We Won the House and the Senate. Here's What Comes Next.

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A lot of you have been asking what we do now. Below, we'll walk through what we won on Tuesday, where we stand, the races that are still being decided, and a few things you can do this week. Then we'll cover ICE and surveillance in our communities, what the Big Beautiful Bill means for Georgia families, how we can take care of each other, the local fights we're staying in, what we'll protest for and against, how to run for office, and why we need to talk about white voters.

What We Won

The Associated Press has called both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate for Democrats. A few seats are still being counted.

Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governor's race with about 54 percent of the vote in unofficial returns. She's the first Black woman ever elected governor in the United States, Georgia's first woman governor, Georgia's first Black governor, and the first Democrat to win the office here since 1998. Jon Ossoff won reelection to the U.S. Senate.

Democrats won every statewide office on the ballot. Josh McLaurin will be lieutenant governor. Penny Brown Reynolds will be the first Black person elected secretary of state, and the first Democrat in that office in nearly two decades. Tanya Miller will be the first woman to serve as attorney general. Katherine Juhan Arnold won agriculture commissioner, Keisha Sean Waites won insurance commissioner, Nikki Porcher won labor commissioner, and Lydia Powell won state school superintendent. Shelia Edwards and Peter Hubbard won both Public Service Commission seats, giving Democrats control of the commission that sets Georgia Power's rates for the first time in decades.

Closer to home, Danielle Bell flipped Georgia House District 44, which covers parts of Cobb and Cherokee counties, beating Republican incumbent Don Parsons with about 52 percent of the vote.

You made that happen in every one of our six counties. You knocked doors, made calls, drove neighbors to the polls, and stood on bridges with signs. We're proud of every one of you.

Where We Stand

Yes, NGA CAN is technically nonpartisan. We don't belong to any party, and we don't take money or direction from one. We're also openly progressive. We fight for democracy, constitutional rights, the rule of law, and life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone on our soil.

Republicans have been violating all of those, flagrantly and deliberately, much more than Democrats have, especially lately. So yes, we wanted Democrats to win pretty much 100 percent of the time in this election. Cry about it, MAGA.

What's Still Being Decided

All of these results are unofficial until counties and the state certify them later this month.

The Georgia House could flip to Democrats for the first time in more than two decades. As of Wednesday afternoon, AP had Democrats at 88 seats and Republicans at 84, with seven races uncalled. It takes 91 seats to hold the majority. House District 151 is headed to a runoff on December 1, according to the Cobb County and Fulton County election offices.

Republicans kept control of the Georgia Senate. Josh McLaurin will preside over it as lieutenant governor, but Republicans will still hold the majority. That affects two of the biggest fights in this post, because expanding Medicaid and ending Georgia's forced cooperation with ICE both need the legislature.

The far right spent decades taking over school boards, county commissions, legislatures, and courts one seat at a time. They aren't backing down after one election.

What You Can Do This Week

You can check whether anything on your ballot is headed to a runoff on the Secretary of State's My Voter Page at https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/

You can learn your rights around immigration enforcement and share them with your neighbors.

If you or someone you know is on Georgia Pathways, Medicaid, or SNAP, keep an eye on your mail and your account on Georgia Gateway at https://gateway.ga.gov

You can pick one local body, like your city council, county commission, school board, or county election board, and go to its next meeting.

You can call your members of Congress and your state legislators about Medicaid, SNAP, and ICE.

ICE and Surveillance

The same Big Beautiful Bill that cut Medicaid and SNAP gave ICE about $75 billion on top of its regular budget, including $45 billion for detention. That money runs through 2029, and Homeland Security officials have said they're spending it faster than planned.

Georgia added its own pressure. In 2024, the General Assembly passed HB 1105, which requires sheriffs and other local agencies to seek 287(g) agreements with ICE. Those agreements let local officers do some of the work of immigration agents. By June 2025, 24 Georgia sheriff's offices had signed on, including Forsyth County's. By February 2026, the AJC counted 43 local law enforcement agencies with active agreements, including the Marietta Police Department, which said state law required it to sign. Cobb County's sheriff ended the county's 287(g) program after the 2020 election, but HB 1105 still forces local jails to work with ICE in other ways. Democrats in the General Assembly have moved to roll back these mandates, and with a Republican state Senate, they'll need pressure from all of us.

Surveillance technology makes enforcement easier. Atlanta based Flock Safety runs a nationwide license plate reader network that lets one police agency search another agency's camera data. Reporting has found metro Atlanta police, including Sandy Springs in Fulton County, searching that network on behalf of ICE. Flock cameras became an issue in this year's governor's race.

We're fighting this close to home. Through Tech Watch and alongside DeFlock Cherokee, we've pushed back on surveillance contracts across our area. In Woodstock, the Peregrine Technologies contract was tabled after the community showed up.

In Cherokee County, the Sheriff asked commissioners to approve a 10 year, $37.2 million contract with Axon, Flock's main competitor. According to the county, it would replace body cameras, car mounted license plate readers, and Tasers, and expand the Sheriff's Office drone program. On October 20, after residents spoke out, commissioners voted 3 to 2 to table it. On Election Day, while votes were being counted, residents packed the meeting again, and commissioners approved the contract unanimously. According to DeFlock Cherokee, District 2 Commissioner Richard Weatherby responded to residents' concerns by pulling out his phone and arguing that people who carry an iPhone shouldn't care about privacy.

The law treats phones and license plate readers very differently. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that police generally need a warrant to search your phone and to get your phone's location history. No court has required a warrant for license plate reader data. Weatherby is up for reelection in 2028.

Danielle Bell has been an outspoken critic of mass surveillance and told DeFlock Cherokee she's committed to banning Flock and Axon license plate reader cameras. We need more representatives like her.

Here's how you can help.

Everyone in this country has constitutional rights, whatever their immigration status. Learning those rights and sharing them with neighbors can make a difference before someone needs them.

You can ask your sheriff and police department whether they have a 287(g) agreement, what cameras they use, and who they share data with, through an open records request or during public comment.

A site called HaveIBeenFlocked lets you see whether your license plate has been searched through Flock's system. Atlanta News First explains how it works at https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2026/08/15/has-your-vehicle-been-searched-by-flock-cameras-heres-how-check/

We'll keep sharing surveillance contracts through Tech Watch when they come up on local agendas, and we hope you'll show up.

The Big Beautiful Bill

It Was Timed to Hit After This Election

Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4, 2025. Politico reported that Republicans delayed Medicaid work requirements until 2027 and the Medicaid financing changes until 2028. The tax breaks came first, where voters would notice them before the midterms. The people who wrote this law knew it would hurt families, and they scheduled the worst of it for after we voted.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the law cuts federal Medicaid and ACA marketplace spending by about $1.06 trillion over ten years and will leave 10 million more people uninsured in 2034.

Medicaid and Georgia Pathways

Georgia never expanded Medicaid. Instead, the state created Georgia Pathways, which covers adults earning up to the poverty line, about $15,000 a year for one person, and only if they prove 80 hours a month of work, school, or similar activity. Pathways helped serve as a model for the new national work requirements, which every state must start by January 1, 2027.

In September, the federal government told Georgia that Pathways will expire on December 31, 2026 unless it's renewed. Georgia has asked the federal government to pay 90 percent of the program's cost, up from about 67 percent, and state officials have signaled the program could end without it. As of this week, there's no decision. About 20,600 Georgians were enrolled as of October. Federal funding for many lawfully present immigrants in the program already ended October 1.

Keisha Lance Bottoms promised to fully expand Medicaid. That takes a law passed by the General Assembly, and Republicans still control the state Senate. Lawmakers need to hear from all of us when the session starts in January.

Food Assistance

SNAP participation fell by 5.5 million people nationally between July 2025, when the law passed, and July 2026, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That's a 13 percent drop and the lowest participation in 17 years, and about 2 million of the people who lost benefits were children.

On October 1, states became responsible for 75 percent of the cost of running SNAP. Starting later, states with high payment error rates will also have to pay part of the cost of the food benefits themselves. Georgia's error rate was 15.21 percent in fiscal year 2025, the fourth highest in the country. That earned Georgia a delay, so the state won't owe its share until at least October 2028. If the rate stays above 10 percent, Georgia will pay 15 percent of benefit costs, the highest share the law allows. When states have to cover more of the cost, families often end up facing tighter rules and fewer people get served.

Health Insurance and Taxes

The extra premium help for people who buy insurance through the ACA marketplace has expired, so many families are paying more for coverage this year.

The new deduction for tips goes up to $25,000, and the overtime deduction goes up to $12,500, or $25,000 for married couples filing jointly. Both end after 2028. The 2017 tax cuts were made permanent.

Who Is Responsible

When these cuts hit, Republicans will blame states, hospitals, immigrants, Democrats, and the people losing their benefits. Republicans in Congress wrote this law, Donald Trump signed it, and they timed it to land after the election.

Taking Care of Each Other

Neighbors on Pathways, Medicaid, or SNAP may need help watching their mail, keeping track of renewal dates, and getting paperwork in on time. Benefits are managed through Georgia Gateway at https://gateway.ga.gov

Atlanta Legal Aid serves Cobb and Fulton counties at https://atlantalegalaid.org and Georgia Legal Services Program serves Cherokee, Pickens, Bartow, Forsyth, and the rest of the state at https://www.glsp.org

The Atlanta Community Food Bank can help people find pantries near them at https://www.acfb.org

Food pantries, clinics, and mutual aid groups will see more need while many of them lose funding, and they'll need volunteers and donations. Our monthly Free Fest always accepts donated clothes, food, decor, and household items for people of all ages, so please contact us before you get rid of anything.

If someone loses coverage or food assistance and is willing to share their story, it helps. Stories from our own neighbors make it much harder for politicians to hide what they did.

Control of the House and Senate gives us a chance to fight these cuts and rein in ICE through hearings, budgets, and public pressure. Your members of Congress need to hear that those are priorities.

The Fights That Continue

Congress can block a lot, but much of what affects our communities happens at the state, county, and city level. These are the fights we're staying in.

We'll protect voting rights and fair elections by watching county election board meetings, recruiting poll workers, and showing up when certification is on the agenda.

We'll keep fighting ICE cooperation and mass surveillance in every county we serve.

We'll keep tracking data center projects that drain water and power from our communities while handing residents the bill.

We'll keep standing with unhoused neighbors in Cobb County and with residents fighting displacement, like the families at Ansley Park in Woodstock.

We'll keep showing up for rezonings, annexations, and projects that threaten our creeks and neighborhoods, which are often decided with only a handful of residents in the room.

We'll keep pushing for ADA compliance in Jasper and bringing that same attention to every city we serve.

We'll keep fighting for health care, public schools, and fair courts, nationally and at the Georgia Capitol, including the push to fully expand Medicaid.

What We'll Protest For and Against

We'll protest for voting rights, fair elections, immigrant families, housing for everyone, public schools, health care, Medicaid expansion, food assistance, clean water, accessible public spaces, and the right to speak up without being surveilled or punished for it.

We'll protest against cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, attacks on elections and election workers, mass deportation and detention, forced cooperation between local police and ICE, laws that criminalize being poor or unhoused, surveillance contracts that track our neighbors, and development that harms our communities so a few people can profit.

When we call for an action, we'll tell you what it's for, where it is, and how to get involved safely. Watch for those announcements.

Run for Office

The far right won so much ground by running for everything, including the seats nobody else wanted. We need people running for city council, school board, county commission, sheriff, the state legislature, and Congress. We also need people serving on planning commissions and election boards, where some of the most important local decisions get made.

DeFlock Cherokee has put out an open call for anyone who lives in southeast Cherokee County, cares about privacy, and wants to run for county commissioner. You can reach them at deflockcherokee@proton.me

If you want to run for anything else, or know someone who should, please reach out to us. You don't need a political background, just care for your neighbors and a willingness to learn. We'll connect you with training, volunteers, and people who've done it before.

We Need to Talk About White Voters

The national exit poll conducted for NBC, CBS, CNN, and ABC shows white voters split evenly this year, 49 percent for Democrats and 49 percent for Republicans. Black, Latino, and young voters carried this election by wide margins. Here in Georgia, the exit poll for the Senate race shows 59 percent of white voters backed Mike Collins, including 63 percent of white men and 57 percent of white women. Exit polls get adjusted as more results come in, but most white voters in Georgia still backed the Republican.

Here’s a personal message from the author of this post: I love when MAGA folks tell me to go home. I'm descended from indentured servants who were among some of the first settlers in the 1500s. My family has lived all over this country, but we always had a contingency in the South. I'm descended from people who fought for the Confederacy and who participated in, and in fact led, assassinations of Black leaders during Reconstruction. I'm as Southern white Confederate bred trash as the most MAGA redneck.

I just also have morals, ethics, literacy, and the ability to acknowledge when I and people like me are wrong. So do all the other white people who don't fall for the hate and fear mongering.

If you're white, you're the person most likely to reach the white voters in your life. That means talking with your family, your church, your coworkers, your neighbors, and your old friends about rent, groceries, health insurance, their kids' schools, and who's been making those things worse. The Big Beautiful Bill is a good place to start, because many of the people it's hurting voted for the politicians who passed it. We can't leave this work to the communities who have been carrying this country for generations.

Stay With Us

This election gives us more room to fight, and we intend to use it.

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