News/Commentary

GOP plan takes page out of Stacey Abrams’ playbook to counter boost to Democrat turnout

January 31, 2023 | | Print Article

Former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler (R) is literally taking a page out of Democrat Stacey Abrams’ playbook and is using it against the left to organize and get out the vote in the red state to ensure Republicans don’t suffer losses again as they did in the 2020 elections.

The already successful move is in preparation for the 2024 elections in the state. “Greater Georgia” was founded in 2021 by Loeffler with the goal of registering more conservative voters, appealing to a diverse swath of Georgians, and turning out the vote using a ground game infrastructure that fights fire with fire against the left. She’s laying out a political roadmap for conservatives.

Fox News Digital spoke with Loeffler who touted the success of her group during the 2022 midterm elections. She is calling for other swing states to emulate her playbook and take the ground fight for voters door to door. The former senator is pushing policies that target overcoming the Democrats’ financial and organizational strategies.

“We’ve been a solidly red state for well over a decade. And what we saw in 2022 was wider margins of victory across our state for our statewide elected officials and really – held the majority in the [state] House and the [state] Senate and won more counties in this cycle than in 2020,” Loeffler noted.

GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker was narrowly defeated by Sen. Raphael Warnock in a runoff election by less than 35,000 votes during the 2022 midterm elections. Loeffler pointed out that Republicans won all statewide races except for that one and that Democrats had to spend over $100 million to defeat Walker.

She claims that one reason for the widespread wins in the state was due to “Greater Georgia” recruiting and organizing approximately 1,000 grassroots volunteers which was detailed in the organization’s annual report. They registered over 36,000 voters and held 26 community roundtables in an effort to recruit a wide range of conservative voters.

Loeffler was asked about Abrams’ “Fair Fight” get-out-the-vote organization. The group helped elect Democratic Sens. Warnock and Jon Ossoff. It was also pivotal in handing President Biden the state in the last presidential election. In response, she gave a nod to Abrams’ foot soldiers for effectively organizing and funding a massive ground mobilization of voters.

“When we looked at the landscape after the 2020 cycle, what I saw was a lack of organization and activism on the ground. Now, there were tremendous numbers of people involved and in mobilizing,” she stated.

“But what we need is organization. And that’s what we saw. Being represented on the left was not just massive funding, but a massive ground game, voter contact mobilization. And so I set out to replicate that after I left the Senate in 2021 to make sure what happened to us in 2020 never happens in this state again,” Loeffler remarked.

The former senator isn’t just mobilizing on Election Day. She’s building political infrastructure outside an election year, utilizing 2023 and 2024 in preparation for the next battle.

Loeffler called Georgia “a canary in a coal mine” for conservatives nationwide because of a shifting electorate. Although Georgia is still primarily a red state, she recognizes it won’t stay that way unless Republicans reach out to new groups of voters.

“We have seen the trends that are playing out, whether it’s younger voters, more diverse voters, or independent voters. And we have to have the infrastructure and outreach to conduct that persuasion, mobilization, registration, and then getting them to the polls in 2024,” she told Fox News Digital.

Because of the success of “Greater Georgia” in 2022, Loeffler says it proves that a solid ground game can overcome Democrats’ “wall of money” that poured in from blue states. It’s a challenge Republicans in other battleground states have also faced.

“We have to understand where those margins are for pickup, where the persuadable voters are, and if we’re reaching them. Are they registered? Are they engaged? Are they voting? And then what can we do to persuade them?” she asked concerning voter outreach.

“That’s a very data-driven exercise. It’s not just relying on polling or modeling, but it’s doing the work on the ground, being at the doors and making sure that through Election Day, we’re conducting the ballot chase all the way to the finish,” Loeffler concluded.

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