Right now, we all have Georgia on our mind. The two U.S. Senate runoff elections scheduled for January 5th, 2021 are essential to any meaningful progress in America over the next two years. Our goal is to help fill critical gaps with organizing and engagement in the Asian and Hispanic communities across the state of Georgia, and we need your help to support two strong candidates for the United States Senate.
Jon Ossoff
Jon Ossoff is the Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. David Perdue who stands on a platform of expanding access to affordable healthcare, combatting climate change and investing in green infrastructure, and supporting small businesses. Prior to his candidacy, Ossoff was a media executive and investigative journalist.
Raphael Warnock
Rev. Raphael Warnock is the Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, who has pushed to expand the Affordable Care Act, for economic fairness, and for sweeping changes to policing and the criminal justice system to root out institutional inequity.
Projects
Healthcare
Georgia has the third-highest percentage of uninsured people in the country, and rising health care costs puts Georgia at the forefront of a health crisis.
Georgia is one of twelve states which have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Georgia spends less than thirty dollars per person on public health annually as the state continues to face a shocking health crisis.
And no community has been more negatively impacted than Georgia’s rural populations, which has had a wave of rural hospital closures, and over half the remaining rural hospitals vulnerable to closure.
Maternal Health
The politicians are failing Georgia mothers. Georgia has double the maternal mortality rate as the rest of the country, and significant racial disparities in infant mortality rates.
Among adult women in Georgia, 23% of Black women and 49% of Hispanic women do not have a personal doctor or health care provider, and nearly half of Georgia’s counties don’t have a single OBGYN.
Better leadership will make a difference for Georgia mothers, through investments in pre-natal care, expansion of access and quality care for working women, and major investments in health infrastructure.
COVID-19
Disparities in the social determinants of health, such as poverty, quality education, and access to health care/coverage have put racial and ethnic minority groups at a greater risk of contracting COVID-19.
Of the 10 counties in the nation with the highest death rates from COVID-19, five are in Georgia, specifically in rural and minority communities.
In Georgia, this is evident in the disproportionate number of COVID cases among Hispanics reported in the state. To achieve health equity, barriers must be removed so everyone has a fair opportunity to be as healthy as possible.
The Economy
Georgia is a growing economic powerhouse in agriculture, logistics, aerospace, technology, clean energy, and media. However, the COVID-19 outbreak is causing enormous economic hardships and Georgians are losing jobs.
Poverty remains a problem in Georgia. 13.3% of Georgians are living below the poverty line, and poverty in Georgia has largely concentrated in communities of color, with more Black people (31%) and Hispanic people (27%) living below the poverty line than whites (9%).
A stronger economy will lift all communities, but there needs to be a shift in approach – in favor of working Georgians and their families, and not for those at the top who already have the security they need to get through tough times.
