Cost of Living Conversations Spark Georgia Win

Turning Utility Bills into Ballot Box Issues

For the first time since 2000, two Georgia candidates broke through the single‑party chokehold on the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC). It was a major victory in a place where rising energy costs and corporate control hit rural communities of color the hardest, especially in small towns that rarely see sustained outreach on these issues.

Throughout the fall of 2025, Rural Democracy Initiative grantees mobilized across back roads and small‑town campuses to register voters and talk with neighbors about how PSC’s power impacts their utility bills and overall cost of living. Rather than treating the PSC race as an obscure, technical contest, Collective Renaissance Guild (CRG) framed it as an opportunity for working people to have a say in who benefits from Georgia’s energy system.

Meeting Young Voters Where They Are

“Rather than chasing the loudest doors or the most predictable voters, we slowed down and went deeper,” shared Executive Director Roderick Smith. Young working‑class Black voters weren’t tracking this off‑year election, so CRG relied on face‑to‑face conversations with rural Black youth, explaining how PSC decisions show up in their everyday costs and introducing civic engagement as something done with the community, not to it. At community events and gathering places, CRG held 7,500 conversations with young rural Black voters where they were able to successfully maximize visibility and reach, ultimately registering more than 500 new voters.

CRG also stays in touch with every voter they register. “The registrations were the headline,” Smith noted, “but the real impact was the network of trust we built  — relationships that will anchor our work long after this cycle.”

Student‑led Organizing that Moves the Needle

In Southwest Georgia, SOWEGA Rising also showed how student‑led organizing can deliver a measurable boost in turnout for a highly technical, low‑information race. Executive Director Sherrell Byrd reflected, “There’s a misconception that the biggest organizations make the biggest difference, but it’s the smaller, trusted groups in the community 365 days a year that move the needle.”

SOWEGA Rising emphasized campus organizing with youth‑driven activities like their third annual Skate to the Polls, which generated 650 pledges to vote. Student organizers completed 1,257 phone conversations and 212,000 text conversations, while also deploying to nearby rural towns to help knock on more than 5,000 doors. 

Together, CRG and SOWEGA Rising’s efforts show that when trusted local organizations make a clear, persuasive case about the cost of living, new voters will show up and change outcomes. Their work reflects a broader Rural Democracy approach: year‑round organizing, culturally grounded outreach, and deep relationships that connect kitchen‑table concerns to who sits on powerful regulatory bodies.