DNC makes major field investment in GA-06 Special Election
May 18, 2017
Today, the Democratic National Committee is announcing a major investment to boost Democrat Jon Ossoff’s bid ahead of June’s special election runoff for Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District seat vacated by current Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.
The DNC’s investment will allow the Democratic Party of Georgia (DPG) to hire ten new field organizers who will specifically target voters in Georgia’s Sixth District who did not cast a ballot in the April 18th jungle primary.
In April, over 48,000 African American voters, nearly 18,000 AAPI voters, and nearly 12,000 Latino voters were registered to vote in GA-06 but did not cast ballots.
The new organizers will be representative of the communities in which they are organizing to talk directly to voters in their neighborhoods. Over the next five weeks, they’ll work with volunteers for community to community phone banks, canvass block by block, and organize drivers to transport voters in these communities to the polls throughout the Early Voting period and on Election Day.
Additionally, the DNC and DPG will seek to increase visibility efforts by producing materials and signs in multiple languages and engaging community centers and local businesses to assist with outreach efforts.
“The emerging coalition of African American, Latino, and AAPI voters in Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District have been at the heart of the resistance and will be at the heart of Jon Ossoff’s victory in June,” said DNC Chair Tom Perez. “Jon Ossoff is in a strong position to win next month, and Democrats will continue to make gains in Georgia, because we’re working to talk to every single voter in this district by every possible means and leaving no stone untouched.”
“Our field program is centered around two core values of our Party—every community must have a seat at the table, and we cannot take a single vote for granted,” said Democratic Party of Georgia Chairman DuBose Porter. “We’re building long-term relationships with voters in the 6th that will help us win not only in June, but in cycles to come. The DNC has been supportive of this effort from the onset, and we could not ask for a better partner.”
The measure is part of the DNC’s commitment to rebuilding the Democratic Party from the ground up by investing in strong state parties to elect Democrats up and down the ballot from the school board to the Senate.
In addition to this program for the GA-06 special election, the DNC is launching Resistance Summer, which will bolster state parties’ organizing efforts, and help Democrats convert grassroots energy and enthusiasm into wins up-and-down the ballot.