Georgia GOP, Dems gearing up for competitive elections

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Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler

Credit: Beau Evans

ATLANTA — Democrats and Republicans in Georgia are assembling all the tools they can muster to sway voters in what promises to be a hotly contested election year.

On the GOP side, former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., announced Friday the national rollout of a technology company she has founded to support conservative candidates. RallyRight LLC deployed new technology platforms across several states during the last election cycle, including Georgia.

“As a candidate in 2020, it was clear that Democrats held a significant infrastructure advantage,” Loeffler said Friday. “While the Left has spent years investing in technology to improve their fundraising and voter contact operations, I saw the need to innovate and build technology for the conservative movement.”

RallyRight’s two campaign technology platforms include DonateRight, designed to help candidates with fundraising, and FieldRight, which helps candidates reach and mobilize voters.

Since losing her Senate seat to Sen. Raphael Warnock, R-Ga., three years ago, Loeffler has been active on the candidate recruitment and voter mobilization fronts. Toward that end, she founded the organization Greater Georgia to help register conservative voters.

Not to be outdone, Georgia Democrats announced Friday a plan to recruit enough Democratic candidates to make sure no Republican goes unchallenged this year up and down the ballot.

Part of a national campaign, the program will use text messages, coaching calls and in-person organizing to identify and mobilize Democrats to run for local office, focusing on areas outside of major cities where a high percentage of Republicans typically go uncontested.

“Georgia Democrats are committed to competing up and down the ballot all across our state, without discounting or taking for granted a single county — including rural and non-metro areas,” said Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, the Democratic Party of Georgia’s executive director. 

The 2024 candidate recruitment program is targeting nearly 3,000 local races across 876 localities in almost every county, with a focus on county commission, city council, and school board races. The goal is to recruit at least 100 new Democrats to file for office.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Capitol Beat.