First of all, I'd like to say as a Coordinated Campaign leader in Whitfield and the First Vice-Chair for WCDP, I'm immensely proud of our team and all we did, and the hard work is visible in the numbers!
[A bit of bragging/silver lining] In the Gubernatorial race, Whitfield County swung more (tied with Rockdale) to Jason Carter than ANY OTHER COUNTY IN THE ENTIRE STATE (We both got some bragging rights here). Whitfield went from 22.9% for Roy Barnes in 2010 to 28.6% in 2014 (D +5.7)! We held Deal below 67%, which is the best showing in Whitfield for a Gubernatorial, Senatorial or Presidential Democrat since 2000. In the Senatorial race, we moved the needle from 20.5% in 2010 to 24.1% in 2014 (D +3.6). That was a bit below the average swing in the state to Nunn, but we still did well in improving our totals for this part of the state.
We made over 2,000 calls, knocked on several hundred doors, deployed 2,500 mailers, sent out 15,000 robocalls, somehow beat the Republicans at the silly sign game, and had plenty of other interactions to help GOTV for Jason, Michelle and others. In the end, this boosted the number of Democratic voters in the Gov race from 3,725 to 4,501 (D +776) and the Sen race from 3,301 to 3,807 (D +506). I set a personal goal in the Gov race for Whitfield to deliver 4,500 votes (which I thought a bit unrealistic at the time); made it by 1!
I'd just like to close this out by saying that having a solid county party apparatus in place is crucial to accomplishing what we want to in this state in the future. If you don't currently have one, then build it. Use data and modern technology to get the job done, and combine with it common sense and retail politicking. Get the staleness out the way, and always be willing to ask for help. Over the past four years, myself and several others have worked very hard to convert what was just a few people getting together once per month into a real political party with dozens of people that can affect change (or at least for now, begin moving the needle back in the left direction). It'll still be a long time before Whitfield County is anywhere close to flipping, but if enough of the counties like ours begin to make movements like what Whitfield did tonight in the Gov and Sen races, then we'll have a Democratic sweep come 2018. And I have a feeling that if we keep it up and move forward as one, then Northwest Georgia won't be getting ignored for much longer.
