Former first lady Michelle Obama used her When We All Vote rally to speak to those voters who may be thinking of staying home instead of casting a ballot this year.
Obama drew parallels to elections that occurred during the Vietnam War in 1968 and in 2000 before the Iraq war to those voters upset about the country’s role in the Israel-Hamas war.
“In 2000, people actually thought a good way to pick our president was to choose the guy they’d rather have a beer with,” Obama said. “Barely half of the voting-age population cast a ballot in that election, by far the lowest rate this century.
“And almost 100,000 people voted for a third-party candidate who had no chance of winning. Some voted for that candidate because they wanted to stick their thumb in the eye of the status quo. That sound familiar?” Obama asked, adding that the election was decided by 537 votes in Florida.
Her nonpartisan group, When We All Vote, focuses on getting young voters and people of color to the polls, something that was apparent by those in attendance. Several attendees sported gear from the state’s historically Black colleges or universities, including a large group from Spelman College, and the event kicked off with a drumline performance from Clark Atlanta University’s marching band.
First-time voter Desana Clark, a senior at McEachern High School, said she felt “joy and liberation” when she cast her first ballot alongside her family last week.
“Joy because I have reached a major milestone and liberation, well, because I finally have a say,” she said.
Obama told the room of predominantly young people in attendance to urge anyone they know who might be thinking about skipping the election to head to the polls by Tuesday. She reminded voters that the 2020 election in Georgia was decided by fewer than 12,000 votes.
“When you break 12,000 people down across precincts, that’s just four votes per precinct,” she said. “So these numbers that we’re talking about — three, five, 10 — that’s real.”
And Obama called out efforts to change election rules in Georgia by the far-right majority of the State Election Board that a judge struck down.
“You all have seen and heard about the shenanigans that some folks in the state have been trying to pull,” she said. “The folks trying to make it harder to get your vote counted, the folks trying to allow a few unelected officials to wipe out the votes of entire precincts and sway the local election, and thankfully, those rules have been overturned for this election.”
The program included performances from Ari Lennox and Blanco Brown, as well as remarks from singers such as Ciara and Victoria Monét and actors such as Kerry Washington and Rita Wilson.
It was co-hosted by influencers Kalen Allen, who is also an actor and appeared on the last several seasons of “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” and Lynae Vanee, a Spelman alumna who films a popular “Parking Lot Pimpin’ ” series discussing politics and social issues.
Ahead of Obama’s visit, a spokeswoman for former President Donald Trump said the former first lady’s visit was an attempt to distract Georgians from Vice President Kamala Harris’ “four years of failure.”
“A vote for President Trump is a vote to fix the mess Kamala’s made — and Georgia is ready for it,” Trump spokeswoman Morgan Ackley said.
Harris’ name was not mentioned during the rally. Nor was Trump’s
While When We All Vote is nonpartisan, Obama and several speakers — such as singer Kelly Rowland and showrunner Shonda Rhimes — have campaigned on behalf of Harris. Obama and her husband, former President Barack Obama, campaigned with Harris within the past week.
Rowland spoke with former Destiny’s Child bandmate Beyonce during a Harris rally in Houston last week. Rhimes attended several events in the Atlanta area on Tuesday.
Obama brought When We All Vote to College Park as early votes out of Clayton County, which has a Black population of about 74%, have trailed some more rural, predominantly white counties.
In nearly every election cycle, Clayton has been a Democratic stronghold, voting by nearly 85% for Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016 and about that same rate for Barack Obama in 2012.
And Clayton County stood out in 2020 due to the number of voters who flooded the polls. More than 95,000 people showed up to cast a ballot, an increase in turnout of more than 19,000 people from the 2016 election. The vast majority of those votes went to Democrat Joe Biden.
Overall, more than 3 million Georgians have voted early as of Tuesday.
About the Author
