Dr. Jason Johnson

Professor of Political Science. Politics Editor for The Root. Latest Book: Political Consultants and Campaigns: One Day to Sell

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Democrats Use the Force in #GA06 Special Election, Strike a Blow Against ‘Darth’ Trump

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If you are part of the Resistance to Trump, the Georgia 6th Congressional District’s special election Tuesday has given you something to cheer about. Feel free to read the rest of this article as if it’s the opening crawl of a Star Wars film, laying out how the Rebel Alliance has their first minor victory against Darth Trump (or Sessions, or Kushner or Bannon, etc.). The fight is far from over, but 30-year-old Jon Ossoff just might be the New Hope the Democrats are looking for.

The 6th District was up for a special election because sitting Republican Rep. Tom Price was brought up to the big leagues to be President Donald Trump’s secretary of health and human services. While Republicans have held this district for close to 40 years, it’s been changing. Yes, there are plenty of Paneras and Starbucks, but you also have In & Out Burger, and the whole Buford Highway Corridor has some of the best hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese and Mexican food in the Southwest.

The district is 13 percent African American and 13 percent Latino, and although affluent conservative whites have migrated into North Fulton County into places like Alpharetta, closer to the city, places like Cobb and DeKalb counties are nothing like the conservative power bases that supported Newt Gingrich when he repped the district in the ’90s.

There was a scrum for the seat, with 11 Republicans, a few Democrats and a few independents in the race. Millions of dollars poured into the race, mostly in attack ads against the Democratic front-runner, Ossoff. The GOP dredged up old YouTube videos of Ossoff cosplaying as Han Solo from his college days at Georgetown and suggested that he was too “immature” to be in Congress. Of course it kinda backfired—what could be more inspiring to Democrats seeking to battle the evil that is the Trump White House than a Star Wars-themed election? Ossoff embraced the role fully.

A 30-year-old documentary filmmaker who worked for and considers Democratic Georgia Rep. John Lewis his mentor (Obi Jon Lewis, obviously), Ossoff made a startling contrast with the GOP front-runner, Karen Handel. Handel is a former Fulton County Board of Commissioners chair and Georgia secretary of state; she’s Georgia through and through; and her home base of North Fulton is where she draws her strength. However, in this first round of voting, Ossoff had the Force on his side.

He exceeded expectations by winning just over 48 percent of the vote, which is better than Hillary Clinton did just eight months ago (she lost to Trump 47 percent to 48 percent). Because no one got over 50 percent of the vote, however, there will be a runoff between the top two vote getters, Ossoff and Handel (who got 19 percent), on June 20.

“I’m most encouraged by the turnout,” says Nse Ufot, head of the nonpartisan New Georgia Project, which encourages greater voter turnout among single women, minorities and the poor. “Not only was this [Georgia’s 6th District] a Republican stronghold held by GOP giants like Gingrich and [Sen. Johnny] Isakson, it’s been gerrymandered and designed to retain their stranglehold on power.”

Ufot, however, cautions anyone who thinks this special election is the end of the battle. The Voting Rights Act requires that voter registration for any election end no more than 30 days before citizens vote. But Secretary of State Brian Kemp is trying to claim that the June 20 runoff is just an extension of Tuesday’s special election, and therefore voter registration actually ended March 20. A 90-day blackout of voting is clearly voter suppression and exactly the kind of dirty trick that could keep Ossoff from adding to his lead when he faces Mandel in June.

However, for now, there is victory; the Empire took a hit. So time for fireworks, and GIFs of Democrats dancing with Ewoks across the galaxy.

The real battle starts tomorrow, when the fundraising and focus will be on the two major-party candidates, and a race in which everyone from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to the White House will have a lot at stake. Help the Resistance, Jon Ossoff; you’re their only hope.

This article originally appeared online at The Root.

CNN: Jason Johnson and Larry Sabato Discuss Hillary Clinton and Voter Registration

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On CNN Newsroom with Carol Costello, Hiram College professor Jason Johnson and University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato discuss Hillary Clinton’s comments on universal voter registration, voter ID and voter disenfranchisement.

Paging Melissa Harris-Perry: A Year of Voter Surpression In Virginia

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It is both a shame and a public service that the Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC has a segment called “This Week In Voter Suppression”. It’s a shame because cowardly, anti-democratic and racist voter suppression tactics by local Republican parties are still being enacted even at the 11th hour of the election season, making the segment necessary. On the other hand, It’s a public service because honestly, if it were not for the MHP show there would be no other major televised news outlets paying any systematic attention to this nationwide assault on democracy. These voter suppression activities re not the actions of rogue individualists or out of touch local parties. It is important that some news outlets weave together the various strands that connect local parties to companies like Strategic Allied Consulting to the national Republican Party. The reason this is so important right now? The critical swing state of Virginia has finally made it clear just how far the Republican Party is willing to go to rig this election.

While reports have begun surfacing since last Friday about Colin Small, the skin-head looking 23 year old GOP operative caught destroying completed voter registration forms, in the mainstream press, there is another element to the Virginia voting story that has been overlooked. First let us acknowledge that Small is just the tip of the ice-berg. If he was caught trashing 8 voter registrations right before a deadline who knows how many more were destroyed over the last few months? Given that the Republican Party has put forth shell voter registration groups near James Madison University, who knows how many other college students across the state have had their registrations destroyed? There is already evidence that college voters are slowing beginning to realize that they might’ve already been robbed of the franchise. However the situation is even worse than destroyed registrations when you take a look at the Republican leaning board of elections in the state of Virginia.

According to the Washington Post, Democrats in Fairfax County, the most diverse, populous and blue leaning part of Virginia fear that the state board of elections is making last minute tweaks to suppress and eliminate absentee ballots. Staffed by former Bush administration officials and strong Voter Suppression advocates the board members last week uttered a few public statements suggesting that “poor handwriting” and other subtle “imperfections” might be grounds to discount absentee ballots. Current law is supposed to allow for a man named “Robert” to sign an absentee ballot as “Rob” and it’s still acceptable, but not if local GOP officials have anything to say about it. They will discount these ballots immediately, and what’s worse, unlike registration fraud from the Small case, these will be men and women who already think they have voted and will have no idea that their franchise is in the trash with coffee grounds and missing chads.

What’s the solution? There are only a few options now for Virginia voters since registration is closed. Any voters who are in areas that were potentially affected by GOP fraud need to call their local board of elections and file a complaint if they can’t find any on-line documentation of their registration. Further, if you are filling out an absentee ballot you need to make sure that you dot your “I’s” and cross your “T’s” because the GOP will be looking for any reason in the world to trash your ballot. Unfortunately at the individual level, this is all people can do right now until litigation has begun or a further investigation occurs.

A good consultant friend of mine said to me recently “The problem with voter suppression is that you want to talk about it because you need people to know it’s happening, but if you talk about it too much people get discouraged and they don’t vote.” Hopefully the public will prove him wrong on November 6th. The Republican Party in every swing state is doing everything in their power to stop people from voting and those efforts shouldn’t discourage you from voting, they should encourage you to fight for your right to self- determination.

This article originally appeared online at Politic365.com.