Savannah State University Student Makiyah Williams headed to the polls last week to vote early in this year’s presidential election, but after listening to Michelle Obama speak Tuesday night, she said she realized her work isn’t done.
“It ignited my fire to go out and get more people to vote,” Williams told Capital B Atlanta Wednesday morning.
The 20-year-old Williams was one of thousands of people who traveled to Gateway Center Arena in College Park to hear the former first lady speak during a voter mobilization rally. The event organized by When We All Vote, a nonpartisan voter mobilization group founded by Obama in 2018, was designed to motivate young Georgians and Georgians of color to participate in this year’s election.
Obama’s address came amid widespread reports of relatively low Black voter participation in Georgia’s early voting period, which began on Oct. 15 and ends on Friday. Obama’s remarks were nonpartisan. She didn’t voice support for any candidates. But it’s clear that Democrats and other supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris hope the immensely popular former first lady can motivate more left-leaning infrequent voters — including young people and Black Americans in battleground states like Georgia — to head to the polls this week or on Election Day next Tuesday.
There was a moderate number of young Black men in attendance, but collegiate Black women appeared to make up the overwhelming majority of the audience. Black women have long been regarded as the Democratic Party’s most loyal voting bloc. Many traveled to the event from one of Georgia’s 10 HBCUs, including Savannah State, Fort Valley State University, and Spelman College.
Some said they were bused there by Black Voters Matter activists or other organizers from their various schools. Many attendees carried signs that read “FIRST TIME VOTER,” indicating they would be participating in their first election ever this year.
Recording artists Ciara, Victoria Monét, and Blanco Brown were among the famous metro-Atlanta natives who helped DJ D-Nice warm up the crowd along with actress Kerry Washington ahead of Obama’s speech. Singer and actress Kelly Rowland urged rally attendees “please, don’t let this happen” while encouraging them to vote on or before Election Day.
Rowland, who spoke at a Harris rally in Houston last week, seemed to be alluding to the possibility of former President Donald Trump winning this year’s election and retaking the White House. A Real Clear Politics average of polls has Trump and Harris virtually tied both nationally and in battleground states. Trump led Harris by 4 percentage points (47% to 43%) in the latest University of Georgia/Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll conducted in October, which noted that 8% of likely voters said they remain undecided in the race.
The same poll found that nearly 18% of Black respondents are still undecided. During her remarks, Obama addressed the “apathy” about voting many Black Georgians have expressed this election cycle. Studies show both young people and Black men are among the least likely to vote in this year’s election.
“A lot of folks out there are wondering if the political system has their best interests at heart, folks feeling unheard and fed up, folks resigned to the idea that nothing’s ever going to change, that voting and elections don’t really matter,” Obama said. “I’m sure all of you have heard these kinds of conversations from the folks in your lives, and to tell you the truth, these feelings are not irrational. They come from a valid place.”
The Chicago native reminded those in attendance of the consequences of sitting out elections. She talked about how some young people refused to vote in 1968 due to outrage over Lyndon B. Johnson’s support for the Vietnam War.
She noted that President Richard Nixon prolonged the aforementioned war after defeating Johnson’s successor, Hubert Humphrey, in the 1968 election partly due to lack of young people voting, leading to the deaths of many who were drafted in the roughly five years that followed prior to the end of the draft in 1973.
Obama also recalled Al Gore losing the 2000 election to President George W. Bush by less than 600 votes. Bush later sent thousands of Americans to die in the Iraq War, which is now regarded as one of the biggest military mistakes in U.S. history. Republicans in Congress also opted not to reinstate the nation’s 1994 assault weapons ban, which allowed semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 to hit the market once again and be used in many high-profile mass shootings, including the one that happened in September at Apalachee High School in Winder, located about 47 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta.
Trump’s 2016 White House win allowed him to appoint three U.S. Supreme Court judges who ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade, affirmative action, and made other decisions opposed by a majority of Black Americans.
“If you’re talking to anybody who thinks elections don’t matter, ask them if any of those things do matter,” Obama said. “Ask them to list the policies that have been changed by people who didn’t vote. Ask them the name of one single community that’s been improved by people who were uninvolved.”
Her words resonated with Kennesaw State University student Christen Owensby. The 22-year-old senior from Carrollton said she plans to vote early on Friday and now has knowledge to help motivate some of her nonvoting peers at school.
“Usually the thing that I hear the most is, they feel like voting for Kamala or Trump would definitely be like the same decision. It wouldn’t be much of a difference,” Owensby said of some of her fellow college students. “I just feel like my vote may be the one that makes or breaks the election.”
