SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Georgia Representative Nikema Williams represents the same congressional district of the late John Lewis. She is the first Black woman chair of her state's Democratic Party. She is a delegate for Kamala Harris and...
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NIKEMA WILLIAMS: Who's ready to party tonight?
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SIMON: ...A hype woman. We met the representative at a Georgia delegation breakfast that began the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week. We spoke with her as the ballroom emptied and the plates were being cleared. She was obviously excited about her state's newly crucial role in the 2024 elections.
WILLIAMS: I walked into the convention floor for the first time to see, like, where we have come in Georgia as a party. And our seats are on the floor. I was like, this is high cotton. We get to be on the floor now. It's not up in the rafters anymore.
SIMON: Georgia delivered a narrow victory to President Biden in 2020, and we asked the representative if she felt that Vice President Harris is a stronger candidate in Georgia for the party.
WILLIAMS: So we always knew that it would be close in Georgia. We only won by - you might know the number - 11,780 votes that our failed former president was trying to find when he tried to overturn the will of the voters in Georgia. The difference now is we have more allies on the ground to help us have those conversations.
In the 24 hours after the vice president was announced as the presidential nominee, we had over 1,000 new volunteers to sign up. We had a 320% increase in our donations - 320% just at the Democratic Party of Georgia. And that wasn't happening before.
SIMON: What changed, do you think?
WILLIAMS: I think it comes with a lot of relatability. Like, I have conversations with young voters who will ask me about the Civil Rights Movement 'cause I'm in the seat that the late Congressman John Lewis held. And they'll tell me that, well, that was for my grandparents. That's not me. That doesn't really mean anything to them. And so I have to explain the connections and how this is absolutely our Civil Rights Movement.
They respect President Biden and his congressional history and service to this country. But they saw him as, like, their grandparents' generation. But Vice President Harris is like the cool auntie that you still want to hang out with, the one that takes you shopping and buys you the things that your mama tells you no about.
SIMON: You share some biographical similarities with the vice president, don't you?
WILLIAMS: Yes, she is my sorority sister, members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, the first sorority founded for college-educated Black women. And we have always been at the forefront of social justice movements. You're going to see pink and green everywhere. I heard somebody say, now, what is that little squelch you all do? It's called skee wee. And it is our sorority call...
SIMON: Oh, I got to...
WILLIAMS: ...And each sorority...
SIMON: ...I got to ask...
WILLIAMS: ...And fraternity...
SIMON: ...To hear this.
WILLIAMS: ...Has one.
SIMON: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: Skee.
SIMON: That's beautiful.
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SIMON: What - from your point of view, what issues do you see as strongest?
WILLIAMS: Reproductive freedom resonates with young voters. It unites us because this isn't a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. I spent 10 years as the VP of policy for Planned Parenthood Southeast. What we have seen is all of the things that I would warn state legislators about in state capitals across the South. They thought that I was being Henny Penny and the sky was falling - that, no, nobody's going to, like, target birth control. IVF would never be on the chopping block.
SIMON: Let me ask you about Gaza. There are a lot of voters in Georgia, 57,000 who are Arab American voters who might disagree with what seems to be the Democratic policy on support of the Israeli military and prosecution of the war in Gaza. That's enough to flip the election, isn't it?
WILLIAMS: It is enough to flip the election, and that is why everybody's voice is important in this conversation. Vice President Harris has called for a cease-fire that brings the hostages home, ends the violence and brings peace and stability to the region. And that is what so many of us want to see.
SIMON: Called for a cease-fire, but not reducing the amount of aid to the Israeli military or withholding anything.
WILLIAMS: So Vice President Harris has been firm that we stand by our allies. And Israel is our strongest ally in the Middle East. But she has also not been shy about pushing back and making sure that Netanyahu and his regime understand that we have to come to an agreement for cease-fire.
SIMON: Let me ask you, four years ago, whatever differences you might have with Governor Kemp, political differences...
WILLIAMS: And I have a lot of them.
SIMON: ...He stood up to Donald Trump.
WILLIAMS: Kind of, sort of. He did the bare minimum. He didn't allow the election results to be overturned, but he also signed into law all of the suppressive voter laws that Donald Trump championed. But Brian Kemp is still saying that he is going to vote for Donald Trump for president of the United States, even with him saying he will be a dictator on Day 1, even with him trying to overturn the will of the voters of the state of Georgia. Brian Kemp is still saying that he's going to vote for him.
SIMON: And what worries you?
WILLIAMS: The fair count of the ballots worry me. Our postal service worries me because we have a lot of seniors who count on absentee ballots. We've had our fair share of challenges in getting votes returned. And sometimes the media worries me. We saw in the aftermath of the debate with President Biden how a media narrative really gets in and shapes the psyche of voters. But what we know is that the last poll that matters is on November 5 when the voters have the final say.
SIMON: Representative Williams, thanks for all your time.
WILLIAMS: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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