Yahoo Finance 'We're in overtime': Renee Montgomery keeps getting out vote for Loeffler-Warnock runoff
The moment is not over, so Renee Montgomery is working to keep the momentum for two Senate seat runoffs in her home of Georgia.
The Atlanta Dream veteran opted out of the 2020 WNBA season to focus on social justice work, using the phrase “moments equal momentum,” and has been on screens all over the place to promote social justice, voting and advocacy. She told USA Today Sports her “platform has grown by not playing” and she’s now shifted her attention to the two Senate runoffs in Georgia.
One involves Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler.
Montgomery stays involved in Loeffler Senate race
Loeffler, who was appointed in December 2019, ran to hold her seat in a special election against 20 other candidates. Since no one received at least 50 percent of the vote, the two top vote-getters head to a runoff scheduled for Jan. 5.
Loeffler received 25.9 percent of the counted votes and will face Raphael Warnock, who received the backing of the WNBA players. He had 32.9 percent of the vote.
“It’s definitely interesting, knowing both parties,” Montgomery said, via USA Today Sports. “It’s different because you have to understand the political space. There’s just different things that come along with it. I used to never see myself getting involved in the political space, per se, but this year was unique in the sense that it’s an election year, it’s the year I opted out, and understanding the magnitude of what this election meant was kind of what propelled me to create Remember the 3rd and be a part of the election.”
Montgomery, who joined the Dream in 2018, has been heavily involved. After Loeffler wrote an open letter to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert dismissing the league’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement, Montgomery wrote her own open letter to Loeffler. She asked the senator to choose history over victory.
“While you might very well be on the “right” side of this November’s elections, you are on the wrong side of history if you can’t see that Black Lives Matter.”
Montgomery advocates for voting in Georgia runoff
Montgomery’s work is not done and she is focused on getting out the vote. The other Georgia Senate race between Jon Ossoff (D) and Sen. David Perdue (R) is also going to a runoff after neither received 50 percent of the vote.
“We gotta get people voting again. It’s not that you just voted the last time. ‘I stood in line for 20 hours last time.’ Look, you got to get back there,” Montgomery said, via USA Today Sports. “It’s probably not going to be the same lines I hope, but even if it is, you have to stay in it. This is our reality. We have a runoff. This is basically overtime, and we got to show up.”
That “overtime” line is a popular one.
WNBA players keep up in support of Warnock
When the WNBA first backed Warnock, he was polling at 9 percent. Warnock, the pastor at Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is still receiving backing from the WNBA Players Association and players on Twitter.
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽🍑🍑🍑🍑 https://t.co/wCbKCwlxWP
— Alysha Clark (@Alysha_Clark) November 13, 2020
Here’s the thing y’all @ReverendWarnock is the pastor of MLK Jr.’s church. He’s spent his entire life standing up to hatred and bigotry.
Sen. @KLoeffler only looks out for herself. The choice is clear. #VoteWarnock— Sue Bird (@S10Bird) November 12, 2020
The Georgia seats can determine the balance of power in the Senate and mark a noted change for the state that flipped blue in the presidential election. The WNBA has been at the forefront of the race involving Loeffler, who has held ownership in the league for a decade.
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