Politics

How Democrats Are Relying On Black Pastors In The Georgia Senate Race

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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ATLANTA — “We are indeed the swing vote,” says the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

It’s Wednesday night, less than a week before the election here that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate, and nearly a hundred people have poured into a small gathering room at the historic church made famous by its former pastors, Martin Luther King Jr. and his father.

After singing and dancing to praise and worship music, the energetic, sharply-dressed Warnock preaches about Ephesians 3:20 and Matthew 19:20. Then he gets to politics.

“We’ve been talking about all the power that’s been sitting on the sidelines of our electoral system, as the demographics of our state are changing,” he tells his congregation, who are sitting on plastic chairs and taking notes in their Bibles. “Everybody’s talking about all the power voters of color have.”

“That’s right,” someone in the congregation shouts out loud.

“Amen,” a few other people say in agreement. One woman in attendance has with her a campaign sign for Jason Carter, the Democratic candidate for governor.

Warnock makes an obligatory statement about how he can’t technically tell his parishioners who to vote for — that could jeopardize the church’s non-profit tax status. But everyone there knows who Warnock really supports.

“I can’t stand here and tell you which way to swing it,” Warnock says to the knowing laughter of the crowd. “But I’m trying to tell you that you got the power to swing the state which ever way you want to swing it.”

Ebenezer Baptist Church

(Creative Commons / Cameron Mitchell)

Georgia Democrats — especially Senate candidate Michelle Nunn — are relying on pastors like Warnock to get the black vote out, especially since African-Americans traditionally don’t show up in large numbers at the polls in non-presidential election years.

“If they were to hit 30 percent of the vote being African-American, they’re in the game,” Ralph Reed, the Republican political operative in Atlanta and longtime Christian conservative activist, says of the Georgia Democrats. “Anything below that, and they’ll lose. Anything above that, and it’s probably too close to call.”

To reach that threshold, Democrats in the state have gone nasty in recent days: They are stirring up racial fears in the black community, outraging conservatives and talk radio hosts in the state who call it racial demagoguery at its worst.

“If you want to prevent another Ferguson in their future,” reads one inflammatory mailer sent to black residents in the state. “Vote.”

The flier references the events in Ferguson this summer where a white cop shot and killed a black man.

Showing a photo of two children holding “Don’t Shoot” signs, the flier says: “It’s up to you to make change happen.”

Another flier tells black voters: “It’s up to us to vote to protect President Obama and his legacy as the first African-American president. … His name isn’t on the ballot. But his presidency is on the line.”

Both fliers were paid for by the state Democratic Party.

“I mean, this is divisive,” Republican Senate candidate David Perdue told The Daily Caller during a brief interview this week in Alpharetta. “It’s inflammatory. It’s totally unnecessary. … They’ll do anything to win. And I just think it’s very disappointing.”

As for Nunn, the Democratic candidate acted ignorant about the language in the Ferguson ad when The Daily Caller caught up with her during a campaign stop at a Macon restaurant.

Asked to explain why another Ferguson-like situation was more likely to happen if Perdue was elected to the U.S. Senate, Nunn collected her thoughts.

“My understanding is what it said is that we need everybody to get out and vote and make sure that your voice is heard,” she said.

“It said ‘Prevent another Ferguson,'” TheDC replied.

Nunn, who had been asked about the flier in multiple other interviews, still disagreed.

“It said make sure that you are represented and that you have your voice heard,” she said. “And so that’s what I think that people need to do. That’s what I’ve been focused on the entire election.”

As for the pastors, they’ve been most helpful this year in getting their congregants to the polls during the state’s early voting. Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church played a leading role in organizing the recent “souls to the polls” effort, as some Georgia counties allowed early Sunday voting this year.

In these counties, black pastors organized buses and vans to take parishioners directly from church to the polls.

FILE -- Barack Obama listens to Rev. Raphael Warnock

FILE — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama listening to Rev. Raphael Warnock during a service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Jan. 20, 2008. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

Inside Ebenezer on Wednesday night, a stack of pamphlets with information on early voting were placed on tables. A link on the church’s website directed parishioners to fill out a form to reserve a seat on the bus to the polls.

“I’m 62,” Rev. William E. Flippin, Sr., the senior pastor of the Greater Piney Grove Baptist Church in Atlanta, said in an interview. “And I can remember as a boy, the civil rights movement was from the church. Whenever you saw Dr. King march, and the dogs, you always saw a church nearby. All the mass meetings were held in churches.”

“We saw that on the Sunday,” he said. “Here was everybody moving in one direction. And it was to vote. And it was to hope for a better, more understanding, government.”

Flippin described several political issues motivating black voters in Georgia: There are five black women running for state-wide offices, which has energized them.

But blacks are also upset at incumbent Republican Gov. Nathan Deal over not expanding Medicaid under Obamacare, and his recent announcement that the state will require the quarantine of “high-risk” travelers from Ebola-stricken countries who land at Atlanta’s airport.

“I think a good many blacks are sick of that,” Flippin said. “And that makes people want to vote.”

Asked where the money comes from to support “souls to the polls” efforts, Flippin said of the buses and vans: “Yes, we sponsored them.”

He estimated that about 200 people from his church participated in the “souls to the polls.”

The Georgia Senate race is crucial: a loss here would complicate the GOP’s efforts to regain control of the Senate. If neither candidate exceeds 50 percent on Tuesday, a run-off will be held in January.

But campaign aides from both the Perdue and Nunn campaign privately told TheDC they expect their candidate to win outright on Tuesday, predicting that undecided voters would break their way and the Libertarian Party candidate wouldn’t get as many percentage points as the polls have indicated.

During campaign stops this week, the Perdue campaign was buzzing about a SurveyUSA poll showing Perdue leading Nunn 48 percent to 45 percent.

Despite efforts of pastors to get black voters out to vote early, the poll indicated that those who had already voted favored Perdue by 10 points.

As Nunn’s campaign tries to get blacks to the polls, Perdue’s campaign is focusing on turning out the conservative vote.

“We are not a purple state,” Perdue aide Martha Zoller, a former Georgia radio host, told supporters at a recent campaign rally. “We have to get the people out to vote.”

Nunn is also banking on high-profile surrogates to energize the black vote: earlier this week, Democratic Rep. John Lewis attended a rally for Nunn, invoking the civil rights movement: “Almost 50 years ago, I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Alabama. I almost died for the right to vote. Some of my friends died. We’re still alive, so you have to go out there and vote like you never voted before.”

Even President Obama called into a black radio station last week. “If Michelle Nunn wins, that means that Democrats keep control of the Senate. And that means that we can keep on doing some good work. So it is critically important to make sure that folks vote.”

And this week, Bill Clinton is expected to appear in Atlanta on Friday at a rally with Nunn and Jason Carter, who is the grandson of Jimmy Carter.

Like Warnock at Ebenezer, Flippin of Greater Piney Grove Baptist Church emphasized that he doesn’t tell his congregation for whom to pull the lever.

“We are very clear,” he said. “We didn’t tell people who to vote for. I did say who I was going to vote for.”

“You can’t tell the people who to vote for,” he explained. “You cannot. But you can state your preference as a pastor. You can say, ‘I can’t tell you who to vote for, but I’ll let you know who I’m voting for.”

But who did he tell his congregation he was voting for?

“I said straight Democratic ticket,” Flippin said with a chuckle. “And the church applauded.”

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