Black male voter turn out in Georgia is a problem.
Participation declined in 2024 from the levels it reached in 2020, when Democrats won two U.S. Senate seats for the first time in decades. Nationally, it hasn’t reached the same levels it peaked at during Barack Obama’s historic runs in 2008 and 2012.
And news that President Donald Trump has helped Republicans make gains with Black male voters in recent years, has many Democrats looking for answers as Georgia gears up for pivotal senate and gubernatorial races and the midterms.
Kevin Irvin isn’t sure who he wants to win Georgia’s governor’s race, but he’s heard good things from friends about former state Sen. Jason Esteves.
“I literally just learned who he was,” Irvin told Capital B Atlanta during a Feb. 3 Black men’s roundtable campaign event at Atlantucky Brewing downtown. “I’m excited about hearing more about him. I’m always looking for somebody young bringing something new to the table.”
The 49-year-old Atlantucky Brewing operations manager was one of four Black male panelists who chopped it up with Esteves last week. He’s also one of the voters Democrats need to turn out in droves.
Esteves is one of several candidates vying in a May 19 Democratic primary for a chance to become Georgia’s first Black governor in November. He unveiled a Black men’s agenda last week that he hopes will help him improve their lives and win their votes.
It includes removing legal barriers his campaign says fathers face to protect their parental rights, establishing a $1 billion small-business loan fund to increase access to capital for Black-owned businesses, and increasing access to mental health services to reduce Georgia’s reliance on jails and prisons as primary mental health providers.
Esteves said he’s focused on energizing and helping Black male voters because they face significant, systemic challenges that get ignored.
“They get treated as one-off problems,” Esteves said of Black men. “They deserve a governor that’s going to be laser-focused on knocking out those barriers, on leveling the playing field, so that if you work hard in the state, you have the opportunity to thrive no matter who you are, no matter what you look like, or no matter where you live.”
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond, and state Rep. Derrick Jackson, D-Tyrone, are among the Democratic Party contenders competing with Esteves to become the state’s first Black governor.
Bottoms was the overwhelming frontrunner in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released in November, receiving 40% support among likely Democratic Party voters. Thurmond came in a distant second with 11% support, followed by former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan at 5% and Esteves, who received just 3% support.
Former East Point United Methodist Church pastor Olu Brown is also running for the Democratic nomination.
Jackson and state Rep. Ruwa Romman had just 1% support, but 40% of voters polled said they remain undecided.
One of them is Austin Joiner, who described the gubernatorial election as “anyone’s race” last Wednesday. Joiner, 27, is an insurance firm supervisor and one of many Black male voters concerned about affordability. He lives in Macon and said the high cost of rent in Atlanta has kept him from moving into the city even though he wants to.
“The price of rent has steeply increased,” Joiner told Capital B Atlanta. “Finding something that is within my price range has slightly impacted me, but eventually I’ll find something.”
Establishing policy differences between the candidates is one of the challenges voters face. Esteves said he’s the only candidate in the race that has the “lived experiences of the hard-working people,” and suggested he’s the candidate that gives Democrats the best chance to win in November.
“I don’t have the baggage that my opponents have, and I’m never going to quit when the going gets tough like some of my opponents have, and that’s what Georgia needs right now, someone who’s going to stand tall and fight back against Donald Trump but also address the issues that they face each and every day,” he said.
That sounded like a shot at Bottoms, who faced criticism as Atlanta’s mayor in 2021 for her decision not to seek reelection amid what she described as a “COVID crime wave.” It also could have been directed at Duncan, the former Republican who switched parties during the fall after splitting with the GOP over its support of Trump.
Bottoms’ campaign referred Capital B Atlanta back to previous statements she made about the importance of Black male voters during an interview last year.
“We can’t take anybody for granted, and I think Black men are getting a bad rap,” Bottoms said at the time. “Our democracy doesn’t hang in the balance because one group has said that they are frustrated and they don’t feel heard. It’s about all of us. So I’m going to talk directly to Black men — I’ve got a lot of them in my house, so I hear a lot — but listening to [Black men] directly about why they have been discouraged [and] what maybe made them say, ‘I don’t know that anybody is listening to me.’”
When asked about Duncan’s Black male agenda, his campaign noted the former lieutenant governor worked during his previous years in office to put legislation into place to help Black Georgians.
That includes helping to craft and pass hate crime legislation following Ahmaud Arbery’s murder, speaking out against Trump during the last two presidential election cycles, and opposing the Buckhead city movement.
“Every Georgian wakes up worried about three things: the affordability crisis, the health care crisis, and the Donald Trump crisis,” Duncan said in an emailed statement.
He also argued he’s the candidate who gives Democrats the best chance to topple whoever wins the Republican nomination for governor.
GOP contenders include current Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who has been endorsed by Trump, Attorney General Chris Carr, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who gained national notoriety for defying Trump’s wishes to help Trump overturn the 2020 election. Billionaire Rick Jackson, founder of Alpharetta-based Jackson Healthcare staffing firm, threw his hat in the GOP primary race last week.
“Second-place trophies won’t solve any of these problems,” Duncan added. “Georgians are rallying behind my campaign because they know I’m the candidate who can beat Donald Trump’s handpicked sockpuppet, Burt Jones, and take back the Governor’s mansion for the first time in nearly three decades.”
Romman is a progressive, dark horse candidate who accused Esteves of stealing some of her policy positions, such as raising the state’s minimum wage, during a recent interview with Capital B Atlanta.
She said other candidates, including Esteves and Bottoms, may be raising more money from “corporate interests,” but Romman believes she’s the candidate with the best plan to improve the lives of all working people, including Black male voters.
Her plan includes changing or eliminating laws limiting pro-union collective bargaining rights, “taking homes back” from corporate landlords, and increasing funding for apprenticeship programs, in addition to raising Georgia’s minimum wage.
“With me, [voters are] going to get somebody who is fighting for them,” Romman said.
Jackson and Thurmond’s campaigns haven’t responded to requests for comment.
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