Our Mission
New Southern Majority IE PAC promotes candidates running for office in the South who stand for racial justice and work to advance human rights for all people. We make independent expenditures to support candidates primarily running for law enforcement, education, and elections administration positions.
Address
150 East Ponce de Leon Avenue
Suite 340
Decatur, GA 30030
Phone
(334) 956-8200
(888) 414-7752
Frequently Asked Questions
Why local elections?
Local elected officials have a profound impact on our everyday lives. They determine what children learn in schools and whether local policies expand or close the school-to-prison pipeline; they determine how laws are enforced, prosecuted and adjudicated, which is what feeds our mass incarceration system; they help decide how all elections – including presidential elections – are administered and whether every vote is counted; and they make resource allocation decisions that affect our health and wellbeing, such as air and drinking-water quality.
Local elections are often uncontested – in 2020, there was no challenger in an estimated 40% of local elections in the United States. And in countless races, the incumbent was not popular, and the demographics of the district did not favor their reelection. Still, they won, because they ran unopposed.
Service in local office is an important steppingstone to higher office. It helps elected officials forge connections with the communities they serve, build practical experience and amass a record to run on in the future. We can have a better shot at winning back control of state legislatures and winning in statewide races if we can help good people win locally.
Why the South?
The South is quickly growing and becoming more diverse, while population growth is either stagnant or in decline in the Northeast and Midwest. The balance of power in Washington, D.C., used to be decided up North; the South is now the decider. For example, in the last round of congressional reapportionment, all the states that lost House seats were in the North and California, while Southern and Western states gained seats. And this was largely the case in 2010 too. And as we saw in 2020, Georgia decided control of the Senate.
Also, population changes will make Southern states more competitive. Mississippi, for example, has the largest Black electorate per capita with a rapidly shrinking white majority. It could flip like Georgia, but only if we are willing to make a long-term commitment to engagement in the state.
Gerrymandering is most extreme in the South. While Democrats won Georgia in 2020, Republicans are projected to control nine of the 14 House seats. In Florida, where statewide races are notoriously close, Republicans are projected to control 18 of the 28 House seats. And in Alabama, under a fair congressional map, Democrats would control two of the seven House seats instead of the current one.
How does New Southern Majority help win elections?
Our goal is to help elect progressive candidates, with a particular focus on Black and Brown candidates, to local and county office.
We will do this by making independent expenditures to promote and support our choice candidates, which could include TV commercials, door canvassing, direct mail, digital ads, conducting opposition research, and polling.
Here are some of our victories.
Why should I donate to New Southern Majority?
Bad incumbents need challengers, and more good candidates need to run. We intend to lean into hard-to-win races in gerrymandered districts where incumbents are well known and well funded. We want challengers to know that if they have the courage to run in a race where the odds are against them, New Southern Majority will join the fight, and will spend the necessary resources to help them win an uphill battle.
Can we win?
This is the most exciting part – the odds are in our favor. While suburban and exurban counties have become increasingly more populous, diverse and progressive in the last decade, local elected leadership remains mostly unchanged. Based on our research, white public officials are substantially overrepresented at the local level. For example, in cities where nonwhite citizens represent a majority, 48% of the mayors in these cities are white. We believe this will change if we give voters an option.