In an effort to retain the Black voter base that won the 2020 presidential election, President Joe Biden’s reelection team opened a Savannah campaign office on Friday, the first for the candidate in Georgia.
The Savannah site, at 714 Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd., is one of seven planned across the state as part of the national “Black Voters for Biden-Harris” effort recently announced in Philadelphia by the U.S. leader and his Vice President Kamala Harris. The Coastal Georgia event drew dozens, including former mayors Otis Johnson and Edna Jackson, Democratic state legislators and local elected officials, along with campaign workers and a few curious voters.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson spoke at the opening event and told the crowd the office will be the point for Biden’s campaigning efforts in the Savannah and Chatham County-adjacent communities.
“Not only being a place to pick up information and campaign material but also data and facts, it ought to be the dispatch point of the enormous ground campaign that we expect to have here,” said Johnson. “People being able to get information and literally go door to door in this community asking people for their support and making the case for the Biden Harris campaign.”
Since 2000, Georgia has voted Democratic 16.7% of the time and Republican 83.3% of the time in presidential elections.
In 2020, however, the state made history with a turnout of more than 5 million people, a million more than in the 2016 election. Biden defeated Trump by more than 25,000 votes in Chatham County, a result that was instrumental in transforming Georgia into a swing state. Biden narrowly edged Trump in Georgia by a margin of 0.23% and 11,779 votes.
“I’m here because Georgia, all of a sudden, gained independent thinking, rejected the thoughts of everyone else, and became the blue dot in a sea of red,” said Mayor Johnson at the launch. “I’m here today because we certainly realized the Biden-Harris campaign has paid dividends for not only Savannah but all across Coastal Georgia.”
One of those who attended the launch wasAndrew Watson, an educator in Port Wentworth. Watson said he voted for the GOP in previous elections and is reluctantly supporting the Biden campaign this year.
Watson said he was involved in Republican campaigning in 2020 by knocking on doors to disseminate Donald Trump’s platform to individuals in the community. This year, he changed candidates.
“Majority of my record has been to vote GOP, and so yes, we are to be out here for Biden-Harris. But it is because I can’t with Trump, I can’t do the Republican Party that it is right now. I feel like it’s anti-American, anti-democracy, they’re almost like the American Taliban,” said Watson.
Watson, however, believes the Democratic Party is significantly less visible today in the area than in 2020.
Another local voter who attended was lifelong Savannahian Ruell Francis, who owns a dump truck company. He heard about the event via an email urging him to come out.
“We need to project that energy from 2020, I realize what’s at stake this election,” said Francis.
Francis said he fully supports Biden for president when considering what each candidate will bring.
“Number one, because democracy is on the line, and number two is because, you know, I just don’t understand this affection with Trump is, him being a convicted felon and he’s able to run for president, even though I understand there’s nothing in the Constitution that specifically states that he can’t run for president,” said Francis. “But you know, I think that we need to keep in Biden-Harris, especially in this election.”
Mayor Johnson, who is a member of the Democratic National Committee, said conversations between local, state, and federal-level Democrats had been going on for some time about continuing the momentum in Savannah and Coastal Georgia as they were “integral” to the wins in 2020. The conversations yielded the idea for Savannah to be the first public-facing office of the Biden-Harris administration in Georgia. Adding that citizens can expect continued engagement going forward.
“Engagement and continued engagement, and being able to situate what has happened here, to me is not as important about what’s happening with President Trump, as it is the momentous historic changes and investment that the Biden Harris campaign has made in Savannah, in Coastal Georgia,” said Johnson.
