'The South is in play': Longtime red states emerge as potential battleground for Democrats
After the midterm results, they think they have a blueprint for the future.
On the last day of early voting in Georgia, former Vice President Kamala Harris addressed a room of Fulton County Democrats at a fundraising dinner in Atlanta.
"The South is in play," she told the crowd.
Harris cited Democrats' gains in the Peach State as a "blueprint" that is now "spreading across the South."
Less than a week later, Democrats would go on to sweep every statewide office in Georgia and Texas, flip Republican-held Senate seats in the Carolinas and, as it stands, a Democrat is leading a Republican incumbent in the vote count in the Mississippi Senate race -- all states that Donald Trump won in 2024, some by double-digits.
Many of the Southern states that delivered decisive victories for Democrats have some of the highest concentrations of Black voters in the country, voters who historically tend to support Democratic candidates by wide margins.
The gains have encouraged some members of the Democratic Party to point to the South as ground for increased investment ahead of the 2028 presidential cycle.
A 'favorable environment'
Black voters make up more than a quarter of the electorate in Georgia, and around 9 in 10 of them supported Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms this year, according to the ABC News Voter Poll, similar to shares that have voted for Democratic candidates in the past.
White and Latino voters shifted significantly toward Democrats since Ossoff's last election in 2020, which went to a runoff that gained national attention. Latino voters shifted only slightly from the 2021 runoff. And white and Latino voters also shifted toward Bottoms in the governor's race, compared to four years ago when Democrat Stacey Abrams lost to Republican Brian Kemp.
Democrats swept every statewide office on Tuesday, from governor to secretary of state, and are poised to take control of the Georgia House of Representatives for the first time in over two decades, as well as narrow Republicans' majority in the state Senate.
"I think the national Democrats are now more attentive to what can happen in the Southern states than ever before, given the result that occurred," said Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson, whose Metro Atlanta district includes majority-Black DeKalb County.
"You have to give the Democratic Party of Georgia credit for working with Senator Ossoff and Governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms to turn out the vote in Georgia," he added.
After Democrats suffered major losses in Georgia in 2024, Georgia Democrats converted the role of party chair into a full-time position and grew their organizing operation, laying the groundwork for Democrats up and down the ballot to capitalize on voters who soured on President Donald Trump and the economy under his administration.
"To say that it didn't have an impact would be inaccurate," said Maria Banjo, chair of Georgia's 5th Congressional District and a member of the Democratic National Committee, of the Trump administration's unfavorability.
"It'll be hard to know how much we can attribute to what. But what I do know is that a favorable environment alone is not going to be sufficient to get the win," she said, referring to Republicans' dwindling approval numbers that benefitted Democratic candidates.
Banjo pointed to Georgia Democrats' messaging focus on issues that affect "working families" this cycle, as well as financial investments in state parties from the DNC.
When the Supreme Court dismantled a key section of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais and Georgia's Republican governor called a special session to redraw new maps that could dilute Black political power, the backlash from Democrats and voting rights activists was so large that Georgia Republicans backed off on the effort amid concerns it could hurt them in the midterms.
"The Callais decision of the United States Supreme Court galvanized Black people to head to the polls," Johnson argued. "And it wasn't just Black people. It was all people in Georgia who voted Democrat did so because they recognize the threat to democracy that exists."
'Candidate of choice'
In North Carolina -- where Black voters played a key role in delivering the state for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election -- early voting turnout among the group outpaced that of the last midterm cycle in 2022, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
About 9 in 10 Black voters supported Democratic Sen.-elect Roy Cooper, according to the ABC News Voter Poll. In the 2022 Senate race, slightly fewer Black voters supported the Democratic candidate, who lost. This year, white voters roughly split their vote between Cooper and former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley; in 2022, White voters supported the Republican candidate by a nearly 2-1 margin. Latino voters also supported Cooper by a wider margin this year (70%-26%) than they supported the Democrat in 2022 (56%-36%).
"People are tired and people are fed up," said Democratic Congresswoman Valerie Foushee, who represents North Carolina's Research Triangle area on Capitol Hill.
North Carolina Republicans redrew the state's congressional maps in 2025 to create a GOP advantage in North Carolina's 1st District, which is represented by Democratic Rep. Don Davis. The historically Black district has been represented by a Black Democrat for the past three decades.
"I think it galvanized people in northeastern North Carolina who wanted to continue the legacy of being able to have a candidate of choice elected," Foushee said.
"When you obviously set out to suppress the vote of people, particularly African Americans who have fought so long and so hard for the right to vote, the privilege that every American has, then yes, people will stand up and they will step out to do what needs to be done," she said.
Not only did Davis win reelection on Tuesday, but North Carolina Democrats could flip at least five House seats held by Republicans, including that of Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House Republicans' campaign operation.
"I think people have to be careful to assign this to, 'Oh, they voted for a particular party.' What we're seeing is that voters, particularly Black voters across the South, have been extremely pragmatic, and they have been voting for their existence. They have been voting for their particular right," said Rebekah Caruthers, the president and CEO of Fair Elections Center, a nonpartisan voting rights organization.
Caruthers said whether candidates center voting rights in their pitch to Americans "determines whether or not Black voters show up in 2028."
"Any candidate that is looking to be a national candidate in 2028, you better pay attention to the South," she said.
'A blue state that just needs to be organized'
In Mississippi, where Republicans launched into action to initiate a redistricting process after the Callais decision came down, a Democrat currently leads in a statewide race for a U.S. Senate seat with a small percentage of votes to be counted.
Black people made up about 3 in 10 voters in the state, and Democrat Scott Colom was able to capture near-universal support among the group, a meaningful increase from 2024 when the Democratic candidate won 84% of Black voters, according to the ABC News Voter Poll.
"I don't think the people of Mississippi are as surprised because we built this from the grassroots level," Colom told ABC News' Faith Abubey on Thursday.
Colom cited his focus on lowering prices, ending "endless wars," and increasing access to affordable healthcare as key tenets of his platform.
"The voters were betrayed. That gave us an opportunity to compete everywhere. And for me, I wasn't afraid to call that out," he said.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, told ABC News' Diane Macedo on Wednesday, "I've been trying to get my party to recognize that the path to a sustainable Democratic majority in Congress -- and even as we play and reach for the White House -- that road runs right through the South."
"I have been saying that Mississippi is a blue state that just needs to be organized."
According to a spokesperson from the Democratic National Committee, the DNC made their largest financial investment in Southern Democratic state parties in history this year and are elevating Black and southern voters in their new primary process for 2028. When the DNC finalized its new primary calendar over the summer, the committee selected South Carolina to go first on the schedule.
Warnock said he's been "bullish" on the South for a long time, "and I think I'll have a few more listeners, a few more folks sitting in the pews, listening to what I've been preaching."
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