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After having lost the elections, the Democratic voters in the South have dramatically changed course. This year they have gone unapologetically as running as authentic progressive. As a result, two of the most closely watched gubernatorial elections in the country have proven to be more competitive than expected – and could result in a new brand of Southern Democrats.
The U.S. currently lacks a single black governor. Three Democratic candidates are running this cycle to change that. Two of them, Georgia's Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum in Florida, have a real shot at making history in two weeks. Abrams hopes to become the first female governor in U.S. history, while Gillum hopes to be the first black governor of the nation's largest swing state.
Both candidates have relatively remarkably similar platforms and deployed some of the same strategies in their campaigns in neighboring states. The two young Democrats have learned from their party's hard-fought losses and have the platitudes of pragmatism that often fail to mobilize voters. Instead, they're running progressive platforms that connect to the working class. Conventional wisdom has long held that progressive Democrats are not politically viable in a general election, especially in a purple state. But the Republican Party's platform can hardly be described as widely popular, and it has not stopped the GOP from winning elections or enacting its agenda.
"Guess what? You have to vote for something, not just against something, "This year's Annual General Meeting Black Caucus conference. "What we're trying to prove we are talking about poverty, criminal justice reform and paying teachers what they're worth, [the] corporate tax rate and all those other issues that frankly matter, "he explained.
This is a comprehensive approach to the problem of gender equality, and it is important to take a closer look at it. South. The old approach of appearing as a "Republican-lite," Gillum argues, will not win a Florida state, which last elected to Democratic governor in 1994.
Instead, Gillum and Abrams have finally adopted a strategy to expand the electorate, which activists of color, have advocated for a long time. It's a strategy that links to high population growth driven by the "reverse migration" of black Americans who left the South in the 1970s but are now returning, along with booming Hispanic and Asian-American populations. Both candidates won the support of college-educated whites in their primaries with progressive campaigns after years of building a coalition with more pragmatic black voters.
Since 2000, the portion of Democrats who identify as liberal has Increased by 70 percent, according to the Pew Research Center. But that shifts in size. Americans identified as liberal, while 71 percent say they are moderate or conservative. Democrats in the South have seemed to be confused by the party's leftward shift, and their usual strategy has been taken into account. It has not worked.
Democratic candidates have Routinely gotten less than 25 percent of the vote in Georgia in recent elections. The incumbent Republican governor, Nathan Deal, beat Jason Carter, Jimmy Carter's grandson, in 2014 by about eight percentage points, or 200,000 votes. Georgia has not had a Democratic governor in 15 years.
It has been a recent election in neighboring Alabama that finally convinced Georgia Democrats to seek a different path this time. After black women were largely credited with handing Democrat Doug Jones his surprise victory Roy Moore in last year's U.S. Senate special election, Abrams
To form Yale Law School graduate and novelist, Abrams won a landslide victory in her May primary, but like Gillum, she was not initially favored by the Democratic establishment in her state. Despite being outspent five-to-one by Gwen Graham, a favorite of the Florida Democratic establishment and daughter of a governor and U.S. senator, Gillum beat her in the primary thanks to a barrage of anti-Graham attack ads by a third candidate, billionaire Jeff Greene. Gillum and Abrams now both face Republican candidates who won their primaries against establishment-backed rivals, to President Trump's endorsement.
In the United States, the most popular political parties in the United States are political opponents. Abrams is the leading minority of the Georgia House of Representatives. Gillum started his ambitious political career while at Florida A & M, a historically black college, and was elected mayor of Tallahassee, the state capital, by age 35. He cemented his progressive for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group. While Abrams had a reputation for pragmatism in the Georgia legislature, she rose to prominence statewide for her efforts to expand the state's electorate, with a focus on young and low-income voters.
Both have used personal stories to connect with disengaged voters. Gillum often mentions his own brother when he talks about being incarcerated in Florida. He opened up most municipal jobs in Tallahassee to the formerly incarcerated. He often notes that he has a child in a working class in Miami. Abrams discusses caring for aging parents in rural Georgia recent hospital closures due to GOP budget cuts.
"Every Georgian, in all 159 counties," Abrams says in her stump speech. "That's expanding Medicaid to keep rural hospitals open." Her opponent, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, opposes Medicaid expansion as too costly and ineffective.
Both are candidates who reflect their communities, irrespective of race. Yet they do not run from their race.
"I'm black. I've been black all my life. As far as I know, I'm gonna die black, "Gillum said during his only debate with Republican opponent Ron DeSantis on Sunday. DeSantis, a former military prosecutor and Harvard Law graduate who gave up a safe haven in the United States, appeared on Fox News the morning after Gillum's primary victory and warned voters to "monkey this up" by electing his rival. Abrams' opponent Brian Kemp, meanwhile, launched his campaign in Trumpian fashion, promising to personally "round up criminal illegals" in his pickup truck. As Abrams often notes on the campaign trail, Kemp has also used "tap dancing" imagery in advertising to characterize her.
So far, Abrams and Gillum have not run from their boldly progressive
When Fox News 'Bret Baier tried to use Bernie Sanders' endorsement as a none-too-subtle form of red-baiting during an interview with Andrew Gillum this week, the candidate did not seem cowed.
"I'm a capitalist. I believe in business, "Gillum Said, expressing pride in his endorsements from Sanders and Barack Obama. "But I also believe in people. I do not think they are contradictory. "
We could not do it without you, Senator @BernieSanders. Let's win in November! #BringItHome https://t.co/mtVzGpZVrB
– Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) August 29, 2018
Gillum has embraced Medicare for All, a $ 15 minimum wage, marijuana legalization and the repeal of the NRA-backed "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law. He marched with Parkland students and connects with suburban soccer coaches against "guacamole green algae," a major environmental issue in the Sunshine State. His business campaign called for the abolition of ICE and the impeachment of President Trump. He is running directly against the underfunding of basic services resulting from decades of state-of-the-art governance, and even calling for a corporate tax increase. All of this in a state where Democrats have traditionally run as centrists.
In Georgia, Abrams has proposed expanding broadband access and implementing a program for financing small businesses in both rural and urban areas. She's reaching out to the business community in a state of mind that Kemp has repeatedly said that it would be an anti-trans "religious freedom" bill that the current Republican governor, vetoed for fear, would dispute business investment in the state. This is intersectional politics in action.
According to the polling prognosticators at FiveThirtyEight, Abrams needs close to 30 percent of the white vote to win. It takes 50 percent plus one to avoid a runoff in Georgia, and there is a Libertarian candidate who is likely to pull two percent of the vote. So it's not out of the question that there will be no clear winner in Georgia on Nov. 6. Either way, Stacey Abrams will fight on.
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