Consider This from NPR - Democrats And Republicans Have Lessons To Learn From Georgia Runoff

Episode Date: December 7, 2022

In Georgia, Democrat Raphael Warnock held on to his U.S. Senate seat, defeating Republican candidate Herschel Walker in a special runoff vote. Warnock's reelection is a big win for Democrats, as it gives them a slightly expanded majority in the Senate. It also further supports the idea that Georgia, a historically red state that Democrats managed to flip in 2020, really is becoming more purple.We speak with Republican strategist Janelle King, and Democratic strategist Fred Hicks about the lessons both parties can learn from the results of this contest, as they look ahead to 2024.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu slash forward. For the second time in less than two years, a U.S. Senate race in Georgia came down to a runoff. Dozens of midterm races around America are still too close to call. Let's focus on that closely. Watch Senate battle in Georgia remains too close to call at this hour. In Georgia could very well be headed for a runoff and coming to Raphael. Back in November, it was super close. Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and

Republican challenger Herschel Walker were separated by less than a percentage point. Neither candidate cleared the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright. By law in Georgia, that meant a runoff and another month of campaigning. Here's Walker speaking in Peachtree City in late November. We're not second rate country. We're first. And until we can get leaders in Washington to say we're going to be first, we're always going to be second. Well, when I'm in the Senate, I'm going to fight for us to be first because that's who we are. We've got to be calm. And here's former President Barack Obama campaigning alongside Warnock in Atlanta

just a few days ago. Not only will we keep Georgia and America on a path to a better future? But we will be setting an example for a four-year-old right here. And laying a foundation for him to build on. And that one-year-old over there, and I know I saw a three-month-old here, they're watching right now to see if we're going to get tired. And I'm going to tell them right now, we're not going to be tired. We're going to bring it on home. Let's make this happen. Then, this week, it was still close. If you were watching as

the initial results were coming in on Tuesday night, Warnock and Walker remained neck and neck. More than half of the votes are in and the numbers are still close. Let's take a look. Yeah, deja vu. Except this time, there was a winner. In Georgia's closely watched Senate runoff, Democrat Raphael Warnock walking away with the win.

Walker delivered a concession speech to a room full of supporters who were hoping for a different outcome. But one of the things I said is when they called the race, I said the numbers doesn't look like they're going to add up. But one of the things I want to tell all of you is you never stop dreaming. I don't want any of you to stop dreaming. I don't want any of you to stop believing in America. I want you to believe in America. And this is Warnock's second time winning a runoff election, and it's the first time he's been elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate. And so, Georgia, this is my promise to you.

The work that we must do is difficult. The issues are not simple, they're complex. But here's my promise to you. I will walk with you even as I work for you. After a hard-fought campaign, you got me for six more years. Consider this. Warnock's victory in Georgia is a boon to Democrats in Washington who get to expand their slim majority in the Senate by one seat. Now both Democrats and Republicans are looking at what lessons this runoff in Georgia offers them as they look ahead to 2024.

From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. It's and C's apply. Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education, democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org. It's Consider This from NPR. When it comes to politics, Georgia used to be pretty solidly red. But in recent years, the state has become more competitive, shifting more toward purple. Witness this week's runoff victory for the Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock over his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker,

a victory that gives Democrats a 51-49 edge in the U.S. Senate. To understand what the outcome means for either national party going forward, I spoke with two Georgia-based political strategists. Democrat Fred Hicks is founder of the Hicks Evaluation Group, and Republican Janelle King. She's a panelist on the Georgia Gang on Fox 5 Atlanta, and she is also the wife of former Republican senatorial candidate Kelvin King. I started our conversation by asking Hicks how Warnock's re-election changes the Democratic Party's calculus in the Senate. We had 50 seats, but this race was really truly about securing the majority. So this means that we don't need to enter into any kind of power sharing agreement with Mitch McConnell. This means that Democrats will chair all of the committees. This means that

ambassadorships and judgeships will go a lot easier through the Senate. This means that we'll be able to eliminate some of the backlog of appointees that are sitting out there. And this also means that one particular senator, whether that's someone like a Joe Manchin or a Kyrsten Sinema, will not be able to block a legislative agenda. Now, again, that will be tempered somewhat by the fact that the Republicans have the House, but we are now finally in a position where we can really move forward and not be held sort of political hostage by one or two individuals out there. Janelle, if you can talk about the outlook for Senate Republicans now. Yes. So this is definitely going to be tough. However, we did take the House. And so this is

definitely going to be a battle between both parties. I look forward to seeing if there is a way for us to get things done. What I don't want to see is the Senate send all of Republican stuff back to the House and vice versa, because then we're not moving the country forward. So this is going to force a working together. I'm interested to see what that's going to look like. We've talked a good deal about the national implications of this race and what it might mean here in Washington. But if I could, I'd like to shift our focus a bit to what this tells us about the state of Georgia and its place in politics. This is a state that was central to Democrats' last election cycle, and it's expected to be an electoral battleground in 2024. To both of you, is it fair to now describe Georgia as a purple state?

Yeah, you know, last night, I went back and forth in my head. I was like thinking about this from a unique perspective. So Senator Warnock cannot win without picking up some support in Republican counties. And if Walker had performed a bit higher, which I think another Republican may have done, then I don't think the outcome would have been the same. So I don't think the outcome would have been the same. So I don't know if I'm quite ready to say that we're in a purple state, but I will say that we are definitely balancing out votes to a certain degree. But it's also encouraging to know that this race was so close because that means that the electorate

and the voters are actually paying attention to what people are saying and not necessarily retreating into their corners. So I really want to see if that's going to grow and if we become more of a purple state because we have an electorate of voters who are interested in policy and agenda and not so much narratives. Well, I sort of agree with what Janelle said. Now, I do believe that this has cemented Georgia as a purple state. Now given that Herschel Walker was his opponent, the campaign saw a real opportunity to make forays into Republican strongholds, betting that people would have real issues with Herschel Walker's issues and be willing to cross over or at least

stay home. I do think that Georgia is a purple state, particularly when it comes to the Senate elections. So if you think back to the last few elections, Joe Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes. And then a couple of months later, Senator Warnock won by about 100,000 votes and Senator Ossoff won by about 60,000 votes. The votes are still coming in, but Senator Warnock is going to exceed what he did last time. So it's not just about Hershel Walker. He defeated Kelly Loeffler, and he was the top vote getter in the jungle primary just a few months before. So five elections, and in each one of those elections, he's been the top vote getter. So it certainly, I think, speaks to the quality of Senator Warnock as an individual and as a candidate in the campaign team. But I think it also speaks to Georgia.

Before I let you go, I'd like to put a question to each of you. And that is, what are your takeaways from how your parties each approached this Senate runoff? And what lessons do you take away as you look ahead to future contests? And Janelle, I'll start with you. Yeah, I think that is very, very clear that some of the takeaways that our party is discussing and needs to continue to discuss is how do we value individuals who are quote unquote kingmakers in our party? Do we take their word for it and move forward? Or do we do our own research and make sure that we are taking our vote seriously and doing what's necessary in order to select the right candidates in these races? I mean, I completely understand the logic behind selecting Hershel Walker. I mean, he's a legend in the state and he did have higher name recognition than Raphael Warnock, Senator Warnock. So I definitely understand the logic behind it. But I do think that going forward, we're going to have to take a deeper look into how we select our candidates. But I also

think that we are now shifting our focus to 2024 and 2026, but primarily 2024 in the presidential race. I think that's something that's going to be the big talk right now, because we did see that a lot of the candidates that President Trump endorsed didn't do well. So I'm interested to see how that is going to play a role into 2024. So I think that's going to be the major focus for the Republican Party. And Fred, what about for Democrats? It's going to start to end with messaging. The messaging that we used in the general election just simply did not work or resonate with Georgians. And as Janelle pointed out money on digital, on TV, and on mail in the general election, and not much on doors and on the ground. That was a big shift that we made in the general, in the runoff rather. Senator Warnock put a lot of effort, hired hundreds of people

to knock doors in the phone bank and to do what we call sort of grab and go, meaning, hey, I need you to go and vote today. I need you to go and vote today. I need you to go and vote. And that paid dividends as well, because the Republicans this year really put a lot of work on the ground and we had to match that. That's been a sort of a domain or purview of Democrats historically. I mean, we got away from that, but we need to return to that. So figuring out our messaging in a way that it resonates with Georgians and making sure that we put an army of foot soldiers out there to knock doors and bring our voters out.

That was Democratic strategist Fred Hicks and Republican strategist Janelle King. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers.