Black rural voters could be key to Democrats eyeing Georgia

Sitting on the wooden pews of a small white brick church on a hot Wednesday afternoon in Georgia's Gnat Line, a group of residents gathered to chat about the upcoming governor's race and the issues concerning them in their community, from economic development to health care to infrastructure.

A particular topic of interest was a strategy for voter turnout — and how to fight the barriers to it — in what could be a pivotal midterm election.

"We've got to get out to the nursing homes, tell the DJ if that's what we've got to do to get to the young folks," said Houston County NAACP Vice President Jonathan Johnson, thinking aloud as the audience nodded in agreement. "We could start a cookout . If we could do that as a community, we could make a big difference in this election."

A bus carrying members of Black Voters Matter departs for a tour of rural Georgia after a brief sendoff rally Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018, in Stockbridge, Ga. The tour was reaching out to black and woman voters in rural Georgia, Florida and Mississippi. The Black Belt’s overlap with Trump Country could factor into the elections across the South next month, including competitive races for the governor’s mansion in Florida and Senate in Mississippi.(AP PhotoJohn Bazemore)

These were not the rural voters who have gotten so much attention after helping elect President Donald Trump in 2016. They are the black rural voters living in red states. They're staunchly Democratic even as they're surrounded by white voters who are almost all Republicans. And they're often overlooked by big-name candidates from both parties.

"There's a narrative that is out in the world right now around what rural America looks like, and it completely erases the existence of black rural folks," said Tamika Middleton, organizing director for Care in Action, a domestic workers advocacy group, in attendance at the church gathering. "We exist. There's never been black folks who were not fighting and resisting in the rural South."

The Black Belt's overlap with Trump country could factor into the elections across the South next month, including competitive races for the governor's mansion in Florida and the Senate in Mississippi. That raises the possibility that black rural voters will have an unusual opportunity to make an impact on statewide races.

Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown, right, gets a hug from a well wisher before departing on The South Rising Tour 2018 on Aug. 22, 2018, in Stockbridge, Ga. The tour was reaching out to black and woman voters in rural Georgia, Florida and Mississippi. The Black Belt’s overlap with Trump Country could factor into the elections across the South next month, including competitive races for the governor’s mansion in Florida and Senate in Mississippi. (AP PhotoJohn Bazemore)

But it's Georgia where black rural voters could be especially important as Stacey Abrams campaigns to become the nation's first black female governor. A Mississippi native who moved to Georgia as a child, Abrams is the first Democrat in years to have a real chance of winning the governor's race. And from the beginning, when she launched her campaign in south Georgia's Dougherty County, she's made outreach to rural voters a key part of her strategy.

"Since the beginning of the campaign, Stacey Abrams has been focused on reaching out to a broad coalition of voters in every part of the state, including rural communities of color who have been left behind for too long," said Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams' campaign manager.

Statewide, a third of rural Georgians are people of color, and Abrams has been making her case to black rural voters in churches like the one in Warner Robins. In recent months, she has spent time in towns like Riceboro, Americus, Thomasville, Fort Valley and Cordele — far from the usual Democratic campaign stops like Atlanta, Savannah, Macon and Albany.

A woman listens to Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown speak at a church as part of The South Rising Tour 2018 Aug. 22, 2018, in Warner Robins, Ga. The tour was reaching out to black and woman voters in rural Georgia, Florida and Mississippi. The Black Belt’s overlap with Trump Country could factor into the elections across the South next month, including competitive races for the governor’s mansion in Florida and Senate in Mississippi. (AP PhotoJohn Bazemore)

During the primary, Abrams' efforts paid off in places like predominantly black Washington County, where she campaigned in May. Turnout there nearly doubled from four years earlier, with Abrams getting 69 percent of the vote this spring, according to turnout data from the Georgia secretary of state.

Rural blacks' priorities often differ from those of their urban counterparts. Many suffer from health disparities, including obesity, maternal mortality, diabetes and sickle cell, living in regions with few hospitals, governed by state officials who have rejected the expansion of Medicare that would help them afford treatment. The Black Belt was historically an agricultural region that remains starved for economic development, and the class and power divide that began during slavery still persists along racial lines in many communities.

While the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 politically changed the region with the onslaught of black public elected officials, another result was voter suppression, said Georgia State University historian Maurice Hobson.

A man prays Black Voters Matter's The South Rising Tour 2018 on Aug. 22, 2018, in Warner Robins, Ga. The tour was reaching out to black and woman voters in rural Georgia, Florida and Mississippi. The Black Belt’s overlap with Trump Country could factor into the elections across the South next month, including competitive races for the governor’s mansion in Florida and Senate in Mississippi. (AP PhotoJohn Bazemore)

"It's a black population that has been so mistreated and so marginalized by the political system that many people are like, 'My vote doesn't count anyway,'" Hobson said. "There is a sense of hopelessness."

That dynamic has paralyzed some blacks in the South, but this fall's midterms could signal a shift among those voters and a way forward for Democrats seeking their votes.

"Our people have voted year after year after year, and they have not seen their lives change," said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, which is touring the black South to register and turn out voters this cycle, told the crowd in Warner Robins. "We got a black woman that is the Democratic nominee at the top of the ticket in a state where we couldn't even vote . Y'all are standing on land where our people died as slaves . We gotta remember that."

A man listens as Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown speaks at a church as part of The South Rising Tour 2018 on Aug. 22, 2018, in Warner Robins, Ga. The tour was reaching out to black and woman voters in rural Georgia, Florida and Mississippi. The Black Belt’s overlap with Trump Country could factor into the elections across the South next month, including competitive races for the governor’s mansion in Florida and Senate in Mississippi. (AP PhotoJohn Bazemore)

Kattie Kendrick, former Peach County Democratic Party chairwoman, who was on a recent tour stop in Fort Valley, Georgia, said that mobilizing voters in her part of the state has been challenging but that outside interest could help to energize them.

"We do not necessarily unite, but when other people know that the black people in Peach County and throughout rural Georgia matter, that makes a difference," Kendrick said.

Down the road in Terrell County, the Rev. Ezekiel Holley plotted how to get nearly 1,000 of his neighbors who typically vote in presidential elections to show up for the midterms. Nicknamed "Terrible Terrell," three churches in the county were burned in the 1950s to keep blacks from voting. Today, Holley said, the problem is apathy and frustration with elected officials who forget they can't see a doctor or need their roads paved.

"Most of our citizens feel that people we have elected have let us down," he explained. "They get elected and forget about who elected them and their platform. So why should I keep on voting for you?"

"The majority of the national politicians feel that ... they don't have to worry about little rural places. Most folks are concentrating on metro Atlanta more than the rest of Georgia. Hopefully they're getting the picture now," Holley said.

Holley went to see Abrams speak at a campaign event earlier this month with former President Jimmy Carter in his hometown of Plains. The pair talked about Medicaid expansion, which Holley believes will bring jobs, better health conditions and industry into the state. That she announced her plans there said to him that she cares about his corner of the state.

It's a message Holley plans to take to the registered voters he hopes to help turn out in Terrell County in the coming few weeks, but he's still not sure whether they will show up.

"I can't give a good answer on that yet," he said. "People are excited, but Nov. 6 is going to tell the story."

Whack is The Associated Press' national writer on race and ethnicity. Follow her work on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/emarvelous.

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's ambassador to the U.S. for the last six years said Tuesday she's resigning next year as the two major trading partners plan to review the free trade agreement.

Ambassador Kirsten Hillman said in a letter it is the right time to put in place someone who will oversee talks about the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that is up review in 2026.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Hillman “prepared the foundations for Canada in the upcoming review" of the agreement.

Carney noted she’s one of the longest-serving ambassadors to the United States in Canada's history.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent Hillman to the embassy as deputy ambassador in 2017. She became the first woman to represent Canada as ambassador in the U.S. in 2019.

Hillman helped lead the trade negotiations during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term as deputy and as ambassador worked with U.S. and Chinese officials to win the release of two Canadians detained in China.

Dominic LeBlanc, the minister responsible for Canada-U.S. trade, and Hillman had been leading trade talks with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said on social media that Hillman has been an “awesome and well-respected” contributor to the U.S.-Canada relationship.

“I value your friendship and wish you all the best in your next adventure. You will be missed,” Hoekstra said.

Trump ended trade talks with Carney in October after the Ontario provincial government ran an anti-tariff advertisement in the U.S., which upset the U.S. president. That followed a spring of acrimony, since abated, over Trump's insistence that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.

Asked this week when trade talks would resume, Trump said, “we'll see.”

Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and more than 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. Most exports to the U.S. are exempted by the USMCA trade agreement but that deal is up for review.

Carney aims to double non-U.S. trade over the next decade.

About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.

FILE - Ambassador of Canada to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman listens during a First Ministers' meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, Jan. 15, 2025. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP, File)