know is voting. Text your family and friends. Volunteer to text or call voters today. Drive someone to the polls. Volunteer to answer voter calls for information. This is a code red election — every vote matters!
As I’ve made clear in several posts during the past year, the choices for me were clear — Stacey Abrams for Governor; Senator Warnock for re-election to the Senate; Nikema Williams to return to Congress; Jen Jordan for Attorney General; Bee Nguyen for Secretary of State; and down the ballot for those I believe will lead this state forward to its best times for all. The choices in other states —Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin—among others, are also clearcut.
I’m counting on women and young people to show up here in Georgia and everywhere to vote in numbers that will make history and make it clear that reproductive rights must be restored everywhere and that actions must be taken to protect and preserve the planet and implement solutions for a more equitable share of the earth's resources.
While Iranian and Afghan women fight for the right to education, jobs, and freedom of movement, and Ukrainian women fight for their lives and the security of their borders, and millions more women face challenges we can only imagine, I am hoping to see American women rise to this challenge and join those fights, to exemplify the resilience and courage of the American women and men who protested the racism and sexism that once prohibited more than half the population of our own democracy from voting for their leaders. Still today, we are voting, marching and advocating to ensure that our "best times" are ahead of us — for our children and for our grandchildren.
Today that power is in our hands, women can determine this election. In nearly every state, we are the majority of the voting population. Combining those numbers with the young voters in our country, who must vote now for their future, we have the numbers and the power to change the "nature" of power in our states and our national government, and in doing so, exemplify once again how a democratic government can and will protect and preserve the rights and freedoms for all.
Onward!
- Pat
