Editor’s Note: Edward Lindsey is a former Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives and its majority whip. He is a partner in the Dentons US LLP law firm and the head of its Georgia public policy team. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.
Simon and Garfunkel famously sang, “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you?” As Georgia Republicans prepare for two grueling US Senate runoffs – which will determine the balance of power in the Senate – they might want to think about replacing “Joe DiMaggio” with “Ronald Reagan,” hum a couple of bars and harken back to the lessons taught by the former president.
Reagan believed in the importance of building a broad-based Republican Party to include individuals who may not always agree on every issue but could come together to build a better society. And that’s exactly what the Georgia GOP will need to do to win.
This may seem an unnecessary step, given that Republicans have a historical advantage in the state. Georgians have not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 2000, and, aside from President-elect Joe Biden’s recent narrow victory, any Democrat running for any state or federal office statewide since 2006.
Moreover, since 1992, Republicans have won every general election runoff – including two Senate runoffs: in 1992, when Paul Coverdell won, and in 2008, when Saxby Chambliss won.
Furthermore, Democrats have also not improved their chances this year by nominating two candidates – Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff – with decidedly progressive roots, and one of whom has shown a willingness to embrace the Democratic Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders from Vermont.
However, the electoral path to victory for the two Republicans – first-term Sen. David Perdue and recently appointed Sen. Kelly Loeffler – is far from certain.
Heading into these contentious and expensive runoffs, Georgia Republicans face immediate and long-term challenges on multiple fronts: many within their base are bitterly focused on pointing fingers over the President’s now certified statewide loss, some traditional allies in the suburbs have drifted blue, and new voters, trending more demographically diverse, are suspicious of the Grand Old Party.
The bitter true believers. South of Savannah this fall, motorists traveling down I-95 through rural marshlands could spot a billboard loudly proclaiming, “Only God and Donald J. Trump Can Save America.” If Trump’s campaign rallies sometimes take on the feel of a religious tent revival, it is because many of his supporters treat it that way. “Make America Great Again” is not merely a campaign slogan but a rallying cry for a movement his supporters believe is critical to saving the US from a myriad of perceived threats, ranging from over regulation to socialism.
In fact, Trump’s declaration that “I alone can fix it,” in reference to America in 2016, is reminiscent of the words of Eugene Talmadge, a Georgia governor in the Great Depression, whose supporters ardently believed when he declared, “You only have three real friends: Jesus Christ, Sears Roebuck and Gene Talmadge.”
This level of devotion drove up turnout for the President in many small towns and rural areas of the state this year, but it also heightened the sincere belief among his supporters that the race was rigged against Donald Trump when he lost. Encouraged by the President’s unsubstantiated claims, which his own attorney general has since refuted, his fervent allies have brought lawsuits claiming fraud and seeking to overturn the results.
Many have even turned on Republicans Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Gov. Brian Kemp and others, declaring them disloyal RINOs (Republicans In Name Only). The President himself called Raffensperger an enemy of the people and said he was ashamed to have endorsed the governor in 2018. On Facebook and Twitter, and in protest marches and car caravans, Trump’s supporters echo his claims that only a rigged election can explain his loss and demand that the election be decertified.
At a suburban Republican breakfast last Saturday, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel was peppered by grassroots workers who were convinced the President was the victim of fraud in his election. These workers, thinking there would be fraud in the runoff, asked why they should invest “more money and work when [the runoff election] is already decided?”
This is the last thing candidates and party leaders want to hear from their base when grassroots campaigning and turnout will be so critical in this hotly contested race.
The former allies. At the other end of the state’s traditional GOP coalition were many formerly staunch Republican middle-to-upper middle-class, college-educated voters. In formal gatherings and informal chats during this election season with friends, neighbors and political acquaintances, I heard many give the same refrain – a longing for normalcy, civility and what they perceived as basic competence. They usually agreed with many of the President’s policies, but they were turned off by his often-divisive rhetoric, theatrics, alleged ethical lapses and governing style.
Not surprisingly, they and many others in their communities turned on the President in the election. In one North Atlanta Buckhead neighborhood, for instance, support for Trump dropped by over 20 percentage points compared to the GOP ticket eight years ago. Similar drops in support occurred across the suburbs in Cobb and Fulton counties in the greater Atlanta area.
A changing state. Georgia Republicans are also facing the reality of increasingly diverse demographics in the state. As the state’s overall population grows, Georgia’s White registered voters have decreased from 68% of the population in 2000 to roughly 53% today, while African-American, Hispanic, Asian and other ethnic groups have all increased.
These demographic changes have already contributed to Cobb and Gwinnett counties, two formerly suburban Atlanta GOP strongholds, flipping blue.
Georgia Democratic Party leaders, including its two Senate candidates and progressive organizer Stacey Abrams, are actively courting these new groups of voters, as well as young people, in the hopes of fueling both their immediate runoff campaigns and their party’s longtime political revival in the Peach State.
The challenge for Republicans now and in the future will be to court these increasingly diverse constituencies.
All of this brings me back to Reagan and the Georgia GOP’s need to “turn its lonely eyes” to his example. Reagan’s “big tent” philosophy of politics focused on addition and multiplication rather than subtraction and division.
While he was still governor of California, Reagan delivered a speech to his fellow Republicans that still resonates today. He called for an end to “internal fighting, backbiting and throat-cutting” and argued that “[t]here is room in our tent for many views; indeed, the divergence of views is one of our strengths.” This philosophy carried Reagan to two terms as president, on the backs of a coalition comprised of fiscal conservatives, libertarians, social conservatives, defense hawks and blue-collar Democrats.
As part of this optimistic expansion, Georgia Republicans must reach beyond a narrow focus on wedge issues, which merely galvanize its existing base. Negative ads, catnip for political consultants and third-party groups, may have a place in politics but alone they do little to expand a party’s reach.
Instead, the GOP must redirect its efforts to gateway issues, which require advocating for solutions to critical problems in communities that may have been historically in the Democratic camp but could allow voters in those communities to give Republicans a second look.
Concretely, that means that Perdue, Loeffler and the party at large must focus on solutions to some of the most pressing issues – everything from the Covid-19 crisis to the rising cost of health care to the need for a swift economic recovery.
While Democrats’ recent progressive shift in a traditionally more conservative state remains a gamble, Republicans can ill-afford the continuing division within their ranks and must make strides to reach out to disaffected former allies and potential new ones in Georgia’s growing diverse tapestry. To accomplish this challenge, it is time for Georgia Republicans to embrace the optimistic “big tent” Reagan philosophy.