ATLANTA — A top Democratic Party-aligned nonprofit is teaming up with a coalition of left-leaning grass-roots groups in a multimillion-dollar effort to get Georgia voters out to the polls for the runoff election between Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D) and GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker.
Majority Forward, a nonprofit affiliated with Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with the America Votes coalition to spend more than $11 million to mobilize voters ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff. The goal is to knock on more than 4 million doors before the election, according to details shared first with The Washington Post.
The America Votes Georgia coalition — which includes nearly 50 national and state partner groups including the New Georgia Project Action Fund, Black Progressive Action Coalition, Mijente and Asian American Action Fund — has already knocked on more than 2.8 million doors since the general election, Majority Forward shared. Majority Forward’s investment will help fund the coalition’s ground game and paid media, including radio, mail and digital ads.
“We’re deeply proud to continue our partnership with the America Votes coalition and to double down on our investment in an unmatched ground game that is fighting for every vote ahead of the runoff,” JB Poersch, president of Majority Forward, said in a statement.
The investment comes less than a week before the runoff and as early voting is already underway in the Peach State. In-person early turnout has been breaking records, with Georgians turning out at historic levels on both Monday and Tuesday. Over the weekend, more than two dozen counties conducted early voting.
More than 833,000 Georgians had already voted in the runoff as of Wednesday morning — and in-person early turnout has been breaking records.
Georgia voters on Tuesday set a record for turnout on a single day of early voting with more than 309,000 people heading to the polls, according to Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Georgia Secretary of State’s office. That surpassed the record set on Monday when more than 301,000 Georgians voted early. Before that, the record was from the 2016 election when more than 252,000 voters cast ballots on a single day of in-person early voting.
Early voting in all 159 counties is only taking place on weekdays this week, after Georgia’s voting law passed last year tightened the timeline between the general election and runoff from nine to four weeks. The runoff is necessary because neither Warnock nor Walker hit the 50 percent required to win outright under Georgia law. Warnock received about 35,000 more votes than Walker in the general election.
“This runoff election is about defending democracy and protecting our fundamental rights,” said Greg Speed, president of America Votes. “We are encouraged by the strong enthusiasm and turnout we saw in the November election and will use that momentum to propel us to victory in December.”
America Votes calls itself the “central coordination hub of the progressive community” as it works with more than 400 state and national partner organizations. The America Votes Georgia coalition played a key role in building out a ground game operation ahead of the 2020 election and 2021 runoffs. This year, the coalition of groups said that it has been out canvassing since the summer, knocking on more than 26 million and making nearly 1 million calls before the general election.
This month, Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), announced that it was teaming up with Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to launch a $2 million ground operation on Walker’s behalf. Kemp, fresh off his victory over Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, agreed to share his ground data and analytics operation.
The conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition shared this month that it was aiming to knock on 400,000 doors, targeting mid-to-low propensity evangelical voters. Former Republican senator Kelly Loeffler’s mobilization operation, Greater Georgia, has also been working to get conservative voters out to the polls.
Leaders, consultants and organizers on both sides of the aisle have emphasized that the election outcome will come down to turnout from their bases. But both campaigns have also sought to court the more than 200,000 general election voters who supported Kemp for governor but did not vote for Walker.
Top Republicans such as Sens. Ted Cruz (Tex.), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Rick Scott (Fla.) have come to the state to urge Georgians to support Walker. Former president Barack Obama, who hosted a rally for Democrats in Atlanta last month ahead of the general election, will return Thursday to campaign with Warnock.