The Daily Signal - What Georgia Voters Think About the Political Direction of Their State

Episode Date: January 7, 2021

Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff appear to have defeated incumbent Republicans Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue, giving the Democrats a majority in the U.S. Senate. Georgia’s two runoff elections were required under state law after no candidate received a majority of the votes on Nov. 3. Janae Stracke, the grassroots director of Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm of The Heritage Foundation, has been on the ground in Georgia for weeks to mobilize voters.  Stracke joins "The Problematic Women Podcast" to explain what it takes to run a grassroots campaign effort, and what she heard from voters on the ground in Georgia, who are concerned over the direction in which their state appears to be headed.  We cover these stories: The U.S. Capitol was breached by a violent mob Wednesday afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) warns his colleagues of the danger of further challenging the 2020 presidential election results. Vice President Mike Pence tells Congress that he would not block the certification of the 2020 presidential election.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get the yes you've been waiting for at Capital One.ca.ca. slash yes. Terms and conditions apply. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, January 7th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Virginia Allen. On Tuesday, all eyes were on Georgia as two Senate runoff elections took place. Jenae Strachie, the grassroots director of Heritage Action for America, spent weeks on the ground in the Peach State mobilizing voters. Strachie joined me on the problematic women podcast this week to talk about what she heard from voters on the ground in Georgia and what it takes to conduct a grassroots campaign effort. We're excited to share that conversation with you all here today.

And if you enjoy this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. And please encourage others to subscribe. Now on to our top news. The U.S. Capitol was breached and put into lockdown Wednesday afternoon with videos on social media showing alleged Trump supporters fighting with Capitol Police. Representative Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat, tweeted, I am in the House Chambers. We have been instructed to lie down on the floor and put on our gas masks.

Chamber security and Capitol Police have their guns drawn as protesters bang on the front door of the chamber. DeBlazes Elijah Schaefer tweeted a video of Trump supporters fighting Capitol Police. Here's the audio from that. Schaefer wrote, Revolution and process as Trump supporters break into the Capitol building, attacking police, breaking windows, and knocking down doors. Adding that, the people have pushed through and are storming to main chambers. Trump tweeted, I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence. Remember, we are the party of law and order. Respect the law and our great men and women in blue. Thank you.

Senator Ted Cruz tweeted, those storming the Capitol need to stop now. The Constitution protects peaceful protests that violence from left or right is always wrong. And those engaged in violence are hurting the cause they say they support. One woman was shot in the Capitol. According to CNN, which cited the Metropolitan Police Department, the woman died at a Washington area hospital later on Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, spoke on the Senate floor Wednesday

and warned his colleagues of the danger of further challenging the 2020 presidential election results per the Hill. The voters, the courts, and the states have all spoken.

They've all spoken. If we overrule them, it'll be would damage our republic forever. McConnell added that while he has supported the president's right to use legal means to challenge the results of the election and ensure its accuracy, Congress does not have the right to overrule election results. If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral. We'd never see the whole nation,

except an election again. Every four years would be a scramble for power at any cost. The electoral college, which most of us on this side have been defending for years, would cease to exist. The Senate leader further challenged Republicans to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, saying Democrats spent the past four years challenging the validity of Trump's election, while those on the right condemn those challenges. There can be no double standard, McConnell said. Senator Ted Cruz, who challenged Arizona's vote, said per CBS, I would urge both sides perhaps a bit less certitude

and a bit more recognition that we are gathered at a time when democracy is in crisis. The Texas Republican added, recent polling shows that 39% of Americans believe the election that just occurred, quote, was rigged. You may not agree with that assessment, but it is nonetheless a reality for nearly half the country. Cruz and 10 other senators and senators elect were calling for an audit of the election to be completed in 10 days. Vice President Mike Pence told Congress in a letter Wednesday that he would not block the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

In the letter, Pence said, it is my consider judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution, constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not. The vice president added that some believe that as vice president, I should be able to accept or reject electoral votes unilaterally. Others believe that electoral votes should never be challenged in a joint session of Congress. After a careful study of our constitution, our laws, and our history, I believe neither view is correct. continued on to explain that in the instance of the 2020 election, he does not believe he has the constitutional authority to not certify the election results. President Trump responded to the

letter in a tweet writing, Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our Constitution. President Trump addressed supporters on Wednesday prior to the storming of the Capitol. Trump said, we will never give up. We will never never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved. He later added, referring to Joe Biden, we'll have an illegitimate president. We can't let that happen. Trump also said, Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back, adding, we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. We are going to have to fight much harder. Now stay tuned for my conversation with

Janice Strachie, the grassroots director of Heritage Action for America, as we discuss the Georgia Senate runoff election. Americans use firearms to defend themselves between 500,000 and 2 million times every year. But God forbid that my mother is ever faced with a scenario where she has to stop a threat to her life. But if she is, I hope politicians, protected by professional armed security, didn't strip her of the right to use the firearms she can handle most competently. To watch the rest of Heritage expert Amy Swearer's testimony on assault weapons before the House Judiciary Committee, head to the Heritage Foundation YouTube channel.

There you'll find talks, events, and documentaries, backed with the reputation of the nation's most broadly supported Public Policy Research Institute. Start watching now at heritage.org slash YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe and share. On Tuesday, Georgia had two runoff elections between Republicans, Kelly Leffler and David Purdue, and Democrats Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff. This election was a huge deal, not just because it determined who would represent Georgia in the Senate, but also because if Democrats won both seats, that would essentially give the Democrats control of the Senate. So to help us understand the importance of this election, what happened on Tuesday, and what it takes to run a grassroots campaign effort is Jeney.

Strachie, the grassroots director of Heritage Action for America. Janae, welcome back to the show. Thank you. It's always good to be on. It's so good to have you back. And I do want to give our listeners just a heads up. Janay is amazing and so kind and is awesome to be doing this interview actually at the airport in Atlanta, just getting ready to fly back to the D.C. area.

So as you're hearing right now, flights are going to be announced while we're doing the conversation. this is all part of that grassroots look, what it looks like to be on the ground, doing the hard work, and we're so glad it's taking the time to chat with us this morning. But, Jeney, Heritage Action for America, or Hafa, as we often call it, is the grassroots arm of the Heritage Foundation. So you all actually engage in political campaigns, and that's exactly what you've done in Georgia over the course of the past two months. So let's begin with the most pressing news, and that is what happened to do. Georgia on Tuesday. Now, I do want to let our listeners know we're having this conversation Wednesday morning. So, of course, information and results are going to continue to come out the rest of the day Wednesday into Thursday morning. But can you let us know what your thoughts are

on the results right now? Yeah, that's right. So as you said, I'm on the ground here in Georgia. I've been here pretty much every weekend and then some for the last seven weeks. And we've been down here with our grassroots organization or grassroots, which we call Sentinels. We've been on the ground, door knocking, making phone calls, sending text messages, all sorts of stuff we've been down here doing, and we can talk a little bit more about that later. But, you know, an initial analysis from last night, it does look like Kelly Leffler has lost her race. David Purdue is still in the running. There is at least one county that still needs to be counted, as well as some absentee and I believe military ballots. So it's really close. And I think we knew going into this,

it was going to be razor-scent. That's why having our grassroots down here and, you know, all the time, money and energy that we spent on this race was so crucial and was so important because we knew, I mean, this could come down to a few votes. We've seen that happen before. And I think that will be the case with Purdue's race. So every vote counts. And that's what we've been saying from day one, this was really an election about voter turnout. That was what it was going to come down to is who base showed up. Well, and as we've seen, there was a really strong turnout. There were over three million individuals who voted early in Georgia and then over a million that turned out on election day. That's a really high turnout for a runoff election. I know

many individuals in Georgia were really happy to see that. Yeah, that's right. I think just the scope and nature of this election, all eyes around Georgia, the entire nation was watching and the entire nation was talking about it. And that's because this has impact on the entire nation. So I think Georgians felt that pressure and were probably engaged more than they normally would be. So there definitely was high turnout based on traditional turnout for a special election like

this. I think what was interesting is so Heritage Action spent our time in five counties predominantly around the Atlanta proper in the Atlanta suburbs. And that was that was an area that really hurt, hurt us in the general. We really needed to make sure that conservatives showed up here, that showed up for conservative values. So that's where we've been spending our time. And based on, you know, the initial reports, at least, it looks like more. suburban moms came out than they did in the general. And so, you know, that tells me that we were in the right place doing the right thing. But unfortunately, it was the rural counties and the rural areas that hurt a bit more on turnout. So it's interesting to see those numbers flip from the general

to this special runoff where suburban moms showed up and the rural areas did not. So I think there's probably a few reasons for that. But I think ultimately that will be what hurt us. Well, and why do you think that is? Why was there that lower turnout in the rural areas? You know, I think there's a few different reasons for it. One being, what we already talked about, is that turnout is just traditionally lower for a runoff election and people, for whatever reason, don't make it as much of a priority. And maybe there wasn't as much of a push there. You know, we were canvassing in the suburban areas, which is an important place for us to be. We can't be in every county, certainly.

But, you know, maybe they needed that extra push. We were sending text messages. But I also think that a really big part of this are the Trump's base. You know, many of you are probably hearing some of the rallies happening in Georgia from lawyers such as Lynn Wood. You know, there was one in particular where he actually called on Georgia residents to not vote. because he was upset about the general election. And, you know, there were many, many, many conservative organizations, conservative elected officials that were down here touring the state saying,

please show up and vote. You can be upset about the general election. We should fight with everything we have to make sure that our elections are fair and that there is integrity within our systems. but the worst thing you could do is stay home. If you don't vote, then, you know, there's one way to be sure that your vote isn't counted, and that's to stay home and to not vote. So we were all making a rally and cry for people to show up and vote anyway,

but I do think that that ended up hurting us. Well, we're going to be continuing to watch those results as they roll in. As of Wednesday morning, the Associated Press was reporting 98% of the vote reported. And like you mentioned, we're especially, keeping close eyes on the Purdue race to see as ballots continue to be counted. That one is really razor thin right now. But, Janay, I want to chat a little bit just about the work that you all did on the ground. I mean, running this sort of grassroots effort is a ton of work. Can you just tell us what did a normal day look like for you over the past two months?

Yeah, well, when we're on the ground here, I mean, a normal day was rallying the troops. We've been recruiting our Sentinels, as I said, to come join us in Georgia. We obviously have some here in Georgia, but we had people traveling in from all over the country, California, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, everywhere. Nebraska. I mean, I'm telling you, we had grass seeds coming from everywhere because they knew what was on the line, and they were willing to put their lives on the hold, on hold, sacrifice their personal time, finances to show up in Georgia and do everything they could to turn out the conservative vote.

So a typical day was, you know, if we had new grassroots that hadn't been on the ground yet, we would start out training them on how to doork. Some are really experienced and have done this before, have helped with various campaigns. And others were here for the first time and we're like, you know, we don't know what are doing, but we want to help. And so we would train them. It was, you know, very user-friendly. anyone can do it. It's a little intimidating at first, but then we would send them out. We would meet back for meals and they would door knock all day. And, you know, we also had thousands of people across the country that were making phone calls for us, sending text messages. So the outpouring of support from our grassroots is really incredible to see. We ended up exceeding our goal. We contacted over 1.5 million Georgia voters and ended up increasing that goal to 2 million. So,

We were really pleased with the work that we were able to do. We hit our goals and then some, and that was only possible because of all the help of grassroots from around the country. The other thing that we did was worked with our grassroots to get signed up as poll workers and poll watchers. This is really a crucial part of an election. We did this in the general as well. Down here in Georgia, we had well over 300 volunteers sign up. to work in various counties. And some of the stories that I was getting from those volunteers yesterday were great to hear,

some positive, some neutral, some were reporting suspicious activity or what they thought to be illegal activity and we would make sure that was reported and handled. But what really stood out to me were the volunteers that were reaching out to me and saying, I'm the only conservative here. Or, you know, there's two of us here. we came together were the only conservative. And that again tells me that, you know, we were exactly where we needed to be. We were doing exactly what we needed to do. If our grassroots rent there, there would have been no conservatives at that county or at that precinct. So every bit that our

grassroots were doing was vital. And I do believe made an impact. At the end of the day, we'll see how this turns out. It might swing in favor of Purdue. But I really believe that without the grassroots support, this would have looked really different. So as you all were engaging with people in Georgia, as you were knocking on doors, sending those text messages, and then even at the polls on Tuesday, what were you all hearing from Georgians, from the people that live in the state? Mostly it was positive. We spent our time knocking predominantly with our base. There were definitely some independence in there, some undecided. But, you know, it was predominantly our base. As I said earlier, this was a lot about voter turnout.

This is a really unique election, and we weren't trying to change minds. And, you know, a huge part of that as well is that Georgia has been saturated. That you can't turn on your TV or radio or open your mailbox without receiving something about this election. So almost everyone, talked to. Nobody answered the door and said, who? I don't know. Who's the candidate? Everybody knew. If you open the door, it was within a few seconds you could figure out if they'd already voted or not, but their mind was already made up. Most people knew they were going to vote for. And I would say it was a relatively positive response. Most people I spoke with personally were like, oh yeah, you don't have to worry about me. I've got my plan. know, even just yesterday talking to people, a lot of the conservatives I spoke to are dumbfounded, for lack of the better word. I mean, they're really just wondering what happened, you know, why is our state going this direction?

So I think it's a wake-up call for Georgians because they're really, you know, there's a lot of conservatives down here that thought, we're a deep red state. This is really baffling to them to even see, you know, the fact that they're having, a special runoff at all. The fact that it's as close as it is is really shocking to them. Well, and Georgia, of course, has been a red state for about 20 years now. So as you've kind of been in the weeds of that campaign world and really on the ground in Georgia, digging into what is the situation, you know, were you kind of able to answer that question for any of those folks who are asking, wait a second, I'm conservative.

I thought I lived in a really conservative state. What's going on? Yeah, well, I think Georgia is not all that different from a lot of our other states where you can have a red state, but you've got these dense city urban populations where that's starting to shift for a variety of reasons. Certainly the younger vote has a big impact on that. And often younger people are living in those urban areas. So I think it really is the city that swing on this. And I think that combating that is going to be twofold. We certainly need to continue doing what we're doing traditionally, you know,

just saturating the field and educating people. But we really have to get ahead of it. It's not enough to talk to voters a month before the election and try to convince them vote for it. We have to change hearts and minds. And that's what Heritage Action is all about, is education and working with our grassroots to make sure that they're informed and equipped, not only to know where they stand on issues,

but to be able to talk to their friends, family, neighbors, their kids, their grandkids, and Heritage Action, we've been down here on the ground in Georgia, but we didn't just pick this up in Georgia. We've been doing this all year in swing states, and we just transitioned what we've already been doing, to Georgia. And we plan on continuing these grassroots efforts. I really think that that is where the political landscape is shifting. It's going to be face-to-face conversations. And so we're

going to keep working in important swing states and being on the ground, building those relationships, having those conversations, and trying to change some hearts and minds and win elections. You know, if we do, maybe we'll hang on to produce the and, and, and, and, and, and bias some time. But, you know, elections are not final. Even Warnock, who we, I believe, has beat Leflare. He's going to be up for re-election again in, in 2022, because this is a special election. So that's, that most, most senators are going to go in NBN for six years. That's not the case for him. So elections are not, um, so elections are not. final. We can't give up. There's going to be a new fight tomorrow and Heritage Action is

is not going anywhere. We're going to keep fighting. Well, that's good to hear because we need people like yourselves to keep fighting to be on the ground. Talk a little bit about why you do what you do. I mean, it is pretty grueling to go in, do all of this work on the ground. And then, you know, as we're seeing right now, you know, it looks like Leffler has lost her race. And that's got to be discouraging when you have put so much work into trying to, you know, really back a candidate that you believe in, really advocate for values that you believe in. And then it doesn't always work out the way that you hoped and the way that you've been working for. Yeah, that's right. I mean, yeah, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't discouraging.

It's, of course, you know, not fun to lose. But I think that to answer your question, why I do what I do and why Heritage Action does what we do is because we believe in freedom. We believe in America. We believe in the Constitution. And we're going to fight for that no matter what. So, you know, as I already mentioned, elections are not final. Deceit is not final. Victory is also not final.

So I think in this line of work, and really for any American, whether you work in, whether you work in politics and policy or not, it impacts your life. this is and should be something you care about. And as exhausting and frustrating as it can be, we can't give up because it's never final. And, you know, I think the left does that really well. They've been chipping away at our values and what we stand for in America for decades. This is not new for them either. I think we're in the position we're in now because really comes down to our education system and people, you know, our understanding of history and what.

America really stands for on why we operate the way that we do what the Constitution says has been chipped away at for a really long time. So we cannot give up. We have to match that by equally fighting and not saying, oh, you know, well, it's a slippery slope. We've gone too far. All is lost. No, that's not true.

We have to keep fighting. And, you know, you've maybe heard this quote before. It says perfectionism ad hoc is error. It tries to eradicate and destroy it. Excellence embraces error. It builds on it and it transforms it. So we at Heritage Action are striving to be excellent and we'll always evaluate. All right, we lost this race.

Why do we think that is? Do we need to change our strategy? How do we further the policy? I mean, at the end of the day, that's what elections are about. We want to win elections so that we can win policy. So really it comes down to the policy battles and we're going to spend the next two years still fighting for policy and looking for unique strategies to still win. Well, in the work that you all do at Heritage Action, it's so important, but it's also so unique because, you know, it's not just people sitting in, you know, Washington behind computers. You all are out there.

You're on the ground and you're mobilizing community. through your Sentinel program. And so much of your work in Georgia was completed and achieved through volunteers. And so much of, you know, mobilizing people to get out and vote. We had that high voter turnout, I believe exactly because of people like the Sentinels. Can you talk a little bit about the Sentinel program and how our listeners can get involved, can learn more, and can join you all in their own state, in their own communities? Yeah, that's right. I mean, you said it well. This is just, these are just American patriots who love America. That is really the fuel to me personally and what I do. I love getting out in the fields and interacting with our sentinels. I mean, as I said earlier in the interview, they have sacrificed a lot. You know, it's my job to be down here in Georgia, but many, it's not all of the sentinels I'm working with sacrificed time at their job, their finances.

with their time to come and help with this. And I see that every day working with them and it is truly inspiring. So they're cream of the crop, incredible people. They're also from all different walks of life. Some of them are involved heavily in politics in their communities. And others, you know, come with zero experience and are just worried about where the nation is going. And they want to help be a part of change and make a difference. And so I would encourage any of our listeners to go to heritageaction.com backslash sentinel.

Again, it's heritageaction.com backslash sentinel. You can sign up there. You're going to get connected with a regional coordinator who lives in your area. It can answer any of your questions. We'll connect you with other sentinels. We have meetups and sentinel summits where we do in-person trainings. I host a weekly call that updates everyone on what's going on Capitol Hill. upcoming battles, the strategy on it, we want to make sure you know what's happening before

you're hearing it on your TV. By the time the news is talking about it, it's usually baked and decided. So we want to be strategic about our influence and make sure that you know about the issues that matter while you can still have influence and impact with your members at Congress. So we have all sorts of different resources for you. And again, don't be intimidated if you haven't been involved in any kind of activism before. There are all sorts of things you can do in all different skill sets. So we need you. We would love to have you join. Again, you can sign up at heritage action.com backslash Sentinel. What's wonderful. Jenny, thank you so much for your time. We'll let you catch your flight now, but we just really appreciate you coming on the show.

Talking to us about Georgia, what happened. And of course, we're going to continue to monitor the situation and watch those votes rolling specifically for Purdue. So thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave us a review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcast. And as always, please encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening. We'll be back with you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. It is executive produced by Kate Trinko and Rachel Del Judas, sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop.

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