Can Georgia's dedicated liberal women turn red state blue?
ATLANTA -- Georgia, where President Trump visited Friday, has voted Republican in the last six presidential elections. But there is a new movement to turn the red state blue, led by women speaking up for the first time.
Jen Cox, a 46-year-old realtor and mother of four, suddenly found her political voice -- the liberal one she muted for years living in Cobb County, a suburb of Atlanta.
"I was afraid that it would affect even perhaps my kids' relationships with their friends," Cox said. "We were all making a lot of assumptions that terrible things would happen if we came out as liberals."
Now, the blues have "absolutely" outed themselves, Cox said.
She had never been politically active, but when women nationwide rallied in January to protest Mr. Trump's election, Cox and her daughter joined 60,000 demonstrators in downtown Atlanta.
Seven weeks ago, on Facebook, she launched Pave It Blue, a grassroots organization for frustrated progressive women like her.
"Now, just over a month later, we're at almost 2,000. And again, all local women," Cox said.
Pave It Blue's first goal is helping elect Jon Ossoff, a local Democrat running in a congressional runoff election in June.
Karin Agard, a Bermuda native who became a U.S. citizen last month, said the effort is because of Mr. Trump.
"All of it is President Trump," Agard said. "I don't think they represent me or my family. And I need someone in office to create some balance and represent me."
Cox says Mr. Trump's first 100 days have been anti-immigrant, anti-women and un-American.
"It's our responsibility to stand up to that, to speak out against it. If not us, who?" Cox said.
Pave It Blue's goal is to turn red districts to blue ones and to get women running for local office. And now that they found their voice, these liberal women say they are going to keep speaking up and speaking out.
