Fighting 50
The Origin Story
History of Democratic Candidate Recruitment for the State Legislature in Georgia
Bob Herndon and Pam Woodley, co-Executive Directors of the PAC, had been volunteering for several years with a coalition of non-profits to recruit Democrats to run for elected positions across Georgia. The Democratic Party of GA handled recruiting for all State House and Senate districts that leaned Democratic or were within striking distance of being flipped from red to blue. That left the recruiting for all the red state legislature seats (likely not winnable by Democrats soon- because of less than 45% Democratic performance) and thousands of lower-level municipal and county offices to the coalition. This effort usually only started a few months before qualifying week and was rushed.
Bob and Pam offered to start recruiting for the 2024 ballot much earlier than usual and to narrow their focus to red districts in the Georgia State House. They called the group they were out to recruit the “Fighting 50”, after the 53 Republican state house candidates (out of 102 total) who were unopposed in 2022.
Our Job Goes Beyond Recruitment
The first thing they learned was that of the 49 Democrats in red districts who challenged Republicans in 2022, only a handful agreed to run again in 2024. These Democrats felt that after agreeing to run an unwinnable race, they had been abandoned and given only minimal support. Bob and Pam resolved that this time, their work would not end with finding good candidates. They would do what they could (with no money or staff at the time) to assist their folks through qualifying and campaigning, up to Election Day.
Over 30 Fabulous Candidates on the November 2024 Ballot!
Throughout 2023 and early 2024, they sent thousands of texts and made hundreds of calls to likely Democrats in their targeted districts, where Democrats are often not on the ballot. With the help of non-profits like RepGA, they eventually shepherded 30 Georgia State House candidates through the qualifying process in March 2024. They also reached out to the 10 other Democrats who qualified to run for the state house in red districts and folded those who were interested into the Fighting 50 community. They began arranging training sessions with the Georgia Democrats such as former Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux and Georgia Democratic Legislative Whip Billy Mitchell. They set up a Signal group which the candidates used to share ideas, photos of events, and encouragement. That conversation is hopping every day! Candidates in the same region have supported each other’s events. Although we are all rarely in the same room, the Fighting 50 has become a strong and supportive community.
Generous Donors Believe in Our Mission
A few months into the 2024 campaign cycle, a generous donor heard about our work and made a substantial contribution. The PAC was formed to be a receptacle for those funds. Bob and Pam realized there was considerable interest in having our party’s values represented in all areas of Georgia and began approaching other donors, big and small. In the summer of 2024, they raised enough to donate over $84,000 to the active Fighting 50 candidates!
Goals For the Future
Our first goal for the 2026 term was to retain as many of our 2024 candidates to run again as possible. That was the force driving us to make their experience of running in a red, possibly hostile district as meaningful and satisfying as possible.
We succeeded! Twenty-two of our thirty-four 2024 recruits are running again in 2026. And they were joined by almost fifty new recruits. The November 2026 ballot will include over seventy Fighting 50 candidates. We are a major reason the Democratic Party of Georgia was able to say to the Atlanta paper: "Democrats qualified in 204 state legislative races, contesting 89% of House seats and 82% of Senate seats — their broadest slate of candidates under the Gold Dome in at least three decades, according to party officials."
Our Mission
Recruitment, training, qualifying and supporting candidates for
Georgia legislature is our mission for the Fighting 50 PAC.
We do this for 3 reasons:
1) To let the Republicans know we are here and aren't going to let them win without competition.
2) To create awareness and infrastructure in the local community. Candidates that are supported can find other local Democrats and progressives to build a local network for the future.
3) Studies have shown that in state legislative districts where a candidate is running there is anywhere from .5% to 3.0% improvement in Democratic turnout compared to an empty district with no candidate running. Click link below for Run for Something research.
If we recruited 50 candidates and each averaged adding an extra 500 votes per district, that would help turnout an extra 25,000 votes across the state for up-ballot races such as Senate, Governor, or President.
Joe Biden only won this state by 11,779 votes.
We are looking forward to helping Jon Ossoff get re-elected in 2026.