U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock took the delegates to church. Atlanta rapper Lil Jon took them to the club. Jason Carter brought greetings from Plains, where his grandfather, former President Jimmy Carter, says he wants to live long enough to cast a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris this fall.
Atlanta did not win its bid to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention, but Georgia still managed to leave its fingerprints all over the United Center in Chicago.
“People know Georgia is a big deal for this election,” said first-time delegate Blake Robinson, 21, who hails from Valdosta. “We are literally going to make or break whether we see a President Harris and Vice President Tim Walz or another four years of the other guys.”
Clips of Georgia’s delegates, dancing and waving cardboard cutouts of Harris and Walz as Lil Jon burst onto the convention floor singing “Turn Down for What” ricocheted across the internet. As the rapper transitioned to another of his hits “Get Low” with updated lyrics (“To the window… to the wall” now “VP Harris … Governor Walz!”), delegates chanted and cheered as U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, the Democratic Party of Georgia chair, announced Georgia’s votes.
“Georgia, the home of President Jimmy Carter, the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement, where we fight for our freedoms,” Williams began. “In the spirit of good trouble, Georgia casts 123 votes for the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris.”
Carter, who entered hospice care last year, turns 100 in October. Jason Carter, now chair of the Carter Center, told delegates that Harris carries his grandfather’s legacy. The elder Carter first accepted the Democratic nomination for president at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1976. Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter died last November.
“Pawpaw is holding on,” Jason Carter said. “He is hopeful and though his body may be weak tonight his spirit is as strong as ever. My grandfather cannot wait to vote for Kamala Harris.”
Later in the week, U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia shared her family’s experience with gun violence.
“Our losses do not weaken us,” she said, standing alongside others affected by gun violence. “They strengthen our resolve. We will secure safer futures that we all deserve. We will organize, we will advocate, we will run for office.”
Oprah Winfrey quoted the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis.
“Congressman Lewis knew very well how far this country has come, because he was one of the brilliant Americans who helped to get us where we are,” she said.
In a primetime speech, Warnock brought the spirit of Ebenezer Baptist Church to the United Center stage. The senator evoked the duality of his historic election on Jan. 5, 2021, and the insurrection on Jan. 6, asking delegates “to stand up in this moral moment” for the “best in the American covenant.”
“I need my neighbors’ children to be OK, so my children will be OK,” Warnock preached. “I need all of my neighbors’ children to be OK. Poor inner city children in Atlanta and poor children of Appalachia. I need the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza, I need Israelis and Palestinians. I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine, I need American children on both sides of the track to be OK because we are all God’s children.”
Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, though, called attention to who was not on the stage — any Palestinian Americans like her, which she said was a glaring omission as the deadly war in Gaza drags on. “I’ve had some pretty crushing days, but to be honest today took the cake,” she posted on social media from Chicago.
The convention did feature several Republicans who have soured on their party, especially since then-President Donald Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election. One of them, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, held up a keepsake from his son with the family motto written in black marker: “Doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing,” it said. Duncan has endorsed Harris.
“If Republicans are being intellectually honest with ourselves, our party is not civil or conservative,” Duncan said, addressing Republicans and independents watching at home. “It’s chaotic and crazy. And the only thing left to do is dump Trump.”
On social media, Josh McKoon, chair of the Georgia Republican Party, slammed the address as an attention-grabbing stunt. Thursday afternoon, the party’s vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, campaigned in Georgia outside the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office in Valdosta.
Asked about the ongoing beef between Trump and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, Vance said he spoke briefly with the governor earlier in the day. Trump has harangued Kemp for declining to help him interfere with the 2020 election. Kemp has said he will vote for Trump.
“Brian Kemp and Donald Trump have had some disagreements,” Vance told reporters. “I 100% guarantee you that Brian Kemp is behind this ticket, he wants us to win because he believes the policies of Kamala Harris are disastrous for this country and he’s exactly right about that.”
Valdosta and swaths of South Georgia are critical bases of support for the Republican ticket. But Democrats have tried to cut into their margins in rural pockets of Georgia. Quentin Fulks, Harris’ deputy campaign manager who ran Warnock’s successful reelection bid in 2022, said that strategy is one of the most important Georgia lessons he is applying to the national campaign.
Harris remains in a tight race with Trump in Georgia, even as she has led polls in other swing states. Biden, along with Warnock and Democrat Jon Ossoff, turned the Peach State blue in 2020. But in 2022, Democrats lost all their statewide races with the exception of Warnock, who prevailed in a runoff to win election to his first full term.
“I think Democrats have to go places where they don’t normally go,” Fulks said in an interview with WABE from Chicago. “I’m not saying we’re going to turn counties we were losing 90-10 to places we are somehow now winning. But we have to cut down on those margins.”
That’s something Robinson, the 21-year-old delegate from Valdosta, is thinking about too. He chairs the Rural Caucus of the Young Democrats of Georgia. Robinson said he has noticed a palpable shift in energy since Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the nominee. Many young voters see Harris as more in touch with the culture and the issues their generation cares about, he added.
Beyond the politics and policy, Robinson said it sometimes felt surreal attending the convention as a 21-year-old preparing to vote in his first presidential election. He wore a suit every night and packed an extra bag just to collect signs and souvenirs.
When former President Barack Obama spoke, Robinson said he was overcome with emotion.
“I broke down crying,” Robinson said. “He was the first president I ever looked at and went, ‘Oh wow, he looks like me.’ He was the person I had looked up to my entire life. He’s the reason I got involved in politics. It was incredible I was able to witness from the floor, the fact that this was my first presidential election, as well as many other young delegates’ first presidential election, it’s quite a feeling.”
Thelma Johnson, a first-time delegate who traveled to Chicago from Albany, said she tried to stay hydrated and save her voice for the long and loud nights on the convention floor. She packed water, gum and popcorn each night to make sure she did not miss a moment hunting for snacks.
Johnson, 55, had been excited to support Biden. His presidency, she said, tangibly affected her life as the beneficiary of student loan forgiveness. Now she said she cannot wait to vote for Harris, a fellow graduate of a historically Black college who also worked in fast food to help pay for school.
“We all know what hope felt like in 2008, and this is hope renewed,” Johnson said. “I can relate to Kamala Harris. When I look at her, I’m looking in the mirror. I’m able to see what my daughter can be, what my future grandchildren can be. I can’t even describe it.”
