‘We gotta do something’: the coalition that helped elect Scott Colom to Senate
Behind the Mississippi senator-elect’s victory is a coalition of groups that didn’t have a lot of money, but had collective power and post-Callais anger Long before national political leaders and media were paying any…
Source: The Guardian ·
Behind the Mississippi senator-elect’s victory is a coalition of groups that didn’t have a lot of money, but had collective power and post-Callais anger Long before national political leaders and media were paying any attention, long before the Louisiana v Callais supreme court decision gutted the Voting Rights Act, Mississippi organizers were working to grow political participation and improve quality of life in a state that often ranks low on its residents’ health and wellbeing. Activists’ momentum contributed to Democrat Scott Colom’s historic upset in the midterm elections. A loose coalition of about a dozen, mostly Black-led nonprofits or initiatives rallied residents after Callais, the April decision that set off a flurry of redistricting efforts across southern states. That case was not the sole impetus for organizing efforts across Mississippi, but it turned out thousands in the…