DULUTH, Ga. (AP) – A young Georgia Democrat is raising big money from voters across the country by branding a suburban Atlanta Senate race as an opportunity to unseat the Republican nominee.
Although incumbent Shawn Still was one of 18 people indicted alongside Donald Trump in Fulton County, Georgia in 2023, Still says first-time candidate Ashwin Ramaswami is wrong to label him a partisan plotter.
The race won’t bother Georgia’s 33-22 Republican majority. But as Democrats try to oust Republican voters in suburban Atlanta who were abandoned by Trump and his crusade against the 2020 election results, the race will test whether they can repeat gains from statewide races in local elections.
While Vice President Kamala Harris hasn’t made fighting voter denial a priority in her campaign like President Joe Biden did, Democrats continue to position themselves as defenders of democracy against Republican attacks.
Still was one of three Trump voters charged with crimes in Fulton County, along with Trump, Rudy Giuliani and 14 other Trump associates. Prosecutors are calling the 16 Republicans who gathered in Georgia’s capital in December 2020 “fake voters.”
Ramaswami, 25, who studied computer science at Stanford University, was still in law school last year when he learned of Still’s role. The Democrat was working on a similar case in Wisconsin, he said, identifying the hometown senator’s name when he testified Jan. 6 before a House committee.
“Shawn Still is really trying to undermine our votes, both Democrats and Republicans,” Ramaswami said.
Still says Ramaswami is wrongly characterizing him as an anti-democratic extremist.
“I think that’s all he has to run. So he’s going to hit me in the face with this unique thing,” Still said. “It has no merit.”
The district is drawn Republican and spans northern Atlanta suburbs in Fulton, Forsyth and Gwinnett counties. But two years ago, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock won the district over Trump supporter Herschel Walker, even as voters backed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, and Still beat his Democratic opponent by 14 points. Ramaswami is hoping to emulate Warnock’s win by swaying voters Trump is uneasy about and believes he can connect with the district’s Native American population. More than 30% of the region’s population is Asian, the highest proportion in Georgia.
Ramaswami’s campaign has raised more than $460,000, a lot in a legislative race, and has attracted many outside donors. Still has raised just over $145,000, but Republican groups could potentially pump in more money if they believe Still is under threat.
There was also the secretary of the 2020 Trump caucus who signed and filed documents that prosecutors say were false. He says he acted on the advice of party officials and lawyers to preserve Trump’s legal options after the lawsuit challenged the Georgia election results.
“I would frame my involvement as a good soldier who did what he was told to do and followed the advice of attorneys who do this for a living,” Still said.
Still said his participation ended when he left the meeting.
“I build pools for a living,” he said. “I don’t think anyone really thought for half a second that I was some political mastermind who planned something that led to what happened.”
To Ramaswami, Still’s willingness to go along with his colleague’s illegal behavior made him “a useful idiot for the Republican Party.”
Ramaswami points to other actions Still took after the 2020 election, including a lawsuit he filed over the results in Coffee County, Georgia, the day before the voters met. Ramawsami also says Still did not take enough responsibility in his statement to the January 6 committee.
If elected, the Democrat said he would seek “common sense” solutions to issues such as gun violence, health care and abortion rights. One of his main goals would be investing in education.
“We as a community need to look at investing in the future, not squabbling over the past,” Ramaswami said.
His cyber security training under leaders from both sides would help him build mutual relationships, Ramaswami said. He has worked in the office of Republican Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and as an intern and part-time employee at the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, where he said he helps protect local election officials and small businesses from cyberattacks.
Still, the 51-year-old has been a reliable Republican vote in his first two years, but he says he’s worked with Democrats and shown a “willingness and willingness to work on both sides of the aisle.” He has been low-key as a legislator, rarely taking the microphone to score partisan points.
Still said his crowning achievement is legislation that would allow students to transfer to another public school district without permission from the one they’re leaving. That measure was hidden in a bill whose headline achievement was the creation of a $6,500 voucher for private school tuition and homeschooling. The first-term senator said he wants more time in office, in part to work on human trafficking issues.
Ramaswami said he is still “not remotely” qualified to be a state senator.
“He hasn’t lived in the area since he graduated from high school. He has no life experience. He hasn’t done anything. His only jobs have been training. He has achieved nothing for himself.”
Even with Still’s experience, conservative voters have reservations. Bisvas Pokala, who works in information technology, leans on the Republicans. However, Still’s charges leave him undecided, and Pokala said he is “very concerned about that.”
Pokala worked at the booth in July at the Festival of India event in suburban Duluth. Ramaswami got through and talked to sellers and buyers. Many recognized Ramaswami and waved.
Salesman Ram Raju is a Democrat, but said many Indians in the business community are lean Republicans and predicted Still won’t be controversial enough to alienate party loyalists.
But Ramaswami says he can help voters of all backgrounds see through Still.
“The fact that Shawn Still is now trying to portray himself as a moderate and really distance himself from what’s going on is proof that he wants to stay away, and that’s something that voters won’t accept,” Ramaswami. quoth.
But still has made many connections. Dilip Mehra, a festival vendor and Still supporter, remembers performing at an event organized by his small company.
“He said, ‘If you have a problem, if your community has a problem, if you want our help, come to me,'” Mehra said. “He seemed like a very nice person.”
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Charlotte Kramon is a member of The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places reporters in local newsrooms to report on classified issues. Follow Kramon on X: @charlottekramon
Amy reports from Atlanta.
