CLEANING UP GEORGIA

If not for the hard work of domestic workers, the Democrats might not control the Senate.

- Becca Andrews

“YOU EVER BEEN HERE?” Yterenickia Bell asks me as we wait for the door to the Cascade Skating Rink to be unlocked. “It’s historic,” she says, ushering me out of the December rain and into the fluorescent-lit roller-skating spot in west Atlanta’s Adamsville neighborhood. “People have been gathering here for years.”

The rink is awaiting the night crowd. Video games sit silent in a corner. The snack bar is dark except for a flashing neon sign. But it’s not empty: a handful of people in orange shirts and masks are chatting at the other end of the rink before braving the rain to get out the vote for Senate candidate Raphael Warnock. Bell is the gotv director for Care in Action, an advocacy group whose members are mostly nannies, house cleaners, and home health workers. “We operate out of here because we have everyday folks that are workers that may have lost their jobs due to covid, and a saturation of them live in this area,” she says. “It’s the community helping the community.”