Michelle Obama headlines nonpartisan Georgia rally to turn out first-time voters

Rows and rows of shiny black charter coaches and bright yellow school buses lined the lot outside Atlanta’s Gateway Center Arena on Oct. 29. Their passengers, Georgia high school and college students, spilled out onto the street, forming a line of hundreds mixed in with locals and visitors of all ages who had come to support the nonpartisan rally aimed at turning out first-time voters throughout the state.

When We All Vote, the nonprofit created by former first lady Michelle Obama to mobilize young Black and Brown voters, held the star-studded rally three days ahead of the close of Georgia’s early-voting deadline to send a message, one that would be echoed throughout the evening in call and response: When we all vote, we win.

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s Georgia state office is a member of the nonprofit’s state advisory committee that helped to organize and support the celebratory event.

“We were excited to help organize and mobilize first-time voters to celebrate their opportunity to vote their values for the future of the country through this educational and informative rally, only seven days out from Election Day,” said Yterenickia Bell, director of the SPLC’s Georgia state office.

Hometown country rapper Blanco Brown and R&B singer Ari Lennox performed to the excitement of the crowd before Michelle Obama took the stage to close out the night’s event.

As Obama crossed the stage, people jumped to their feet while others rushed from their seats and down the aisles to get a better view. In her remarks, she pressed young voters to make their voices heard, discuss the uncomfortable issues and resist the urge to become disillusioned.

“A lot of folks out there are wondering if the political system has their best interests at heart,” she said. “Folks feeling unheard and fed up. Folks resigned to the idea that nothing is ever going to change, that voting and elections don’t really matter, that the folks in charge don’t care about us and that maybe the only way to get folks to listen is to not vote at all. … To tell you the truth, these feelings are not irrational. They come from a valid place.”

Yet, she cautioned young voters not to allow savvy politicians and powerful interests to capitalize on that apathy, reminding them that if their votes were truly useless, these interests wouldn’t be working so hard to stop them from exercising the right.

“It’s our job to show folks that two things can be true at once,” Obama said. “That it is possible to be outraged and be committed to your own pursuit of that progress. It is possible to be disheartened by what’s happening and still choose to do everything in your power to make it better. To speak out, to organize, to donate, and yes, vote, for the person you believe is the best candidate for your goals.”

Pushing past apathy

The vital importance of voting was underscored many times throughout the event.

Earlier in the evening, people filled the seats around the center stage in the arena. DJ D-Nice, who brought hundreds of thousands of people together during the COVID-19 pandemic by livestreaming his “Homeschool at Club Quarantine” sessions, spun hit records, as students who were packed into a concert-like, standing-room-only section danced in front of the stage.

As the Grammy Award-winning artist and Atlanta-native Ciara took the podium to share her words of encouragement to young voters, 18-year-old Tyler Lee stood waiting on the arena concourse. He had been told by organizers to stand by, just in case they needed him to take the stage to deliver a speech. Lee attends high school in Suwanee and serves as the Georgia representative to the National Student Council. On the lapel of his blazer, he wore a pin that read, “I voted.”

“On Oct. 14, I turned 18,” Lee said. “And on the first day of early voting on Oct. 15, I casted my ballot. It felt historic. I was able to use my voice and to participate in one of the most consequential elections in American history.”

Throughout the evening, award-winning musicians and artists such as former Destiny’s Child singer and actor Kelly Rowland, singer Victoria Monét, and actors Kerry Washington and Marsai Martin reinforced to young voters the power and importance of their vote. They spoke about how to make a voting plan and to encourage others in their schools and communities to get to the polls early or on Election Day.

A historic election in Georgia

Georgia voters turned out in record numbers on Oct. 15, with just over 310,000 ballots cast in the swing state. This surpassed early-voting totals from midterm elections in 2018 and 2022, and accounts for more than double the turnout on the first day of voting in 2020’s presidential election. On the afternoon of the rally, more than 3.2 million Georgians had already cast their votes either in person or by absentee ballot. The numbers are a big win for voting rights advocates who have fought for years against attempts to curb early voting in the state. Just a day before early voting was set to begin, a state judge barred county election officials from delaying or declining to certify election results over charges of error or fraud.

As a representative of the National Student Council, Lee said that he advocates for greater public school funding and education policies that benefit all students. He’s been engaged in voter registration and education activities since 2020, his final year of middle school. Lee said that things felt so divisive that he wanted to get involved. He decided to volunteer some time phone banking and knocking on doors for a local congressional candidate.

Some voters his age, Lee said, were struck by apathy, feeling as if their vote doesn’t matter.

“The person that’s ultimately in the White House, in the House, in the Senate, they will pass legislation that will affect us for generations to come,” he said, “and young people will bear the brunt of a lot of those policies. What we can do to ensure that our values are being upheld in D.C. is to vote for the lawmakers that most align with our interests and to make sure that when they pass policies, they’re good for us in the long run – not some cheap political buy to win re-election.”

Students who attended the rally had a diverse set of motivations for voting. Mason Wright, who gained notoriety when he started his own vegan hot dog business at 13 years old, spoke to the crowd about his desire for more support for youth entrepreneurship. Seventeen-year-old Destiney Jones feared that her family’s economic security could be threatened by poor policies, as well as the country’s democracy and women’s reproductive rights.

“I’m scared that my rights will be infringed upon, and I won’t have all of the freedoms that I know I’m entitled to,” Jones said. “We are the next generation. What we vote for now will matter, even if it feels like it doesn’t right now. We can shape our future.”

Picture at top: Former first lady Michelle Obama addresses crowd at a When We All Vote rally on Oct. 29, 2024, at Atlanta’s Gateway Center Arena. (Credit: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)