Former President Bill Clinton urged churchgoers in Albany, Georgia, on Sunday to rally behind Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign for the office he once held, the AP reports. "Uniting people and building, being repairers of the breach, as Isaiah says, those are the things that work," Clinton said. "Blaming, dividing, demeaning—they get you a bunch of votes at election time, but they don't work." While Mount Zion Baptist Church was not quite full, a hefty crowd welcomed Clinton with a standing ovation. Many attendees were older, but some younger people were dispersed throughout the pews.
Georgia is one of seven states seen as pivotal in this year's presidential race, and turnout among Black voters could hold the key for Democrats to winning the state's 16 electoral votes. When Joe Biden won Georgia against Donald Trump in 2020 by 11,779 votes out of more than 5 million cast, it was the first time a Democrat carried the state since Clinton in 1992. Democrats see Clinton as someone who can mobilize both rural voters and Black voters. But while Clinton was recognized for his popularity in southern Black communities, it remains to be seen whether he can still inspire Black voters as the population familiar with his presidency grows older.
But he didn't hold back in describing the stakes in this year's race. "This whole election and the future of the country is turning out to be what people who were sort of on the fence about voting are going to do in the next three and a half weeks," Clinton said. "It's the craziest thing I've ever seen." Clinton, who was governor of Arkansas before he became president, also spoke at the Harris campaign's Albany office, saying he asked the campaign to send him to rural areas, where he feels most at home. And he attended a fish fry, per the New York Times, which refers to him as a "secret weapon" of the Harris campaign. (He joins another former president, Barack Obama, in rallying for Harris.)
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