Why the Georgia Senate Runoffs in January Have Become So Crucial

All the marbles are on the table in the two Georgia runoff elections for U.S. Senate on Jan. 5, 2021, as no candidate received a majority of votes in the election on Nov. 3, 2020. The runoff elections will determine whether Republicans or Democrats have a Senate majority in the 117th United States Congress during the two years from Jan. 3, 2021, to Jan. 3, 2023.

Democrats will need to win both seats to split control of the Senate 50-50, given the fact that the ostensible vice president, Kamala Harris, has the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. (Republicans need to win one seat to maintain their majority.)

The American Renewal Project is mobilizing Georgia pastors and churchgoers by means of a combination of four activities and initiatives: get out the vote, voter guides, ground game knocking on low/mid propensity evangelical doors, and a social media component targeting evangelical and pro-life Catholic Christians.

In Summary

— Mobilization of pastors. (Lunches and dinners in eight of Georgia’s congressional districts.)

— Ground game, knocking on low- to mid-propensity evangelical doors.

— Social media targeting low-to-mid propensity evangelical voters.

— Grassroots, precinct-level organizing with get out the vote and voter guides.

Two Things Must Happen If America Is To Be Saved, we wrote on Election Day 2020.

Long-Term Strategy Considerations

We have to create a new paradigm if our children and their children are to remain free. Running toward a raging blaze with a fire extinguisher every two years has neither worked in the past nor will work in the future. Regardless, the business models of some of our friends and colleagues seem to depend on doing just that—fighting fires every political cycle.

Short-Term Strategy Considerations

1. Recruiting 1,000 pastors and spiritual leaders to run for city council, county commissioner, school board, parks and recreation in 2022, 2024, 2026 and every two years thereafter. You may remember that Pastor Rob McCoy of Godspeak Calvary Chapel Thousand Oaks ran for California Assembly in 2014 and ended his campaign with 650 volunteers who had knocked on every door in the district and called every home. Out of the 130,000 cast in the California Assembly race in 2014, Pastor Rob came up 3,000 votes short. But then afterward, he became Thousand Oaks City councilman in 2015 and Thousand Oaks mayor in 2016.

2. Focusing on the long term by recruiting 1,000 Christian college and university students to begin knocking on doors. The door-to-door endeavor develops steadfastness and perseverance as well as an aptitude for dealing with people and learning how to defend one’s values and Christian worldview in the “rough and tumble” of the public square. Such skills will be prerequisite as we begin to contend for long-term systemic change.

Our Georgia runoff teams begin knocking on doors in Savannah and Augusta on Friday, Dec. 4, 2020. They consist of two groups of evangelical students, one out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the other out of Asheville, North Carolina. The teams will be led by two youth pastors (“Men of Issachar, who know the times and what to do”) and overseen by a campaign operative with four cycles of ground experience.

The Tulsa group worked in several states this cycle and most recently has participated in a State Senate election in Oklahoma. The Asheville group was part of an effort to get out the vote in NC-11, where Madison Cawthorn will become the youngest member of Congress in modern history.

Gideons and Rahabs Are Beginning to Stand

Since even long journeys begin with a single step, starting the training of the next generation will be undertaken in small steps, for the purpose of initiating local grand-scale social change, which ultimately will become the catalyst of a Third Great Awakening lasting for decades.

In summary, we envision as the new paradigm, pastors and leaders running for local office and the Millennial and Gen Z generations being trained to enter the public arena and defend their biblical values—together forming the ekklesia. Our effort to ensure that our children and their children remain free is an essential part of this new paradigm. {eoa}

David Lane is the founder of the American Renewal Project.