The South is democracy’s front line, and the left must send reinforcements

Reinforcements Needed on Democracy's Southern Front Line

The South is democracy s front - Living outside Atlanta, I've spent considerable time battling fire ants in my garden. Those of us who call the South home understand a fundamental truth: you cannot simply trim back a fire ant infestation—you must destroy the entire nest. Neglect a single colony, and soon you are facing a dozen more. This lesson keeps echoing in my mind as I observe the ongoing struggle for voting rights throughout our region, and how those equipped with the means to resist have once again turned their gaze elsewhere.

A History of Organizing and Defense

For over three decades, I have been engaged in grassroots organizing across the South. We never treated the threat to our electoral power as theoretical. The assault was always part of a deliberate strategy. We did more than raise warnings—we took action. When Georgia shifted its political allegiance in 2020, that victory belonged to Black Southern organizers who secured four additional years of democratic governance for the nation.

This past spring brought a devastating blow. The Supreme Court, in a 6-to-3 ruling within Louisiana v. Callais, effectively dismantled Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. This decision unleashed a cascade of mid-decade redistricting efforts designed to diminish Black political influence across Southern states. Yet in communities where we had built strong organizational networks, we maintained our position.

Where Resistance Took Root

In Georgia, Republican officials delayed redistricting until mere hours before their special session began, all while the Capitol echoed with chants declaring that Black voters matter. South Carolina's Republican Senate ultimately rejected its redraw proposal. Mississippi followed suit by canceling its plans. Court-ordered redistricting, as seen in Louisiana, proceeded as expected; voluntary efforts, particularly where communities organized effectively, succeeded in blocking harmful changes. Resistance proves effective, though it demands significant sacrifice.

It is crucial to recognize that losing these seats extends far beyond a Black concern. This represents an American crisis. The legislation that broadened who this nation serves—the Voting Rights Act, the Affordable Care Act, and the Civil Rights Act that preceded them—was crafted and championed by Black legislators representing Southern districts. Remove a Black representative from a district, and you silence the constituency that has most reliably pushed this country toward fulfilling its foundational promises. The entire nation shifts rightward, whether intentionally or not.

The South as Political Laboratory

This reality explains why the right targets the South first. President Trump initiated the MAGA movement in Alabama in 2015, predating his first major stadium gathering. President Ronald Reagan opened his 1980 presidential campaign in Mississippi, invoking a promise of states' rights. These messages functioned as dog whistles, directed toward the region the right recognized as the testing ground for a political vision it intended to export nationally. Whatever takes hold in the South does not remain contained—it spreads outward.

When the right began its offensive, blue states responded swiftly. Governor Gavin Newsom's committee in California raised more than $100 million to redraw that state's electoral maps, delivering a counterpunch from three states away. This response proved both appropriate and necessary. However, California's redistricting effort differs fundamentally from a resistance campaign operating in the South. We require both approaches.

The Funding Challenge

The consulting establishment possesses every motivation to direct resources toward activities that enrich themselves: traditional television advertisements in competitive states, the same outdated strategy that has steadily lost ground election after election. In 2024, the five highest-compensated political vendors collected approximately $2.1 billion, with each functioning as a media-buying firm that retained roughly 15 percent on every advertisement they placed. This represents a trap that donors have fallen into—not because they have been miserly, but because they have received poor counsel.

Victory demands that every tool aligns toward a common purpose. Traditional nonprofit funding builds civic infrastructure, social welfare nonprofit money fights in the policy arena, and PAC money secures electoral victories. These are not competing categories. They constitute a unified strategy, and the South has been deprived of all three.

The region contains 56 percent of the nation's Black population yet receives less than 3 percent of national philanthropic investment. A redistricting campaign emerged, but never a fully funded resistance movement waged where the assault originated.

We now possess evidence that resistance succeeds. The collapsed sessions in Georgia, South Carolina, and Mississippi occurred because we grasped the gravity of this moment and mobilized our constituents through urgency and collective power rather than financial resources alone.

Yet you cannot sustain momentum on adrenaline indefinitely. Maintaining this work requires investment the South has never received. The left cannot abandon this region and still claim to oppose an anti-democracy movement that establishes its foundation here. A seat preserved in Sacramento and a seat defended in Selma participate in the same struggle. You cannot achieve victory by funding the offset while starving the frontline.

The solution extends beyond a single fund or quick fix. It demands strategic funding at every level, sustained throughout the year, directed where the assault begins—from national intermediaries to the small Southern organizations that never depart.