Former President Barack Obama, campaigning in Atlanta on Thursday for Sen. Raphael Warnock, told the crowd they had to go out and do it “one more time.”
He paid homage to those who struggled in previous generations, like the late Georgia Rep. John Lewis, and that struggle needed to continue even when victories seemed to be won, even when the spotlight was off.
“If they didn’t get tired, you can’t be tired,” he told a crowd of several thousand people assembled at Pullman Yards, a one-time rail facility now an art and music venue.
He underscored why—despite widespread messaging that Democrats with 50 seats have “won” the Senate—it was still essential to elect Warnock: to give them the 51st seat and an actual majority.
He pointed to several pieces of legislation to emphasize what Democrats had been able to accomplish by winning two Georgia Senate seats in 2021 to reach 50-50 in the first place. Vice President Kamala Harris has the tie-breaking vote.
“An extra senator gives Democrats more breathing room on important bills. It prevents one person from holding up everything” —an apparent allusion to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)— “and puts us in a better position.”
And he, of course, trashed the Republicans generally and Walker specifically.
“Their strategy is to scare you and confuse you and bamboozle you and make you believe your vote does not matter,” he said.
“They’ve spent millions of dollars here in Georgia to get their folks to show up and get you to stay home.”
He said of Walker, “he does not have the competence or the character or the track record of service that would justify his representing Georgia in the United States Senate. He reminds you every time he opens his mouth.”
Warnock raised more than twice as much money as any other Congressional candidate in the country this election cycle, almost $176 million through Nov. 16, according to Federal Elections Commission filings. He’s spent nearly $169 million of that. Walker has raised almost $59 million and spent about $49 million.
Obama and Warnock pounded the Democrats’ now-moot squabble with Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over a single day of early voting, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Raffensperger said state law barred it, the Democrats successfully sued to get it back, and the Republicans appealed unsuccessfully. Only a few counties took advantage of it.
Raffensperger’s deputy, Gabriel Sterling, said in a television interview that wealthier and heavily Democratic metro Atlanta counties had used it, giving Democrats an electoral advantage the law was meant to avoid. In contrast, poorer, smaller, Republican-leaning rural counties couldn’t afford to. The law specifying when early voting can be held had been passed with a heavy majority and bipartisan support, Sterling said.
Obama spoke five days before Warnock’s scheduled Dec. 6 runoff with Herschel Walker.
All polls show the Senate race, which will determine the Senate’s precise balance of power, very close. Since June, Warnock has spent more than $100 million on ads attacking Walker’s character and fitness for office, but they seemingly have had little impact.
Walker, the former Georgia Bulldogs and NFL football star endorsed by former President Donald Trump who won an overwhelming victory in May’s Republican primary, fell 38,000 votes behind Warnock in the Nov. 8 general election.
Warnock got 49.4 percent of the vote and Walker 48.5 percent, with Libertarian Chase Oliver’s more than 81,000 votes accounting for the rest. That no candidate got more than 50 percent of the vote forced the runoff between the two leading candidates.
Following midterm elections, Democrats have a 50-49 margin in the Senate, guaranteeing them at least a share of power there, with Republicans now controlling the House of Representatives. If Warnock wins, Democrats would have a clear 51-49 majority and control of Senate committees.
If Walker wins, the 50-50 split and its power-sharing arrangement will give Republicans the power to check much of the Democrats’ agenda. The current Senate has had Democrats as committee chairs but an equal split between the parties in membership.
Obama is the biggest name to appear in Georgia with Warnock, who has had few national Democratic figures join him on the campaign trail. He campaigned on Oct. 28 for Warnock and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who lost as Republican Gov. Brian Kemp was reelected.
Pullman Yards is an old industrial site once used to repair passenger and freight rail cars. The site has symbolic value: the company was one of the largest employers of African-American men during segregation. They had their own labor union, the Pullman Porters, and the jobs were regarded as some of the best and most prestigious a black man could get. Now owned by Atomic Entertainment, it’s used as a filming location, and hosts live music, concerts, and art exhibits.
