Opinion | What Black Voters in Georgia Want and Aren’t Getting

With the midterm elections less than three months away, Times Opinion wants to hear from voters across the country: How is your America doing?

For this installment, the Opinion writer Mara Gay traveled to Georgia, where Black voters could once again play a decisive role in determining the balance of power in Washington. If Democrats hope to regain control of the Senate, Black turnout in Georgia is essential.

Gay traveled across the state — from a living room in a suburb of Atlanta to a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall surrounded by cotton fields — to ask voters directly: Is the Democratic Party looking out for you? What does it mean to be an American — or a Black American — today? And what does the American dream look like now?

The conversations that followed reveal a complicated mix of economic anxiety, political frustration, pride in America and a desire for leaders who feel connected to the people they represent.

Below is an edited transcript of this video. We recommend watching it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the video player above.

Mara Gay: If you had to describe America in one word right now, what word would you use?

Susan Ross: Confused.

Donna Watts-Nunn: Unrecognizable.

EliYahu Ben Asa: Hungry.

Aiden Webb: Chaotic.

Carlton Knox: Sad.

Courtney Golden: Tense.

Cecilia Houston-Torrence: I would say we’re suffering.

King Randall I: Great. I think America’s a great place to be.

Gay: [Talking to camera] Welcome to Georgia.

Archival news clip: It’s the cradle of the Confederacy but also the birthplace of the civil rights movement.

Archival news clip: It’s never really been full-on Trump, right? He lost it once.

This state could decide the Democrats’ chances of taking control of the Senate. And a lot depends on whether Black voters are motivated to show up.

So I’m asking folks: Why didn’t you vote for Kamala Harris? What do you think the Democratic Party thinks of you? What’s the dream?

Gay: When I asked you how America is doing, you said “suffering.” Suffering how?

Houston-Torrence: Every time we go to put gas in our car, utilities, food — everything is high.

Gay: If you had to describe the Democratic Party in one word, what word would you use?

Brianna Cherry: Messy.

Gay: Messy? [Chuckles]

Cherry: Very much so.

Webb: I would describe the Democratic Party as outdated.

Hugh Lafayette Golden: I think something went wrong by not including young blood. I want to see young people come in and bring in new ideas. I would love to see that.

Gay: What do you think the Democratic Party thinks of you?

Webb: I think that the progressives of the Democratic Party, specifically, I think they see me as a person who is capable of inspiring change within my community. But I would say for a lot of the more ——

Gay: You can say it. [Laughs]

Webb: The older members of the Democratic Party — it feels like I’m just another number to get them a vote.

Cherry: We’re just pawns in this very strategic, nasty, diabolical game of chess that they’re playing — that we don’t know what’s really going on behind the scenes. I want them to hear our problems, our struggles, what we’re actively going through every day. I feel like they’re kind of like corporations.

Gay: What do you think of the Democratic Party?

Jarrett Willis: It’s lacking that “uh” factor. Donald Trump’s got that “uh.” I don’t like Trump, but he’s got that “uh.”

Gay: But what happened to the Democratic Party?

Willis: It dismantled after Clinton.

Gay: Say that again?

Willis: Clinton. When Clinton left.

Gay: Oh, after Clinton?

Willis: It was over with. Who did we have after Clinton? Oh, Barack Obama was cool. Let me tell you, I love Obama.

Gay: No, it was Obama then Clinton.

Willis: Yeah, well, I’m talking about the first Clinton, before me.

Gay: Oh, I’m sorry. You’re talking about Bill.

Willis: I am talking about our boy Bill, yeah.

Gay: [Chuckles] “The first Black president.”

Willis: “The first Black president,” right. Bill had his issues, of course.

Gay: Do you think the Democratic Party has just become too corporate?

Willis: Absolutely. I like the way you phrased that. They’re definitely too corporate. It’s too much. It’s too messy. It’s too corporate. It’s too many politics. No pun.

Gay: Do you think that the Democratic Party cares about you?

Willis: It’s like that auntie at the cookout who comes over there, and she acts like she’s cool with people, but she looks down on people. I feel like the Democratic people, they’re just fake. It just feels fake.

When they tried to do the Megan Thee Stallion thing, that was horrible. When Kamala Harris got Megan Thee Stallion to do — what was that? It was — people can see through the [expletive]. That’s the problem with the Democrats. They do things for show. It’s all theatrics. It’s not authentic, and people can tell. It has to be in you, not on you. And people can smell it. I can smell you’re [expletive] me. And they don’t think you can smell it.

Robert Schley: There was a point that I just voted straight Democrat. Now I’m at the point that I’m actually taking the time to look at each candidate, to actually see the ballot before I go to the voting booth to know what I’m doing.

The first time I voted for Obama, I thought it was going to make a difference. The first time I voted for Donald Trump, I thought it was going to make a difference.

Gay: Let me ask: Your vote for Donald Trump, both times, was that a vote that was cast in the hopes that Trump could maybe make a change or deliver something different? Or was that a protest vote against the Democratic Party?

Schley: Yes, probably more protest.

Gay: It sounds like the Democratic Party has let you down.

Schley: I think government has let me down.

Gay: How do you think Trump has done so far?

Schley: I kind of like where he’s going with revitalizing industry. I see that as an opportunity for communities like ours, small communities, to get young people, men and women, involved with skilled trades that pay very well.

Gay: Do you think the Democrats are focused on the wrong issues?

Lafayette Golden: I think so. I talk to my wife about it all the time. I want them to be a catalyst for economic development here in the United States and in the world.

Gay: OK.

Lafayette Golden: So to me, if they were to concentrate more on that, rather than social issues, I think we could move forward.

Gay: If I’m hearing you correctly, no matter who was in office — different Republicans, Democrats, white folks, Black folks, whoever — there hasn’t been change that you’ve seen?

Randall: Not in my opinion. Obama was the president for eight years. Albany still looked the same. Joe Biden became president. Albany still looked the same. Donald Trump was president, two terms. Albany still looks the same.

We’ve been sold the idea that the only way our communities are going to change is if we go to the voting polls. And that is absolutely not the truth.

Gay: So why do you vote, then?

Randall: Because I just feel like it’s the right thing to do.

Gay: Why?

Randall: Because too many people died for it.

Lonzie Jimmerson III: Truly, I only vote to honor the people who fought for me to have the right. Do I have faith? I don’t know. I’m just voting because there’s a lot of people ahead of me that fought for me to have this right. And maybe one day, it’ll make sense for me and my kids and my grandkids.

Gay: Why didn’t you vote for Kamala Harris?

Cherry: I feel like, at that time in my life, voting was not important to me. I didn’t have time to worry about voting or making sure my voice was heard. I was worried more so about surviving and making sure I get to the next day — the next week, even — but mainly the next day, because it’s a day-to-day process for me.

Gay: Who are some politicians who you do like?

Willis: I like Bernie Sanders.

Gay: You like Bernie Sanders?

Willis: I follow him on every social media platform. I like the New York mayor.

Gay: Zohran Mamdani.

Willis: I like Mamdani. I like him a lot.

Gay: What do you like about him?

Willis: He’s got that “uh.” He’s a man of the people, and you can tell that. He can’t be bought. He might be able to get bought later, but right now he’s pretty thorough in the way he practices what he preaches.

Gay: So you like Mamdani?

Cherry: I do. I think that he is making a blueprint for future politicians to come. I wish that he could be duplicated and we could have him everywhere, honestly, because I just love how he’s for the people.

Watts-Nunn: “Socialist,” the word — it’s like a bad word in the United States.

Gay: To a lot of people, yeah.

Watts-Nunn: To a lot of people. But they have some good points. I mean, there’s some things that really take care of — some countries that really do have the socialist perspective, they really take care of their citizens.

Gay: So the words “democratic socialism,” the phrase doesn’t scare you?

Watts-Nunn: It doesn’t scare me.

Gay: What are some of the ideas that you hear from folks like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, or Sanders that you like?

Watts-Nunn: That I like? That we need to do this health care piece.

Gay: Medicare for all?

Watts-Nunn: Medicare, yes, for all. If you’re a citizen, you’re born and raised, you should at least be able to go and say: I can get my teeth pulled.

Golden: Health care — I think that should be afforded to everyone, regardless.

Now, I consider myself to be more in the middle, like a moderate — I guess a moderate Democrat or liberal. But I don’t think they’re too far.

Webb: Personally, for me, I think that taxing the wealthy was one of the biggest things for me. Especially with Kamala Harris’s unrealized capital gains tax: That was something that I was a big supporter of, because that’s one of the biggest ways that a lot of people who are in the top 1 percent manage to avoid paying so much in tax.

Golden: I think that there needs to be something radical to occur in this country. I think people are looking for something radical.

Gay: What is your American dream?

Golden: The American dream, for me, looks like being able to live like my parents did in the ’80s and ’90s.

Gay: If you had to describe life as a Black woman in 2026, in one word, what word would you use?

Sharmen May Gowens: Perseverance. And maybe even hopeful.

My mother forced me to go to the white school, as they called it, because she said I could do it and I needed to do it. And so I did.

In the cl***room, nobody would sit in the seat in front of me or behind me because I was Black. Until we started getting grades. I was always at the top of the cl***. So then I can remember this one boy started sitting next to me, and would turn around to ask me —— [Laughs]

Gay: [Chuckles] For the answers.

Gowens: [Laughs] For the answers.

Gay: You said it feels sometimes like some people in America want to take us back. When you say that, you mean back to Jim Crow times?

Ross: Yes. I think Trump would like to take us back to slavery, to tell you the truth. I mean, I think he’d like all Black people to go back to Africa. But maybe he’d keep one or two.

You know, we’re in a fight to save democracy right now. We have to organize, we have to vote, and we have to be vigilant.

Peggy Jones Golden: I talk to my children about everything that concerns us. They know all of their history.

Gay: What did you tell them about voting?

Jones Golden: We died. We died. So if we died to do something, it’s got to be powerful. It’s got to be powerful.

Gay: What does it mean to you to be an American — or a Black American — today?

Willis: First, I love America. I’ve been all around the world, and there is nowhere that I feel as comfortable as I do in America.

Gay: Even now.

Willis: Even now, even in this political climate, even in this social climate, even in this horrible economy that we have, it’s still the greatest place that you can be. And I love being American. I just want to see America love me.

This video was produced by Mara Gay and Emily Holzknecht. The ***ociate producer is Rebecca Shaid. The senior producer is Katherine Miller. It was edited by Mehron Abdi. Fact-checking by Julie Beer. Cinematography by Arthur Thompson. Audio recording by Veronica Schwab. Camera ***istance by Noah Orisich. Coloring by Kyle I. Kelley. Production ***istance by Raymond Seay and Olivia Abie. Mixing by Isaac Jones. Original music by Pat McCusker. The postproduction manager is Mike Puretz. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of Opinion Video is Erica Berenstein. The director of Opinion Video is Jonah M. Kessel. The deputy director of Opinion Shows is Alison Bruzek. The director of Opinion Shows is Annie-Rose Str***er. The head of Times Opinion is Kathleen Kingsbury.

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