Press Release Georgia
Press Release
NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia Is Going All-Out to Flip the State House Blue
For Immediate Release: Friday, October 30, 2020
Contact: [email protected]
Atlanta, Georgia — With voting in full swing in the battleground state of Georgia, NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia has gone all-out to flip the state House blue, announcing its six-figure “Get Out The Vote” (GOTV) push in the final weekend to hold anti-choice politicians accountable for voting for the state’s infamous and extreme ban on abortion, HB 481.
The GOTV campaign includes a robust mail program educating persuadable voters with candidate-specific mail pieces, and mobilization efforts using peer-to-peer texting and calls to turn out reproductive freedom voters. The state-level investment is part of NARAL’s unprecedented $34.7 million political program, which includes mail, digital and radio ads in Georgia. NARAL’s mail program in Georgia includes seven mailers targeting persuadable voters across the state.
This state-House level push to hold lawmakers accountable for attacking reproductive freedom runs parallel to NARAL’s work to flip the two U.S. Senate seats and replace Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue with Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, and to mobilize key voters across the state for Joe Biden.
Statement from Laura Simmons, NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia Director:
“Georgians haven’t forgotten how our state’s Republican ‘leaders’ turned their backs on women and families by supporting HB 481 and brazenly opposed the will of the majority of Georgians who support reproductive freedom. We are so proud of the work of our 46,000 members in Georgia to hold anti-choice lawmakers accountable, and for pouring crucial energy into flipping our state House blue. Georgians know first-hand just how serious the threat to reproductive freedom is — that’s why we’re going all-out to deliver victories to candidates who will fight for us instead of prioritizing an extreme, out-of-touch agenda.”
Earlier this year, NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia endorsed 33 candidates for General Assembly — five in the Senate and 28 in the House — including 21 candidates seeking to flip seats currently held by anti-choice, anti-freedom Republicans. After Republican legislators turned their backs on Georgians in 2019 by voting for HB 481, a bill that banned abortion before many women even know they’re pregnant, NARAL and its 46,000 members in Georgia have been working tirelessly to flip Georgia’s state House in order to reflect the majority of Georgians who support reproductive freedom. HB 481 is an extreme and unconstitutional ban on abortion that was struck down by a federal judge.
NARAL’s members in Georgia have made 12,670 calls and 67,144 texts into targeted districts as part of their efforts to flip state legislative seats and replace anti-choice politicians with reproductive freedom champions.
Endorsed Senate Candidates:
- Jen Jordan (SD-06)
- Kelly Rose (SD-17)
- Christine Triebsch (SD-32)
- Sally Harrell (SD-40)
- Sarah Beeson (SD-56)
Endorsed House Candidates:
- Natalie Bucsko (HD-24)
- Christa Olenczak (HD-25)
- Priscilla Smith (HD-34)
- Kyle Rinaudo (HD-35)
- Mary Frances Williams (HD-37)
- Erick Allen (HD-40)
- Louisa Wakeman (HD-43)
- Concetta Marie Di Cicco (HD-44)
- Sara Tindall Ghazal (HD-45)
- Mary Robichaux (HD-48)
- Angelika Kausche (HD-50)
- Shea Roberts (HD-52)
- Elizabeth (Betsy) Holland (HD-54)
- Michael Wilensky (HD-79)
- Matthew Wilson (HD-80)
- Beth Moore (HD-95)
- Mary Blackmon Campbell (HD-97)
- Sam Park (HD-101)
- Nakita Hemingway (HD-104)
- Donna McLeod (HD-105)
- Shelly Hutchinson (HD-107)
- Jasmine Clark (HD-108)
- Regina Lewis-Ward (HD-109)
- Ebony Carter (HD-110)
- Mokah Jasmine Johnson (HD-117)
- Jonathan Wallace (HD-119)
- Joyce Barlow (HD-151)
- Julie Jordan (HD-179)
Reproductive freedom has strong majority support in Georgia and nationwide:
- A recent Change Research poll found that a vast majority (78%) of suburban women in Georgia oppose making abortion illegal and turning back the clock to the days before Roe v. Wade.
- Two-thirds of suburban women in Georgia (65%) oppose the 2019 Georgia law that banned abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, a time before many women even know they are pregnant. This opposition includes 79% of Independents, 78% of non-Evangelical white women, 65% of white women under 35, and 90% of Black voters.
- 82% of suburban women in Georgia oppose the 2019 abortion ban once they learn more about its impacts. This includes 73% who are strongly against it. Just 2% say they would vote for someone who supports the ban. Majorities of white women under 35 (58%) and white college graduates (52%) would not consider voting for someone who supports this ban.
- Suburban women do not trust Georgia politicians to make the right decisions when it comes to women’s health. Overall, 61% say they do not trust them at all– including 75% of Independents, 76% of Black voters, and 72% of white voters under 35.
- Support for Roe v. Wade is the highest it has been in decades: 77% of Americans support the legal right to abortion and do not want to see Roe overturned. (Marist/ PBS/ NPR)
- Despite anti-choice lawmakers’ unprecedented barrage of attacks across the country, there is no state where banning abortion is popular.
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For over 50 years, NARAL Pro-Choice America and its network of state affiliates and chapters have fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom—including access to abortion, contraception, and paid family leave—for every body. NARAL is powered by its more than 2.5 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 7 in 10 Americans who believe every person should have the freedom to make the best decision for themselves about if, when, and how to raise a family.