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How to (Really) Help Flip the Senate

The Georgia runoffs in January are important. We need all the support we can get.

Anjali Enjeti
ZORA
4 min readDec 10, 2020

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At a rally with former Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro and Jon Ossoff, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, on December 7, 2020, in Lilburn, Georgia. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

In 2017, after President Trump appointed Republican Rep. Tom Price as Health and Human Services secretary, a seat opened up in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. In the special election that June, Democrat Jon Ossoff ran against Republican and former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel. The seat was a stronghold for the Republican Party (it was once held by Newt Gingrich), but due to an influx of younger and minority voters in the district, Democrats had a shot at flipping it. The pressure was on. As a 6th District voter, I felt it with every single door I knocked, every voter I called, every event I hosted. Pundits called this race (the most expensive congressional election in U.S. history) a referendum on the Trump administration. For a few intense months, all eyes were on Georgia, and Democrats from coast to coast rallied around us and then collectively mourned when Handel edged out Ossoff.

The national attention we received in 2017 has nothing on this runoff, which will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. The tsunami of enthusiasm from Democrats across the country has been both inspiring and overwhelming. But there are plenty of ways out-of-staters can help without adding to the burden or the…

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ZORA
ZORA

Published in ZORA

A publication from Medium that centers the stories, poetry, essays and thoughts of women of color.

Anjali Enjeti
Anjali Enjeti

Written by Anjali Enjeti

Journalist, critic & columnist at ZORA. Essay collection SOUTHBOUND (UGA Press) & debut novel THE PARTED EARTH (Hub City Press), spring ’21. anjalienjeti.com.

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