“You still feel the relief in the air,” said Mariama Davis, who reported countless hours for President and Vice President Kamala Harris. “We are actually on the verge of returning to a normal situation we were used to before. So I am honestly satisfied.”
Davis is one of the voters who not only helped Biden carry Georgia – the first Democratic presidential candidate to do so since 1992 – but also helped the Democrats gain control of the Senate. The acquisition of the majority in the upper chamber made the Covid-19 bill a reality.
For the first time since taking office, Biden and Harris visit Georgia on Friday, as part of a series of stopovers across the country, the government calls the “Help is Here” tour. The state suddenly emerged as one of the country’s most important battlefields, with one of the country’s biggest battles over voting rights.
Davis said she can feel the $ 1.9 billion relief plan already increasing small businesses and their customers. She runs the Beehive, a boutique here in Atlanta.
“This week alone,” Davis said, “we were wonderfully overwhelmed by the numbers we had.”
But the White House’s plan to promote Covid’s aid package has taken a gloomy turn after a riot here killed eight people this week, including six women of Asian descent. White House officials eventually canceled a planned evening meeting intended to explain the benefits of the law.
The president and vice president will rather meet with Asian American leaders. The White House nevertheless stopped calling the shootings a hate crime, despite calls to do so.
While in Atlanta, Biden and Harris are also planning to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and they are meeting with experts on the same day that the government says it will achieve its goal of donating 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to serve.
“We’re going to beat it,” Biden said Thursday. “We are far ahead of schedule, but we still have a long way to go.”
The White House said the rally, which is the first in a series of campaign-style events proposing the benefits of the law, would be postponed. But it was no coincidence that the place Georgia chose was.
For Biden and Harris, there is no state like this.
In November, Biden pres. Donald Trump was defeated here by about 12,000 votes, which were counted over and over again during a series of post-election reviews. And in January, the victory became even sweeter for the Democrats after Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff wiped out their races, ending Republican control of the Senate.
“I shudder to think of what would have happened if Georgians had not come out in historic numbers and turned the Senate around,” said Nse Ufot, chief executive of the New Georgia Project, a voter registration group.
The victory in Biden was accompanied by significant setbacks, while Republicans of Georgia tried to pass new laws to make the vote more difficult. A comprehensive new ballot bill launched Wednesday will give the state broad powers over local election officials, set limits for early voting at the weekend and add the voter ID requirement for absentee ballots.
Ufot said she believes the Biden government should speak more forcefully about efforts in Georgia and across the country to restrict voting rights. She also hopes that Biden will prioritize the federal election reviews, which can only happen by eliminating the senate filibus.
“I think the president can clearly and powerfully say that there are no sides to this debate and that there has been no widespread vote fraud,” Ufot said. “He can also provide coverage to some of the CEOs who are on the fence, whether they want to go into this issue.”
Ufot is one of the progressive leaders who says they are happy with the first two months of the Biden presidency, but they are eager to hear concrete plans for more of his campaign promises, including a $ 15 federal minimum wage, which the Covid was fetched. relief bill.
When asked how patient she is, she replies: ‘I have no patience at all. Our people are suffering. ‘
Although a new season is dawning here, with trees and flowers already in bloom, there are still a few forecourts with Biden-Harris campaign signs. Two homeowners in the Inman Park neighborhood say they are leaving their blue-and-white signs as proof of support for Biden, who they say allowed them to breathe a sigh of relief after four years of Trump.
“It’s a lot calmer. It’s just lifting weights,” said Kevin Randolph, a retired teacher who supports Biden. ‘You can see it in the city; everyone is so excited. ‘
This is the joy that comes to life in conversations with Biden supporters like Davis, whose business – literally – benefited from Georgia turning blue.
“We saw an influx of orders from across the country because people wanted to support black businesses, specifically in Georgia, as a way to say thank you,” said Davis, who runs the boutique her sister owns.
She understands the urgency in the minds of some Democrats, who want Biden to take more progressive positions. But she said she was willing to give him some time.
“Everyone just needs to relax and be patient. Can we get 100 days?” Davis said laughing as she closed her store one week this week. “Everything does not happen overnight, and people know it. This is the government we are talking about and they like to do things slowly, which gets on my nerves, but I will be patient.”