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They Gutted the Voting Rights Act. Now What?
Plus: Early voting surges, our candidates need you, and who's buying the news
This Week in Georgia
Early voting started in Georgia this week, with the first day of early voting seeing a record turnout of 35k Georgians casting their ballot in person. This is a whopping 29% increase over the 2022 election! Voters are also choosing the Democratic ballot by 10 points, which demonstrates real enthusiasm amongst the Democratic base. Early voting continues until May 15th, with election day on May 19th. Remember to vote!
Governor Brian Kemp has declared a State of Emergency for 91 counties in response to wildfires throughout South Georgia. "With much of Georgia remaining in extreme drought conditions, wildfires have already surpassed the state's 5-year average and continue to spread," said Governor Brian Kemp. In addition, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division has declared the first level of drought response due to the ongoing fires. The State of Emergency will remain in effect for 30 days.
Note: SCOTUS Kills the Voting Rights Act
There is a tendency in our politics to treat historical milestones like the Edmund Pettus Bridge as finished chapters—monuments to a progress that is, by definition, irreversible. But John Lewis didn’t view the bridge as a monument; he viewed it as a site of contestation. He understood that power isn’t just about who has the most votes, but about the systems that determine which votes are allowed to matter.
In 1965, with an unfathomable amount of courage and sacrifice, and against seemingly insurmountable odds, the Voting Rights Act was born. Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson at the height of the civil rights movement, the act, among other things, prohibited racial discrimination in voting. It was – and still is – a stunning achievement. The act is considered one of the most effective pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.
Congress has amended the Act five times – each time expanding its protections.
And then yesterday happened. In their Callais decision, the Supreme Court didn't just narrow the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – it took a sledgehammer to it. Section 2, born from the blood and sacrifice of people who were beaten on that bridge for daring to ask for the ballot, has been gutted by six justices who have decided that proving harm is no longer enough. Now you have to prove intent. It’s the ultimate con-man’s gambit; a rigged game, impossible to win, handed down by one of the most corrupt and compromised courts this country has ever known.
And everyone knows it.
But here’s what makes this week different from every other dark moment in this long fight: people are voting right now. In Georgia. Today. The early voting period that opened this week is not a footnote to this ruling — it is the answer to it. The Court has handed legislatures a toolkit for drawing communities out of existence. The only thing that makes that toolkit harder to use is a Democratic majority that has to be drawn around. That majority gets built door by door, precinct by precinct, one vote at a time, by people who refuse to let a dark morning in Washington tell Georgians’ what their future is going to be.
John Lewis didn't view the Edmund Pettus Bridge as a monument. Don't view this moment as a defeat. The unglamorous, iterative, irreplaceable work of organizing — in the places they've tried to draw out of existence — starts right now.
Michelle and Beth, Leading with Courage & Competence
While primary elections serve as a vital engine for democratic engagement, the 2030 Project recognizes that the high stakes of the 2026 cycle demand a proactive approach. In a year where Georgia stands at the epicenter of the national political landscape, we cannot afford to wait until the dust settles on the May 19 primary. We have made the strategic decision to consolidate our resources behind two specific candidates early to ensure they have the financial and organizational infrastructure needed to withstand a grueling campaign.
This year, the 2030 Project is investing in two truly top‑tier women who can flip critical seats and govern with courage and competence: Michelle Kang and Beth Fuller.
Michelle is a longtime activist and organizer in District 99 who came within just a few hundred votes of winning her last race and never stopped campaigning—she rebuilt her team, relaunched early, and is now running a multilingual, neighborhood-by-neighborhood operation in one of the most diverse districts in the state. As Michelle told supporters, “That diversity is our strength. It is why our campaign is printing literature in six different languages,” so that volunteers can meet voters where they are and build real relationships at the door.
Beth is a public health leader with degrees from Emory, UAB, and Columbia, and a decade‑long CDC contract who stepped up after watching science and due process be “dismantled, disrespected, and just unraveled” from the inside. She’s running in one of the most competitive districts in the state, as she puts it, “District 53 is the top-tier critical seat because the margins are small and the electorate is pragmatic.”
Real human interaction is the gold standard of these campaigns. Join us on the next two weekends, May 2nd & May 9th, in creating neighborhood connections with candidates, Michelle Kang and Beth Fuller. Your support is vital and essential in winning these races.
The Fourth Estate is on its Last Leg
For those who don’t know, journalism & media is the fourth estate. The fourth estate has been compromised. This is not a drill.
The long-standing pillar of the United States is free speech; it's what our founders stood for. "No taxation without representation" wasn't just about money; it was about the right to have a voice in the system you're forced to fund. But what happens when the government keeps the taxes and silences the press? When the media becomes a megaphone for power instead of a check on it, we inch toward a world where we pay into a system we're no longer allowed to question. Propaganda doesn't announce itself; it simply crowds out everything else until the only news you see is the news someone powerful chose for you.
Citizens are consistently deprived of accurate, real-time news. We don’t have a clear understanding of what our country has been propelled into, specifically with the war in Iran. We aren’t sure of how many totalities have already occurred on both sides; we aren’t sure of how severe the military’s actions are. However, what we are sure of is that our media has been compromised.
Larry Ellison, founder of the software company, Oracle, acquired Paramount for $8 billion dollars, and subsequently, all of the entertainment companies under it. Moreover, Ellison is moving with interest in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns major news outlets such as CNN and CBS News. If the acquisition proceeds, the Ellison family will be able to control and propagate the media in the likes of his best friend, Trump.
David Ellison, Larry’s son, already owns CBS after merging Skydance with Paramount in 2025, and his first move was spending $150 million to install Bari Weiss as CBS News editor-in-chief. Now he's pending the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, which would hand him CNN too.
And the kicker that writes itself: On March 13, Pete Hegseth stood at a Pentagon podium and said out loud, "the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better," referring to CNN.
Whether you realize or not, the media and ability to accurately report news is heavily influential in the success and freedom of our country. When the fourth estate is threatened, so is our right to freedom and democratic society.
Redistricting Democracy
Legislative maps from both Democrats and Republicans have been crossing the Supreme Court’s desk as each party attempts to gain and hold power. This battle over Congressional maps determines the makeup of the U.S. House of Representatives. And without the House, you cannot impeach President Trump. Without the House, you cannot pass or block legislation.
Hours after the Virginia Supreme Court announced that it would allow the temporary blockage of the voter-approved Democratic Congressional map, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s congressional map which would have created a second heavily Democratic Black majority district. This is also a week after the same Supreme Court approved Texas’ redistricting map which would dilute Democratic congressional districts.
Of the many conservative judges on the Supreme Court, attention has been drawn to Justice Clarence Thomas, and rightfully so. Justice Thomas, who signed on to the majority opinion for Wednesday’s decision, is an example of cruel irony that twist the senses, has personally expressed his disdain for the Voting Rights Act of 1964, as if he would somehow be able to vote without it, as if he has claimed some access to whiteness in his conservatism that is anything more than a temporary, fragile membership card.
There is this strange misconception that giving equal representation is giving a leg up for Black and Hispanic Americans. Frankly, it is headache-inducing for advocates to explain each time this conversation comes up—Black and Hispanic Americans have been intentionally and explicitly targeted for voter suppression. To even the playing field is equity, to empower suppressed communities to have representation in their government is equity. Those pockets of America where Black Americans populate more heavily is largely because of historical red-lining and housing-based Jim Crow laws, keeping POCs locked within these communities.
And still, we are so eager for racial justice to be colorblind—to be absent of historical reality—that we refused to see the writing on the wall. They weaponized the language of colorblind redistricting to ignore historical harms, to turn back the clock, and many voters fell for it.
The question of democracy has always been in question for Black and POC Americans, especially when it comes to voting. One can imagine a perfect world without redistricting of this sort as it is quite undemocratic, but one can also imagine a world where Black voters were never suppressed. The point being that we are here now with the tools we have. There is little hope in both parties dropping their armed weapons long enough to support a fully functional democracy.
We lament that fascism is here, but it always has been. America, indeed, is returning to her original form as was advertised by Make America Great Again. We can still change course. We can continue fighting for a future worth defending, just as those six decades ago did for us today. Conservatives can never win by playing fair, and they know it. As we have said before—if your vote and your voice wasn’t important, they wouldn’t do everything they could to take it away from you.
If the Federal government will not stop the spread of the disease, it is up to the states. Which means this midterm election, especially here in Georgia, will determine our federal representation as much as our statewide one.
Socialist Alternative
Until next time,
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