Last week, over 4 million Georgians voted early or showed up at the polls to elect their state’s next senators. The stakes were especially high in this race, as Republicans hold 50 seats in the Senate and the two Georgia runoff elections were to determine whether Democrats would flip the Senate, gaining two additional seats to total 50, like their Republican counterparts. In the case of an equally split Senate, the President of the body—who will be Kamala Harris—becomes the tie-breaking vote of the chamber.
Reverend Raphael Warnock (D) challenged incumbent Kelly Loeffler (R) and Jon Ossoff (D) challenged incumbent David Perdue (R). Both Democratic contenders won their races, beating the incumbent Republican senators with 51% and 50.6% of the vote, respectively. The election made Senator-elect Warnock Georgia’s first Black Senator, and Senator-elect Ossoff Georgia’s first Jewish Senator and, at age 33, the youngest Democratic Senator elected since Joe Biden in 1973. Another aspect of these elections was also historic: the Latino turnout.
While Georgia has historically been a Republican stronghold, the tide is clearly turning. In both the presidential race in November and the Senate runoff elections, Georgians have delivered wins to Democratic candidates. As grassroots organizers like Stacey Abrams have noted, some Southern states, like Georgia, have not historically been red states because they have more Republican voters, but rather because minorities—like the African American and Latino communities—have faced electoral systems that have systemically and enduringly suppressed their votes.
The Latino electorate, which predominantly leans Democrat, is growing quickly and therefore presents an important opportunity for Democrats all throughout the country. In Georgia, nearly 10% of the state’s population is Latino. Approximately 377,000 Latinos are eligible to vote, making up 5% of the potential electorate, and 270,000 are registered voters. When the margins are as thin as they were—Warnock beat Loeffler by 93,659 votes and Ossoff beat Perdue by 55,354—the importance of the Latino electorate becomes evident.
Because of this, Democratic organizers rallied the Latino vote in the weeks leading up to the elections. Georgia-based and national organizations provided resources and manpower to register and turn out Latinos, and prominent Latino figures like Julián Castro, America Ferrera and Eva Longoria joined Warnock and Ossoff on the campaign trail. Fair Fight, the grassroots organization started by Stacey Abrams—who spent years working to reverse the state’s voter suppressing patterns—also focused some efforts on the Latino electorate. Their hard work paid off: in Georgia, minorities turned out in record numbers, and their votes turned the state blue, handing Democrats control of both the White House and the Senate.
Latinos, for example, surpassed their runoff turnout rate many times over. In a 2018 runoff race in Georgia, only 10% of Latinos who had voted in the general election showed up at the polls again for the runoff. The Monday before this year’s runoff, 65% of Georgia Latinos (79,782 people) who had voted early in November had also voted early in the Senate runoffs, shattering their turnout records even before the polls opened on election day.
As Democrats gain control of the Senate, we thank organizers in Georgia and beyond for their extraordinary efforts to register and turn out minority voters. And to the Latino electorate we say: your vote matters, let’s continue shattering records and making our voices heard!