CASA in Action’s strategic voter mobilization program has engaged 70,000 Black and Latine voters since August.

In the 2024 elections, Georgia is the most underrated battleground state. CASA in Action canvassers have been working nonstop since August 13, making sure Black and Latine voters know the choices and stakes in the 2024 elections. Based on the 70,000-plus doors CASA in Action has knocked, and over 11,000 deep conversations with voters, the organization predicts the Peach State will go blue in November. 

“Georgia is not on the fence,” said Luis Zaldivar, CASA in Action’s Georgia Director. “Georgia is ready to make a statement. And that statement is: we’re voting for Kamala Harris. CASA in Action has been on the ground, talking to voters, hearing their concerns, and learning what really matters to them. And we can confidently say that Georgia is ready to elect Kamala Harris.”

The CASA in Action voter mobilization program starts with door-to-door canvassing, and incorporates other strategies to persuade and energize voters of color, many of whom have not voted consistently in the past. They also receive digital static and video ads, radio ads, and text messages with information about the candidates, followed by reminders to cast their ballot.

Over an eight week period, a bilingual team of 42 canvassers knocked on 70,535 doors in Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett Counties, and held over 11,000 in-depth conversations with voters. 

Here’s what Georgia canvassers are hearing on the doors

CASA in Action canvassers are learning a lot from Black and Latine voters during their canvassing conversations in the Atlanta suburbs. Mimi Gladden coordinates the organization’s Fulton County team of canvassers. “Now, some people – especially men – sometimes tell me they’re hesitant to support a woman for president,” she said. “When that happens, I remind them of the strong women in our history who have led the way – from Shirley Chisholm all the way back to Harriet Tubman. I remind them of their mothers, grandmothers, and the women who raised them. That’s when their eyes open, and they realize just how much women have already done for this country. It’s about giving people perspective. I let them know they have to step off the TV and into the real world.” 

As of October 6, fully 56% of voters (2,778 of 6,740 respondents) planned to vote on Election Day, with 29% (2,462) voting early in person and 10% (1,320) choosing to vote by mail. Only 2% (101) said they did not plan to vote in this election. 

Black and Latine voters’ top concern is the high cost of living, chosen by 59% of those surveyed (2,550 of 4,294 respondents). Jobs was the second most-pressing issue, named by 25% of voters (1,059), followed by affordable health care at 16% (685 voters).

Also as of October 6, support for Harris-Walz over Trump-Vance remained steady and in line with other polling. Out of 4,659 voters who responded to the question about who they plan to vote for in the presidential election, 58% (2,678) were firmly in the Harris-Walz camp, with 22% (1,010) leaning Harris-Walz and 16% (763) undecided. Only 2% (86) indicated they would definitely vote for Trump-Vance and 3% (122) said they were leaning GOP. 

In total, 79% (3,688) of the voters CASA in Action talked to, on or before October 6 planned to vote for Harris-Walz. Five percent (208) planned to vote for Trump-Vance, with significant opportunity for persuasion among the 16% who were undecided. 

Voter suppression in Georgia: A recent history

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss are two African American poll workers in Georgia who stood up to the Republican Party’s disinformation machine, and won. A federal judge recently ordered former President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani to turn over a laundry list of property to the mother-daughter pair — including a multi-million dollar New York condo — as a result of their successful defamation suit against the former New York City mayor and Trump lawyer. 

Political analyst Hayes Brown called it “a turn of events that feels downright karmic given the scale of the damage [Giuliani] caused, part of a chain of consequences and repercussions that have hounded him over the last four years. And as Trump and his allies prepare to challenge a loss next month, Giuliani’s downfall should serve as a reminder that their actions can have a steep cost.”

But this is not just about one lawsuit — as important as it is to hold Giuliani accountable. It’s about an organized disinformation and voter suppression campaign that Republicans are using to keep Georgia from becoming permanently blue. It’s also about what Black, Latine, AAPI, and other voters are doing to push back, build power, and elect the candidates who will work to improve their communities.  

After President Biden won Georgia by a margin of 12,000 votes in 2020, Rudy Giuliani disseminated lies about the poll workers, Moss and Freeman, who were inundated with racist threats of violence. “It feels like I’m trapped under someone else’s boot of power,” Moss testified in Giuliani’s trial. “I can’t do anything, I feel helpless, and the only thing that’s surrounding me is the lies.”

If this sounds familiar to Georgia’s Black and Latine residents, that’s because it is. Following their 2020 defeat, Republicans launched a series of laws intended to suppress the Latino, Black, AAPI, and Democratic vote in 2024, including empowering individuals to challenge “fraudulent voting” by someone they believe is not eligible to cast a ballot. That’s vigilante discrimination, and something Georgia’s Black and immigrant residents know all too well. 

In a nationwide survey of naturalized citizen voters, with oversamples in multiple battleground states, Georgia naturalized citizens reported experiencing discrimination at alarming rates. Over 65% said they have personally experienced discrimination based on race or ethnicity — the highest of all states surveyed, and a figure corroborated by the state’s relentless attacks on their right to vote. 

Black and Latine voters in Georgia are poised to decide the outcome

The Latino voting population in Georgia has nearly quadrupled since 2000, growing far more rapidly than non-Latino voters. A poll conducted by BSP Research found that 22% of Georgia Latine voters will participate in their first presidential election this year.  

With 2.6 million eligible Black voters and 435,000 Latine U.S. citizens eligible to vote in Georgia, their electoral power is unstoppable—if motivated and allowed to vote. 

According to CNN, 88% of Black voters and 62% of Latine voters supported Biden in 2020. Polls from the Wall Street Journal and Atlanta Journal Constitution show Trump and Harris locked in a tight race, with the Democrat gaining 5 points since WJS’s poll in March. Efforts to disenfranchise Black, Latine, and other voters are being met with CASA in Action’s targeted voter education and turnout operation. 

Said Gladden, CASA in Action’s Georgia canvassing coordinator, “I give voters my phone number, and I am so moved when I get a call: ‘Mimi, I voted.’ Well, that’s what it’s all about.”