The two political parties in Baldwin County are gearing up for the Nov. 5 General Election, and the strategy of both appears to be the same: getting out the early vote.
Democratic Committee Chairman Quinten T. Howell and Republican Party Chairperson Janice Westmoreland both said local efforts will center on getting their voters to the polls before election day. One party has a special event to kick off early voting, while the other will utilize a strategy formulated at the national level.
Howell and his wife, LaTonya, second vice-chairperson and secretary of the local committee, just returned from Chicago, where they attended what Howell termed an ‘historic’ Democratic National Convention. Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S.-born daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, was officially named as the party’s candidate for president. “Talking about the month of January, the ‘I have a dream’ speech of Dr. King; well, this is the dream I think Dr. King was dreaming about,” Howell said last week.
“And, we’re trying to help make that dream come to fruition.
“That dream takes a lot of people and a lot of work,” Howell continued, “and it’s a blessing to be a part of that work…It’s a very exciting time to be an American doing grassroots work.”
Howell, the first African American to serve as vicechairman and chairman of the local Democratic committee, said that on the local level, caucuses are a part of the process of getting people involved.
“With the Democratic committee set-up, you are elected,” he explained. “We are broken up by county commission districts.” He added that there are more people than ever who want to be officially involved.
“We are one of the larger committees in Middle Georgia,” Howell continued. “”To be able to accommodate the number of people who want to participate, we had to increase our seats.”
Howell said anyone who wants to participate in the upcoming campaign is welcome. He also stated Baldwin and surrounding counties work together.
“In Baldwin, we work very closely with our surrounding counties. We have what is called the Central Georgia Democratic Coalition,” Howell said. “We work very closely with Hancock, Wilkinson, Washington, Putnam, even Greene. We are as a unit and work together on projects. If one county is doing something, we are all supportive.”
Howell said a big event is coming up Oct. 19 as a part of the early voting campaign.
“It’s a regional initiative,” he explained. “We’re all going to be on the same page, pushing this thing called ‘Move the Mountain Saturday’. It’s going to be a regional get-outthe- vote event. Baldwin County, myself, is kind of spearheading it. Each county is going to tweak it a little bit… but the goal is to drive the Democratic community to the polls on that date.”
On the Republican side, Westmoreland said the party is ready to work for Donald Trump.
“We’re heavily involved in this election,” she commented, adding that the organization is using a computer program in its efforts to reach potential voters.
Westmoreland indicated that Robert Binion is leading that effort in Baldwin County, which Binion confirmed in a telephone interview that is the case.
“We’re participating heavily in President Trump’s grassroots re-election campaign,” he said. “It’s called Trump Force 47 because if he wins this time he will be the 47th president. It’s his really grassroots, bootson- the-ground campaign.
“This is sort of the door-knocking, calling, getting folks out to vote. That’s the most important thing,” Binion went on. “In the past we could always count on Georgia being a ruby red state. Georgia has changed a little bit in the past few years and has changed into more of a purple state.”
Binion explained that there is a method to the system that Republicans believe will be key in the election.
“It’s not just random door knocking or calling,” he stressed. “The Trump campaign has spent a lot of time identifying what we call low propensity Republicans. We know they’re generally Republican; we know they support President Trump for the most which starts Oct. 15.”
Binion said there will be more than one contact.
“The Trump Force 47 plan is not a call once and forget about them,” he noted. “Actually, between now and election day we’re going to call on them several times. Once again, the effort is to get them to the polls, not on election day, but to early vote. Then,” he added, “to follow up to see if they did make it to the polls.”
The party member said the reaction thus far has been extremely positive.
“We can’t keep enough yard signs,” he shared. “We’ve got another 300 coming at the end of this week, and we’ve probably given out well over 1,000. That’s just Baldwin County.”
Binion said the number of volunteers helping is growing.
“We probably have about 50 right now,” he estimated, “and we will be doing more trainings, as we still have people asking how they can help. We have another training schedule for next week, so we are still adding people to help.”
Binion also pointed out that there is another reason for Republicans to vote Nov. 5.
“We’ve got Ken Vance,” he said. “Ken Vance is in a new House of Representatives seat, so making sure people get out to vote…that’s a very important election for Baldwin County.
“I think,” Binion offered, “in conjunction with the grass roots campaign, getting the word out about Mr. Vance and getting these Republicans out to vote for President Trump to vote for Ken Vance is very important for Baldwin County.”
Vance’s district was redrawn by the state legislature last year, and it includes four precincts in Macon that are heavily populated by Black voters. According to figures released last year, the district now polls 50.98% Black and 42.45% White, with the other 6% shown as Asian, Hispanic and others.
Vance will face former Milledgeville mayor and state senator Floyd Griffin in November. Griffin handily won the Democratic nomination in May.