MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
South Carolina is just one of the Southern states where Democrats performed well above recent history and current expectations. Here to tell us more is NPR's Stephen Fowler. Stephen, good morning.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: This is an important moment to talk about the power of Black voters. What do we know about turnout?
FOWLER: Well, we knew heading into the election that there was increased Black voter turnout in the early vote in a lot of places like South Carolina and Louisiana and Georgia. We knew that there was a lot of motivation to vote because of the Supreme Court decision that gutted part of the Voting Rights Act because of the many Republican-led Southern states that rushed to redraw their maps to try to target Democratic seats that ended up usually targeting Black voting power along with it. And we knew that there were a lot of concerted efforts to try and juice turnouts specifically in the South, and we saw that and then some. I mean, some of these results were just stunning as they were coming in in real time.
MARTIN: So in Georgia, Democrats reelected Senator Jon Ossoff but also elected the nation's first Black female governor in Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta. What does this tell us about Georgia? Does this mean that Georgia is now - should be now seen as purple?
FOWLER: I would say Georgia's been purple for the last decade or so, but the purplish hue gets a lot bluer. I mean, many people expected Jon Ossoff to win. I mean, he was a fundraising juggernaut. Polls showed him ahead, but they didn't expect him to win by that much. I mean, close to 18 points. And what that did was create a large margin for Keisha Lance Bottoms, even though there was some people who split their tickets and voted for Republicans. It wasn't enough.
But down the ballot, the blue wave crashed over offices in Georgia. Democrats took every single statewide office. They flipped seats in the state House. They even flipped seats in the state Senate, almost flipping that chamber, too. So it just completely reshaped Georgia politics for the next two, four, six years with a type of show - with the type of showing from last night.
MARTIN: So let's talk about Mississippi. The Senate race there is still too close to call, but that is news in and of itself. The fact that the Senate race is so close in a state that is solidly red in every statewide election. So what can you tell us about what happened there?
FOWLER: Mississippi's a state that voted for President Trump by about 24 points. It has the largest Black population in the country by share, and it's one of the most racially polarized states in the country, meaning that there aren't that many people that vote for Democrats that are white voters. And what you have right now is, you know, just a small handful of votes that separate incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith with the Democrats, Scott Colom in part because of, again - I sound like a broken record here - record-setting Black turnout.
There are still votes to be counted. There are still provisional votes that will have to be cured over the next few days, and those are likely to favor the Democrat. And so we do have this situation where you have this Deep South state that is going to be represented by a Black Democrat for the first time since reconstruction.
MARTIN: Big wins for Democrats across the country, Stephen. So before we let you go, what makes the South different?
FOWLER: Well, it's the population. It's where the population's growing. It's where the economy's growing. It's really where the future of this country is growing. So to have Democrats do well here and invest and play here shows that both parties are going to have to make the South a priority when looking ahead to 2028.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Stephen Fowler. Stephen has been across the country and glad to have you with us for this morning. Stephen, thank you.
FOWLER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
