“You still feel the relief in the air,” said Mariama Davis, who has accumulated countless hours as a volunteer for President and Vice President Kamala Harris. “In fact, we are about to go back to the normal situation we were used to. So, honestly, I am satisfied.”
Davis is among voters who not only helped Biden to conquer Georgia – the first Democratic presidential candidate to do so since 1992 – but also helped Democrats gain control of the Senate. Gaining a majority in the upper house made the Covid-19 relief bill a reality.
For the first time since taking office, Biden and Harris are visiting Georgia on Friday, as part of a series of stops across the country that the government is calling for the “Help is Here” tour. The state has suddenly emerged as one of the most important battlegrounds in the country, with one of the biggest struggles for the right to vote also underway.
Davis said he can feel how that $ 1.9 trillion aid plan is already helping small businesses and their customers. She runs Beehive, a boutique here in Atlanta.
“Just this week,” said Davis, “we have been gloriously impressed by the numbers we have obtained.”
But the White House’s plan to promote Covid’s aid package took a dark turn after a riot here this week killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent. White House officials ended up canceling an evening rally planned to help explain the benefits of the law.
Instead, the president and vice president should meet with Asian American leaders. Still, the White House barely called the shootings a hate crime, despite calls to do so.
In Atlanta, Biden and Harris are also expected to visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meeting with experts on the same day that the government says it will achieve its goal of administering 100 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
“We will win this,” said Biden on Thursday. “We are very advanced, but we still have a long way to go.”
The White House said the rally, which would be the first in a series of campaign-style events promoting the benefits of the law, will be postponed. But it was not by chance that the chosen place was Georgia.
For Biden and Harris, there is no such state.
In November, Biden narrowly defeated President Donald Trump here by about 12,000 votes, which were counted repeatedly during a series of post-election reviews. And in January, that victory became even sweeter for Democrats after Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won their races, ending Republican control of the Senate.
“I shudder to think about what would have happened if Georgians had not come out in historic numbers and turned into the Senate,” said Nse Ufot, executive director of the New Georgia Project, a voter registration group.
Biden’s victory was accompanied by considerable backlash, with Georgia Republicans trying to pass new laws to make voting more difficult. A broad voting bill released on Wednesday would give the state broad powers over local electoral officials, set limits on early weekend voting and add voter identification requirements for absentee ballots.
Ufot said he believed the Biden government should speak more strongly about attempts in Georgia and across the country to restrict voting rights. She also expects Biden to prioritize federal election reviews, which can only happen by removing the Senate obstruction.
“I think the president could say clearly and vehemently that there are not both sides to this debate and that there has been no widespread electoral fraud,” said Ufot. “It could also provide coverage for some of the CEOs who are unsure whether or not to go into this issue.”
Ufot is among the progressive leaders who say they are satisfied with the first two months of Biden’s presidency, but are eager to hear concrete plans about more of his campaign promises, including a $ 15 federal minimum wage, which was taken from Covid relief bill.
Asked how patient she was, she replied, “I have no patience at all. Our people are suffering.”
Even with the arrival of a new season here, with trees and flowers already in bloom, some front gardens are still dotted with Biden-Harris campaign signs. Two homeowners in the Inman Park neighborhood say they are leaving their blue and white signs as a show of support for Biden, who they say has allowed them to exhale after four years of Trump.
“It is much more peaceful. Only one weight has been lifted,” said Kevin Randolph, a retired professor who supported Biden. “You can see it in the city; everyone is so elated.”
It is this euphoria that comes to life in conversations with Biden supporters like Davis, whose businesses have benefited – literally – from the fact that Georgia turns blue.
“We saw a flow of orders from around the country, because people wanted to support black businesses, specifically in Georgia, as a way of saying thank you,” said Davis, who runs the boutique his sister owns.
She understands the urgency in the minds of some Democrats, who want Biden to start taking more progressive positions. But she said that she is willing to give him a little time.
“Everyone just needs to relax and be patient. Can we get to 100 days?” Davis said with a laugh when she closed her store one night this week. “Not everything happens overnight, and people know it. It’s the government we’re talking about and they like to do things very slowly, which gets on my nerves, but I’m going to be patient.”