Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams (D-Ga.) visited Newton County on Nov. 3 as part of her “Let’s Get it Done” early vote bus tour. About a dozen Oxford students and 100 residents attended the rally, which was held at a local Communications Workers of America union building near campus.
“I’m running for governor because I believe Georgians deserve more,” Abrams told the Wheel. “They deserve more money in their pockets, they deserve more opportunity and they deserve more freedom.”
Abrams added that college students should vote for her because she believes in their future.
“Right now, they have fewer rights than I had at their age, and I don’t think that’s right,” Abrams said. “We need a governor who wants to expand our rights, not take them away.”
The distinctions between Abrams and Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) — who has served as Georgia’s governor since he beat Abrams in the 2018 gubernatorial election and secured his second term on Nov. 8 — weighed on Oxford students’ minds at the rally.
Since being elected governor, Kemp championed the heartbeat bill to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, legalized conceal-carry of handguns in public spaces without a permit and enacted a $2 billion income tax rebate, with most Georgians receiving between $250 and $500.
Andy Waisser (23Ox) said he came to the rally because he was a long-time follower of Abrams.
“I’m a huge fan of what Stacey Abrams has been doing since the beginning in 2018, just like pushing people to vote,” Waisser said.
Former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams poses with a group of Newton County residents, including Oxford College students. (Eva Roytburg/News Editor)
Young Democrats of Oxford Discussion Coordinator Jessica Malvin (24Ox) agreed, saying that Kemp has neglected social issues such as advancing women’s rights, but Abrams pushes for social issues, inclusivity and voting rights.
“Her perpetuation of inclusivity, really in all aspects and especially in voting rights, separates her as a candidate,” Malvin said.
Abrams began the rally by discussing the first time she visited the governor’s mansion. Though she was raised in Mississippi, her family — whom she described as “working poor” — moved to Atlanta when she was 16 years old. Abrams graduated as the valedictorian of Avondale High School in 1991 and was subsequently invited to a gathering for valedictorians of Georgia high schools at the governor’s mansion.
Upon seeing that Abrams and her parents took the MARTA bus to the mansion, the security guard outside of the building told her that she did not belong there, Abrams recalled.
“He looked at a MARTA bus that had janitors and nurses, teachers working second jobs so they could make ends meet,” Abrams said. “He did not see someone who he thought belonged at the guard gate.”
Ultimately, Abrams said the guard let her in after getting a stern talk from her parents.
“What I remember that day was a man standing in front of the most powerful place in Georgia, looking at me and telling me I don’t belong,” Abrams said. “But on Nov. 8, we’re going to tear those gates wide open.”
The gubernatorial candidate then spoke at length about a variety of issues, including the recent closure of the Atlanta Medical Center, which she blamed on Kemp.
“This is a hospital that has survived 110 years, but it couldn’t survive four years of Brian Kemp,” Abrams said, earning her several whoops and hollers from the crowd. “If anything needs to be on life support, it should be his career in politics.”
Abrams also honed in on education policy, saying she is committed to making all technical colleges free. She noted that Georgia is one of two states in the nation that does not provide need-based financial aid, the other state being Wyoming. If elected, Abrams promised to expand Georgians’ access to the HOPE Scholarship, a merit-based aid program.
In 2021, 21% of Newton County residents older than 25 held a bachelor’s degree or higher. This is notably lower than the 2021 U.S. average of 37.9%.
“I want [students] to dream big and work hard and stretch themselves,” Abrams said. “I don’t want them to pick an easy major because they’re afraid of losing financial aid.”
Covington resident Wendy Rodriguez (17C) said that as an owner of a small photography company, Abrams spoke directly to her struggles with attaining credit, while other politicians promote tax write-offs for the wealthy. She added that she was “shaking” after the event.
“I definitely walk away happy to know that I voted for the right person to represent Georgia as a whole,” Rodriguez said.
Abrams was confident about the results of the Nov. 8 midterms at the rally, despite eventually conceding on Nov.8 after she was lagging several percentage points behind Kemp.
Former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams poses with Jerry Carter, the chief deputy of the Newton County Sherrif’s Office after the Nov. 3 rally. (Eva Roytburg/News Editor)
This comes four years after she refused to concede after Kemp’s win by 1.4 percentage points in the 2018 gubernatorial election, claiming that Kemp was an “architect” of widespread voter suppression which led to her loss. In July 2017, Kemp, who at the time served as Secretary of State, purged 670,000 voter registrations and another 53,000 a month before the election. Abrams has since founded Fair Fight, an organization dedicated to voting rights issues in Georgia.
According to Emory University Associate Professor of Political Science Zachary Peskowitz, voter suppression is “systematic efforts to discourage people from turning out to vote.” He cited that Georgia currently does not allow its citizens to be permanent absentee voters as an example. Because of this, Georgia voters must request an absentee ballot each election, potentially deterring people from voting as they could forget to order a ballot, do it after the cutoff date or not want to make the effort to request one.
Voting in Georgia is especially difficult due to a variety of policies that reduced the amount of time people have to request absentee ballots and removed many 24-hour ballot drop boxes around the state, Peskowitz said.
Early voting is a convenient way to secure one’s vote because it gives citizens a three-week window to go to the polls.
“If something comes up on the day you were intending to vote early, that’s OK,” Peskowitz said. “You can do it again next week, or you can do it again later.”
Additionally, citizens can go to any precinct in their county to vote early, but have to go to their designated precinct on Election Day.
Emory Fair Fight U President Carly Colen (23C) cited Senate Bill (SB) 202, a new set of voting laws passed in March 2021 that include new barriers to voting such as outlawing anyone except poll workers from handing out water to voters in line within 150 feet of a building that serves as a poll. Additionally, the bill outlawed anyone to serve food within 150 feet of a building that serves as a poll.
“There were a lot of implications of [SB 202 and] definitely a lot of new hurdles,” Colen said.
Many student organizations on campus, such as Fair Fight U and the Emory Votes Initiative, pushed the Emory community and those around it to vote early in an attempt to combat voter suppression. Student representatives handed out voter registration forms around campus and hosted events to remind students to vote. According to Colen, Fair Fight U hosted a “Party to the Polls” event along with Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Activists, Emory Votes Initiative and NAACP on Oct. 28 that began with a small rally before students walked to the Emory polling location at 1599 Clifton Road.
Georgia has experienced record highs in early voting turnout this election cycle, with over one million people casting their votes on the first day of early voting.
“Giving more people equal opportunity to vote makes the electorate more representative of society as a whole,” Peskowitz said.
News Editor | Eva Roytburg (she/her, 23Ox) is from Glencoe, Illinois, majoring in philosophy, politics and law. Outside of the Wheel, Roytburg is an avid writer of short fiction stories. In her free time, you can find her way too deep in a niche section of Wikipedia.
