Courtesy of Dejuana Thompson
Dejuana Thompson poses with a group of Woke Vote volunteers.
Though every election cycle is held to a certain level of importance, the outcome of the Nov. 6 midterm elections has been a hot topic in politics since the beginning of the Donald Trump administration. With a Republican president in office and majority Republican U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, it would take a major wave of change in the latter two areas in 2018 to shake things up.
When Doug Jones won Alabama’s special senatorial election in 2017, making him the first Democratic senator from the state in over 25 years, the victory seemed both a surprise and an answered prayer to liberal voters in the state. The cause of the upset was spelled out in the exit poll breakdown and in news analysis following the vote: although Jones only got one of every three votes from white voters, he made up for those numbers dramatically with the votes he received from 96 percent of black voters, especially black women.
“The significance of the black woman’s vote did not start, nor will it end with Doug Jones’ campaign,” Dejuana Thompson, creator of “Woke Vote” and Birmingham resident, said.
A grassroots effort to engage and mobilize African American millennial voters, Woke Vote made over 100,000 contacts, triggering an outpouring of support in Jones’ favor for the 2017 special election. With over 15 years of experience in community activism and political strategizing — including having worked as the national African American engagement director for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and serving as a senior level staff member in both of former President Barack Obama’s campaigns — Thompson has worked at every level of politics.
“A lot of black people in general — women and men — turned out because it was an opportunity to show the power of the black vote and leverage it,” Thompson said of 2017.
Thompson said it’s important to understand not only the power of a single vote, but also the power of an individual’s voice and community.
According to Thompson, African American voters are the most underfunded and ignored voting pool. As a partner in the social impact firm Think Rubix, she’s continuing the work she began with Woke Vote in “lifting up, mobilizing and turning out” young black voters. One ideology that she stresses is that the elections are about the voters, not the candidates.
As far as the influence that African Americans will have on the midterm elections, Thompson said the momentum is there, but the funds are not. In preparing for the special state election in 2017, Woke Vote and another one of Thompson’s grassroot groups, Righteous Vote, raised over $2 million for their collective efforts. This time around for midterms, they haven’t been able to hit the same mark.
However, there is steady momentum among black voters that could prove to be key to possible Democratic victories. It’s a large hurdle in a predominantly Republican state that Trump won in 2016, but Jones’ win in 2017 has been followed by an increase in Democratic candidates in 2018, and a similar increase in Democratic voter turnout could follow suit.
Midterm elections are Tuesday, Nov. 6. To find your polling station and check your registration status, visit alabamavotes.gov or nass.org/can-i-vote. Alabama requires voters to present a photo ID, so be sure to bring a valid driver’s license, state issued identification or student identification to the polls.
