DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And all morning long, we have been listening to voters around the country as they share their hopes and their fears about how this election today is going to play out. We've heard from young voters in Florida, suburban women in Virginia. NPR's Scott Detrow went to Georgia and spoke to voters from a group that is key for Democrats - black women.
SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: Year in and year out, there's no group that turns out and votes Democratic more reliably than black women. And yet, a black woman has never been elected governor in any state. Stacey Abrams is trying to change that today in Georgia. Ahead of campaign events during the final stretch, crowds at Abram's events were filled with African-American women - most of them as energized as Evelyn Wynn-Dixon, the mayor of Riverdale, Ga.
EVELYN WYNN-DIXON: I'm excited. I'm so excited, I feel like I got a boyfriend.
DETROW: After seeing Abrams campaign alongside California Senator Kamala Harris in suburban Atlanta, Oreatha Ensley (ph) thought back to her childhood in southern Georgia.
OREATHA ENSLEY: And we always said we can't do it. But to have more black women being out front, speaking, and they speak to our hearts because we've had the same type of experiences, per se, I think is absolutely an incredible experience to live through that.
DETROW: But beyond the excitement, there's a lot of apprehension about division and racial tension on the rise, among other things. Tracey Boswell (ph) hopes that will begin to turn around.
TRACY BOSWELL: That racism does not spread and that we can all be united together as one - as Americans.
DETROW: The same goes for Boswell's friend, Brooke Nicely (ph).
BROOKE NICELY: Come together as a nation. Coming as a young female, it's really scary to find out what's going on. And bringing children into this world, you fear for what can happen. And it's easier on the state of mind when you have somebody you can trust in the state.
DETROW: As she finishes spelling out her hopes, Nicely realizes how pessimistic they sound.
NICELY: That's my hope and fear at the same time.
(LAUGHTER)
NICELY: All mushed - I mashed it together (laughter).
DETROW: African-American women in Georgia, hoping for more representation and fearing the rise of so much division.
Scott Detrow, NPR News, Atlanta.
(SOUNDBITE OF TESK'S "MOODS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
