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It was four years ago tomorrow that I, angry and fearful, attended my first @DeKalbDems meeting. Before 2016, there had been only a dozen or so people at a given meeting. Two hundred+ of us showed up. At first, we mostly just consoled each other. 1/
Then, we directed our anger into planning. First, we got ourselves organized. Instituted new post seat holders (the voting body of a county organization). Made committees. Sketched out a vision of what the next four years would look like. 2/
There was a statistic we referenced a lot: DeKalb County had enough likely Democrat non-voters that, if they voted, the state would turn blue. How did we turn them out to vote? That was our focus. 3/
We all spent weekends and weeknights in meetings and training sessions, studying data and maps and creating spreadsheets and doing a whole lot of, frankly, really boring stuff that we call GOTV (Get Out the Vote). 4/
We formed a lot of friendships along the way. Some people moved away. New folks jumped right in. We were disappointed when Ossoff lost his special election, but we kept on going. 5/
Then, in 2018, it was time to stop planning and time to start hustling. Sneakers on pavement. Knocking on doors. Again and again and again. Charting our progress (I've spent way too much time on the Minivan app). Talking to everyone we met. 6/
And the impact was huge. State house seats shifting to Democratic. Higher turnout county wide. It was exhausting, and it was brutally disappointing that Stacey didn't win (especially the way it unfolded). More to do. 7/
Even in the 2020 general, we didn't totally hit our potential. But over the past two months, we've been after it. Chasing down folks who needed their ballot cured. Knocking on the doors of people who hadn't returned absentee ballots. Dropping literature. 8/
I designed the campaign literature, but I also went door to door and handed it to people. Again, sneakers on pavement. Anyway, you know the resolution. DeKalb turned out huge, realizing that potential. Non-voters became voters. Georgia became blue. 9/
All credit in the world to Warnock and Ossoff and Stacey, but this happened because EVERYONE pitched in and did the work. You'll never begin to know who those people are, but they saved this country. I'm proud to have worked beside them. 10/10
