KFTC is "All In" for building regional progressive power and standing with Georgians

KFTC has been in conversation with national and regional allies, and particularly with our allies in Georgia, about ways that we can pitch in to build power in the South through our continued work to unseat Mitch McConnell – if not as Kentucky’s senator, at least from holding the power of the US Senate Majority Leader.

KFTC’s Immediate-Past Chair, Meta Mendel-Reyes, has helped lead this work, and here is her request to fellow members. 

We choose each other when we support building progressive power in the South, and right now, power is at stake in Georgia – with broad consequences for Kentucky and the entire nation.

Georgia's Senate run-off election is the next stop in our collective work to take our power back from Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump, who won’t even admit he lost the Presidential election. Currently Mitch leads the US Senate, and that means he can block the most crucial initiatives by the new Biden administration to bring back a government for the people, not the wealthy and their corporations. But that will change - if the two challengers in Georgia win on January 5. The Georgia Senate run-offs give us a great opportunity to rebuild power at the national level, and strengthen the progressive movement here in Kentucky and in the South.

KFTC has been active in regional organizing because we know that it takes all of us to build the kind of South that we want to live in. Side-by-side with our allies, such as the New Georgia Project, we have fought against voter suppression, disenfranchisement of former felons, and all the other ways that the right-wing has tried to take away the basis of our democracy, the right to vote. During KFTC’s recent virtual Fall Gathering, Nsé Ufot, CEO of NGP, made it clear that vigilant organizing by ordinary Georgians led to Biden’s victory, the first victory by a Democrat in a Presidential election in their state in 28 years.

Although the South is often portrayed by national media as the “reddest” region in the country, we know the reality – that the Southern progressive movement has developed an organizing model that the rest of the country could learn from. Now, organizing is needed more than ever, and people from all over the country are paying attention to the run-offs. Money is flowing into the state, from Democrats and Republicans who think alike that elections are won through television ads. But we know better. Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossof can win – but only through organizing from the grassroots up.

Here’s where KFTC comes in. We know to organize for power because we have done it for over 37 years. Together with the rest of the progressive movement in the South, we can help make the difference by deep canvassing in Georgia (following safety guidelines during COVID), as well as phone banking, personal letters and postcards, and all the things people can do at a distance.

What will you do?

Here are the opporuntunities that we've gathered from the table of allies working with the leadership of The New Georgia Project – a Black-led organizing group founded by Stacey Abrams, led by Nsé Ufot, and working to register Georgia voters and for safe and secure elections. 

1) Phonebank to Georgia! SURJ (Standing Up for Racial Justice, a national organization with an anchor here in Kentucky) is mobilizing folks nationwide to make calls to white voters who are registered Democrats in rural areas. This is strategic for creating a block of voters for this election, and for building progressive power in Georgia with a racial justice lens. These conversations would be great practice for KFTC members!

Click here to sign up for SURJ Phone Banks.

• Voter Contact: Saturdays 1-4:30PM ET. These are calls to Georgia voters. 

• Recruitment: Thursdays 6-9PM ET. These are calls to potential volunteers. 

You'll need a charged phone and laptop. SURJ is using a dialer that only works with FireFox or Chrome and doesn’t work with tablets. SURJ will train callers on the software and the conversations before you start dialing. 

2) Contribute! If you’re looking for ways to contribute financially, please make a donation to The New Georgia Project or or send NGP something from NGP’s Wishlist. You can also contribute to this fund that splits resources between SURJ and the NGP. 

3) If you're interested in going to Georgia to canvass, please fill out this questionairre from New Georgia Project.