This Georgia Leader Is Making Primary Voting a Priority

When Chris Clark first heard about May Matters, the idea made sense almost immediately.

A small group of Georgia business leaders — including two Georgia Chamber board members and a former chair — had been working on ways to increase voter participation. After seeing the March Matters initiative succeed in Texas, they asked whether the Chamber would help bring the message to Georgia.

For Clark, the fit was natural. As President and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, he leads an organization that had already done get-out-the-vote work and had recently invested more deeply in civics education, including hosting the National Civics Bee in Georgia.

May Matters offered a nonpartisan, practical way to build on that work: helping Georgians understand why primary elections deserve their attention.

In Georgia, that attention can make a real difference. Many state legislative races are effectively decided in the primary or the runoff, before most voters start thinking about November. By partnering with May Matters, the Chamber is using its statewide network of businesses and local chambers to help more voters understand when elections happen, why they matter, and how to participate.

A Georgia-rooted leader

Clark’s commitment to the effort is also rooted in his lifelong connection to Georgia.

He was born in a small town in South Georgia, attended college and graduate school in the state, and built much of his career in economic development and public service. Before joining the Georgia Chamber in 2010, he served in several state leadership roles.

That connection gives Clark a long view of the state’s politics. He sees Georgia as a place with its own distinct civic personality — one shaped by a political culture that has often rewarded leaders willing to show some independence and even work across the aisle to bring about common-sense reforms.

“Georgians like that,” Clark said. “They like to see someone that's going to do the right thing, even when it's not popular.”

Clark believes that independent streak still matters. But he also sees a political environment that has become more polarized in recent years, with less room for the kind of bipartisan problem-solving that once helped define major policy debates in the state.

“We've seen [bipartisanship] slip away since COVID,” Clark said. “Unfortunately, I think that's just a sign of the times that we're all living in.”

For Clark, strengthening primary participation is one way to help more voters shape the choices that appear on the November ballot — and to remind leaders that the electorate is broader than the most reliable primary voters.

Why primaries matter

Many voters think of November as the main event. But in Georgia, Clark says, some of the most consequential decisions happen earlier.

“For the state senate, every election will be decided in May or a runoff in June,” Clark said. “And our state House, you'll only have probably 10 to 15, you know, competitive races in November.” 

That means a voter who skips the primary may be missing the election that actually decides who represents them.

The same is often true in runoff elections, where turnout can drop sharply even though the stakes remain high. Clark said the Georgia Chamber has been telling voters that they may have more influence in primaries and runoffs than they realize.

“What we've been telling Georgians as we've traveled the state the last few weeks that when you show up to vote in a primary, your vote counts four times what it would count in the general in Georgia, and please go show up and vote in the runoff, because your vote counts 12 times what it counts in November,” Clark said.

The message is not that November does not matter. Georgia has had close general elections, and Clark is quick to acknowledge that those votes count, too. But if voters want to shape the full range of choices available to them, he believes they need to pay attention earlier.

As he put it, “the numbers really speak to the impact of this primary and the runoff.”

A role for business

For the Georgia Chamber, the case for primary participation is closely tied to its broader role in public life.

Unlike many local chambers, the Georgia Chamber operates a large governmental affairs council made up of corporate and contract lobbyists, representing organizations ranging from nonprofits to some of the largest companies in the state. During the most recent legislative session, Clark said that body reviewed more than 600 pieces of legislation and took positions on numerous bills.

That work gives the Chamber a front-row seat to how elections shape policy.

“I think what we've seen here is exactly what you've seen nationwide, is Democrats further to the left, Republicans further to the right, very little compromise on issues that used to be quite clearly the basis of compromise in Georgia,” Clark said. 

Clark sees broader primary participation as a practical response to that trend. If more Georgians vote in primaries, candidates have more reason to listen to a broader range of voters — including people who may not be ideologically extreme but still care deeply about the direction of their communities and the state.

That is where businesses can help.

May Matters gives employers, local chambers, and civic groups a way to participate without becoming partisan. They can remind people about election dates. They can explain why primaries and runoffs matter. They can point employees and members toward resources for how to vote. And they can do it without telling anyone which candidate to support.

“The businesses in Georgia are able to say, ‘Okay, I can just take this, put my logo on it, and send it out to my employees. I'm doing my civic duty, but I'm not having to get involved in picking candidates,’” Clark said.

For Clark, that is a key part of the model. The Chamber does endorse candidates through its political work, but he says its May Matters partnership has been kept separate from that activity. “At the end of the day, we just want, we want as many people to vote as possible,” Clark said.

Meeting voters where they are

One reason the Chamber was able to move quickly is that May Matters was designed to be practical.

Clark said other voter engagement efforts could have required hundreds of hours of staff time. May Matters gave the Chamber and its partners ready-to-use tools that could be adapted by businesses and local chambers across Georgia.

“The fact that it's turnkey,” Clark said, helped make the effort possible. 

By the end of early voting, Clark said about 40 local chambers had signed on to help push the message. He also pointed to encouraging early numbers: Georgia had seen a 19% increase in the number of early voters compared with the previous primary cycle, and about one-third of primary voters so far had not voted in the 2022 primary. 

Clark was careful not to claim that May Matters was the only reason for the increase. There were other factors, including campaign advertising and broader political activity. But he believes the effort has value — especially if it can help build a habit of participation that extends into runoffs and future election cycles.

The next test is whether the momentum continues.

Clark said the Chamber wants to examine the data after the primary and runoff, including whether turnout increased in communities where local chambers supported the effort. If participation grows in the runoff, he believes that will show the work is worth continuing.

“If we can increase that turnout in that runoff in June, then I think that'll, that'll show that this is, this is an effort worth continuing,” Clark said.

Rebuilding trust through participation

For Clark, the point is not to influence a particular political outcome. It is to influence voter behavior.

The distinction matters. In a polarized environment, even basic civic engagement can be misunderstood as partisan. Clark believes businesses can help lower that temperature by delivering a simple, nonpartisan message: whichever way you vote, participate.

“I think in the environment that we're in right now, there's a lot of value, and quite frankly, you know, trust needs to be rebuilt in the system, and I think businesses, in particular, have a role to play in being that sensible center of saying, whichever way you go, just go vote,” Clark said. 

That is the heart of the Chamber’s partnership with May Matters.

It is not asking businesses to become political campaigns. It is asking them to recognize that employees, customers, and communities are also voters — and that democracy works better when more of them understand when their voices matter most.

Primary voting is not just for political insiders. It is not just for the most ideological voters or the people who already know every race on the ballot. It is for every Georgian who wants a say in the decisions that shape the state.

Clark believes more Georgians can have that say. The first step is helping them realize they do not have to wait until November.

To learn more, visit May Matters.

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