“They Cannot Break Us”: Lawmakers make history as a blue wave crashes over Georgia

This post was originally published by 285 South with reporting contributions by ACPC

Voters across Georgia voted in Democratic candidates on Tuesday, electing Keisha Lance Bottoms as the first black female governor in the country. Senator Jon Ossoff won the U.S. Senate race against Republican candidate Mike Collins, earning him another term. 

Down-ballot, in local state races, Democrats continued to pick up seats. They appear poised to flip Georgia’s House of Representatives, and are close to narrowing the Republican majority in the State Senate. 

They will join an increasingly diverse state legislature that has begun to reflect the changing demographics of the state, which has become a majority minority state, with Black, Asian, and Latino residents making up just over 50 percent of the population.

Among yesterday’s state legislative winners were several political newcomers with immigrant backgrounds like Mathewos Samson, who was elected to represent HD 58, a Democratic Socialist whose parents were displaced from the conflict affected Tigray region of Ethiopia and moved to Atlanta in the 1980s. Bentley Hudgins was elected to represent HD 90 in DeKalb, and is set to become the first Japanese-American, transgender and nonbinary member of the state legislature. Local business owner Rahim Asani won the HD 108 seat, which covers parts of Lilburn, and Jyot Singh made history by becoming the first Sikh and Indian-American to be elected to the state legislature, representing HD 97 in the Duluth, Peachtree Corners, and Berkeley Lake area of Gwinnett County. That seat was previously held by Ruwa Romman. 

Also in Gwinnett, two immigrant candidates flipped seats previously held by Republicans, winning by wide margins: Korean-American Michelle Kang won HD 99 in Suwanee against incumbent Matt Reeves and Pakistani-American Farooq Mughal beat Republican incumbent Sandy Donatucci to represent HD 105 in the Buford area.  

Romman herself made history – becoming the state’s first ever Palestinian-American elected to the Georgia State Senate. “Right wing bigots attacked me and my community simply for being Muslim. They failed,” she wrote in a message to her supporters early on Wednesday morning. “Why did they do all of this? Because our multifaith, multigenerational, and multiracial coalition is unstoppable. Tonight, we sent a resounding message to the bigots and naysayers that they cannot break us.”

In other races, immigrant candidates made waves. Speaking to his supporters at his watch-turned-victory party on Tuesday night, Fulton County Commissioner-Elect Rohit Malhotra said he would take on issues like housing, gun violence, and immigration. “Whatever I can do as the next Fulton County Commissioner, I will fight for us to abolish ICE for this city,” he said, adding that if it’s “radical to love people that way,” people can call him radical.

They were voted in on a wave of frustration at the status quo. Across polling sites in the metro area immigrant voters told 285 South they were fueled by everything from high gas prices and the war in Iran to the impacts of ICE enforcement.

After voting at a precinct in Lilburn on Tuesday, Juan was eager to get back to his job working in concrete. He had taken time out of his day to cast his ballot though, because he was hoping that “que cambian las cosas,” that things change. “Los inmigrantes que no tienen papeles, los agaran y [deportan] a Mexico or para otro pais,” the immigrants who don’t have papers, they catch them and deport them to Mexico or another country, he said. He personally knows ten people, he said, who’ve been deported. He also hoped his vote could “para que sube la economia…es muy baja,” boost the economy…it’s very low.

At the Covenant Church in Smyrna, Cobb County, 23-year-old administrative assistant Joselyn Guerrero came to vote with her 19-year-old brother Omar, who was voting for the first time. 

Joselyn’s family is from Mexico, and she said she was encouraging her Latino friends to go out and vote “because we gotta keep each other accountable, you know, since a lot of our family can’t vote, we have to vote for them.”

She said she supported Democratic candidates and that immigration was a primary concern for her. “We want Georgia to be safe,” she said. “For example, the immigration raids, We want [people] to have more of a due process rather than just forcefully being taken away,” she said

In Clarkston, Burmese American John Mangcinkhai said he was thinking of his friends and family as he cast his vote, especially those who’ve lost Medicaid benefits. “Right now situation is very difficult for everybody,” Mangcinkhai said. “I hope they can figure out better life for the public.”

Originally from Burma, and from the persecuted Chin minority, he moved to the Clarkston area from Ohio this past June to be closer to extended family here (Metro Atlanta is home to more than 6,000 Burmese residents, many of whom live in the Clarkston and Stone Mountain area, and who began migrating here in the early 2000s.). Finding time to vote when he lived in Ohio was hard, since he worked in a restaurant seven days a week. He was happy he was able to make it to the precinct to vote on Tuesday, even though he wasn’t familiar with the candidates. “It’s a small thing, but I think it’s gonna be make better.”

Irma Cristancho, a 65-year-old actress, and her retired husband, Pablo Sanabria, 64, came to Duluth City Hall to vote together.

“We are all human beings, and everyone who comes from Latin America to live in this country comes in search of a better life,” Irma said. “We are not all murderers, or rapists, or anything of the sort—contrary to what is being said. There are so many abuses being committed against these individuals, and it is simply wrong to separate families the way they are doing.”

Pablo said he usually resonates more with the Republican Party and holds conservative views, but “ the Republican Party has completely gone off the rails these days.” So, he said, he voted for a mix of both Democrats and Republicans, though both he and his wife voted for Senator Ossoff. “It seems to me that the Democratic proposals at the moment are more pro-Hispanic,” he said. While this doesn’t personally affect me—since I am a citizen—I see that it does affect many other people, and I want to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.”

“We really need young people, people who understand what the world is like today,” said Irma. “I mean, all those we’ve seen before—past politicians—are completely obsolete. It’s time to look to the younger generation, to let them and their fresh ideas take the lead. Just as the world evolves, we have to evolve too.”