For immediate release
Media Contact: Samantha Hart, srhart@communitychange.org, 540-470-0480
Community Change Action/Voters, Asian American Advocacy Fund, and Black Male Initiative Fund Host Media Briefing on Electoral Organizing Strategy and Voter Attitudes in Georgia
(Georgia) – Last Tuesday, Community Change Action/Voters were joined by Asian American Advocacy Fund and Black Male Initiative Fund to host a virtual briefing on issues moving Georgia voters and to share about their electoral organizing strategies in the state.
Community Change Action/Voters kicked off the call by giving an overview of the organization’s electoral organizing program, which employs an innovative approach to engage high potential voters of color and low income voters. Franco Caliz-Aguilar, Co-Director of Electoral Powerbuilding for Community Change Voters and Action, credited the organization’s track record of reaching these voters to partnerships with trusted messengers like Black Male Initiative Fund and Asian American Advocacy Fund.
“The thing we really believe in is that relationships and community matter in the so-called off years without elections. Our state partners do work year-round and are deeply embedded in their communities talking to folks about their city councils, what’s going on in their neighborhoods, and what challenges they’re facing.” said Caliz-Aguilar. “They feel the impact when Atlanta Medical Center closes. They’ve seen how folks have been priced out of their homes in the last decade in Atlanta. And they work with new arrivals to make sure they understand the history of the area. Because of our partners, we’re able to make a difference locally and nationally.”
Caliz-Aguilar also shared that Georgia voter attitudes are mirroring the country at large, with Black women especially energized to be a part of this historic moment.
Asian American Advocacy Fund, an organization dedicated to building a politically-conscious, engaged, and progressive Asian American base in Georgia, spoke next.
“At the heart of our strategy this fall is our direct voter contact program. Our goal is nothing short of reaching every single AAPI voter in the state. By November, we will have knocked on over 35,000 doors and made 250,000 phone calls, focusing on key counties like Gwinnett, Fulton, and Cobb,” said Deputy Director Ashna Khanna. “What sets us apart from other organizations doing similar work is our ability to be culturally responsive and provide in-language information to our voters. It really makes a difference to our voters to see canvassers at their doors that look like them and care about the same issues that they do. Our events not only get out the vote, but create a sense of community and belonging.”
Liz Lee, Organizer and canvasser for Asian American Action Fund, shared more about her work:
“It’s one thing to see an advertisement on a screen that you can scroll away from in even less than a second. It’s another to have a face-to-face conversation with someone who can name you, listen to your concerns, and carry them back to organizations that then align their work with what you care about, which is a lot of what canvassing for AAAF is about,” she said. “Our core team is less than 20 people, and yet, we’re running programs that reach thousands and thousands of voters! From now until November, we’ll be providing voters with the information they need to vote all the way down the ballot.”
Black Male Initiative Fund, an organization seeking to create effective outcomes for our communities by empowering black men economically and civically through the use of direct action, advocacy, and grassroots organizing, then spoke.
“It’s critical to understand that inside of our communities there has been a drum beat around how we (Black men) don’t show up in the political sphere and why, as a result of that, we don’t have a voice in the political arena. A lot of the work that we do is centered around dispelling those myths and being clear about the fact that Black men have been part of a progressive voting bloc since the first time we had the access to vote in this country,” said John Taylor III, Co-Chair of Black Male Initiative Fund. “We spend a lot of time studying, speaking with, working with, and gathering data from Black men in our communities so that we can build the right kind of messaging tools and apparatuses necessary to engage them, activate them, and get them to the polls in a way that is responsive, responsible, and accountable to what we need in our community.”
DK Paxton, Program Director for Black Male Initiative Fund, said, “Our biggest program right now is our canvassing program. We go directly to the doors, we go to hotspots, we go to events in the area, just different things around Georgia to engage our people. There’s a total voting population of 6.6 million Georgians that are registered to vote. 948,000 of those are Black men. Right now, we have knocked over 214,000 doors and had over 25,000 conversations – all over a span of 135 days.”
This briefing is the third in a series Community Change Action/Voters plan to host in key swing states including Wisconsin, Arizona, and nationally leading up to the 2024 election. You can watch the full Georgia media briefing here.
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