In 2020, all eyes turned to Georgia as no candidate in the state’s two Senate races received 50% of the vote, throwing the state into an instant runoff election that would decide which party would control the Senate. The incumbent Republicans, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, were running across the two Democrat candidates, Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock.
Swing Blue Alliance (formerly known as Swing Left Greater Boston) volunteers pulled together a stunning campaign for Georgia in such a short period of time. Efforts focused on two areas: writing postcards and phone banking to get out the vote. Our team of volunteers spent 27,200 hours of their time dedicated to Georgia’s runoff election.
Postcarding for Georgia
Swing Blue Alliance teams started volunteering for Georgia immediately following the general election. They kicked off postcarding campaigns to encourage Georgians to vote, whether by mail or in person. In a matter of weeks, the team mailed over 550,000 absentee ballot requests and sent 59,000 get out the vote postcards.
This dramatic effort helped ensure that more than 115,600 Georgians registered for absentee voting who didn’t vote in the 2020 general election when Democratic Senatorial candidates trailed Republican candidates by only 88,000 votes.
Phone Banking for Georgia
The team also immediately kicked off phone banking efforts in Georgia after the general election concluded. This was crucial to get out the vote — and it worked. More than 3 million Georgians voted early in the election, a historic record for a runoff election, and many believe these votes leaned heavily in the Democrats’ favor.
In total, Swing Blue Alliance volunteers spent nearly 27,500 hours encouraging early and in person voting for the state. They made over 124,000 calls in just two months.
Great job to the team!
An incredible number of volunteers from Swing Blue Alliance supported the momentous election in Georgia. Altogether, they made over 124,000 calls and wrote over 461,000 postcards at 383 events. With just a couple of months for the special election, this effort has been unmatched by anything we’ve ever seen at Swing Left Greater Boston, and we’ve never been more proud of our volunteer team.
We’d also like to say a special thank you to our event hosts for Georgia. 135 hosts supported this team — they’re unflappable. They were able to drum up excitement and enthusiasm even after such a challenging and tiring general election.
The Georgia team accomplished something unbelievable. We cannot thank you enough for all the hard work you put into these two elections over the last two months. No matter the outcome, this effort is an inspiration to all of us to continue the fight. Thank you!
