The Ruwa Report
We Won In More Ways Than One
I don’t even know where to start this one because the past few days have been euphoric to say the least. So, I’m going to just opt for a chronological retelling of the past few days.
TUESDAY
We not only won our primary by a massive margin, but we also held the seat in the special election.
To be frank, this was probably one of the most complex and challenging races I’ve ever experienced. As I’ve shared before, our district had two elections. One was our regular primary. The other was a race to finish out the State Senator’s term who resigned. That race was between a Republican and a Democrat. We had to do persuasion, GOTV, and voter education all at once.
Statewide, Republicans had runoffs in more races including for Senate and Governor. Millions of dollars was being spent to turnout Republicans. Democrats did not have the same amount of races or spending. This meant that 62% of those who voted in Georgia were Republicans. In Gwinnett County, that number was 58%.
We ended up winning the SD7 special by 374 votes and electing Adrienne White to finish out the remainder of the term.
This win is what we call the margin of effort. We bucked state and county trends. We held the seat. We won our race. And, we set us up to go into special session with a strong position leading to another major win.
Normally, this is when I’d ask you to donate, but we actually cannot fundraise during session. Instead, I’m asking you to send this newsletter to others inviting them to subscribe so we can share with them everything that is going on.
And, sign up to volunteer. We will be resuming full campaign operations by August but will have events and other activities leading up to that.
WEDNESDAY
Which brings me to yesterday. We stopped the maps y’all. As I’ve mentioned, special session began the day after our runoffs. Yesterday was the first legislative day. But, for weeks before that we had been working hard to apply pressure and prevent more gerrymandering of our state. And we won!
I want to be clear, this is because every single vote matters. Right now, Republicans are extremely divided after a bruising primary. If Republicans had won the SD7 special, it would have been their first pickup since 2024. That would have put the wind back in their sails and united them. Instead, we kept this seat, thousands of people mobilized, and we were ready for anything they brought our way.
But the work is not over. We are in this special session because our ballots will no longer be valid starting July 1. Yes, you read that correctly. Republicans put an arbitrary deadline that will throw our elections in jeopardy. This special session was originally called to fix that. We are watching closely to see what the Senate sends our way to make sure they do not slip anything in the bill that will further erode trust in our elections.
The expectation is we will be done by Tuesday, June 23rd. We will be in session:
Saturday, June 19th
Monday, June 22nd
Tuesday, June 23rd
The resolution we voted on, however, leaves this open ended so we may see more days added.
Let me be clear, the lesson from the past few days is that every vote matters, and we must not preemptively surrender. So many people said that these maps will pass anyway, that there is no way to stop them. But, we were able to stop them this session. They can still try again later, but for now, we showed our power.
Our jobs as elected officials is to do everything in our power to stand up for our constituents. This moment demands more of all of us to end the practice of sacrificing black and brown voters on the alter of greed and power.
Our path to victory through these upcoming fights and elections in November can only be tread with our multifaith, multiracial, and multigenerational coalition. We deserve better. Let’s do this y’all!
Great organizing work!