Petition to reboot the show and cast Stacey Abrams as Sam?
Petition to reboot the show and cast Stacey Abrams as Sam? Screenshot of Fair Fight event.

Okay, hear me out, I think the CW show Supernatural may have helped turn Georgia blue. The only evidence I have to support this claim is that Stacey Abrams, the Georgia politician whose critical voter advocacy work helped flip the state, is a huge Supernatural fan. Last night, during a live-streamed Zoom meeting with the cast of the show, Abrams even said the themes of the show helped motivate her in her own work.

Sooooo... in a parallel universe where Supernatural didn't exist—or stopped airing after season 5, or season 8, or even season 10—would Georgia have flipped? Look, I don't know, but I fucking love how much Abrams loves this show.

Supernatural is about two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, who hunt ghosts, demons, and—after years of jumping the shark—even god himself. Supernatural aired for 15 years and just ended last month—don't pretend you've never heard of it.

Abrams and the entire cast held a Zoom event to fundraise for Fair Fight, Abrams's national voting rights organization, in the lead up to the Georgia Senate run-off election. Around 13,500 people tuned in, and the event garnered $225,000 before it even ended. More will trickle in since the cast is auctioning off Zoom dates and props to high donors.

Eric Kripke, the show's creator, was there. So was Jared Padalecki, who plays Sam. Jensen Ackles, who plays Dean, wore a beanie and a house robe in front of a crackling fire, and Misha Collins (Castiel), who organized the event, seemed like he was on the verge of crying some beautiful neoliberal tears the whole night.

The cast showered Abrams with gratitude, and she talked about her fight to expose voter suppression in Georgia. It looked like Padalecki and Ackles, who are notoriously not politically engaged, were hearing about her work for the first time.

https://mishallaneously.tumblr.com/post/637061820004417536

Abrams gushed about Supernatural.

She first discovered the show two years ago after a bad day trying to convince Californians to support her gubernatorial run in 2018. Dejected and avoiding fundraising calls, Abrams flicked on the hotel TV. A marathon of old Supernatural episodes was on, and she got hooked after watching the first scene. Here's how she described it:

"You two," Abrams said, referring to Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, "are in Baby [this is what the show calls Dean's beloved 1967 Chevy Impala; car-centric, I know] and having this conversation about how hard it is to live the life you have to live. It was this moment of, 'We have to stick with this because there are monsters out there, and no one else understands it, no one else believes, and even if it's hard, we can’t stop.'"

Unfortunately, that moment is hard to pinpoint because an emotionally-charged moment between Sam and Dean inside the Impala happens in about every episode. The show is all about destiny, fighting good and evil, and making sacrifices for the good of humanity. Abrams compared those motifs to her political career.

"I got into politics because I grew up in Mississippi and I know there are monsters out there," Abrams said, "Watching that show at that moment, you put me behind on that call list and you made a fan for life. Over the next year, I binge-watched 11 seasons. Supernatural was the thing I watched when I traveled, where I found respite when I was tired."

The show also resonated with her "faith in people" and her "religious faith." Sometimes Supernatural just made her more "thoughtful," but it also inspired her "in ways that kept me doing the work I needed to do."

More stars from past Supernatural episodes cropped up in the Zoom. She shook off her politician hat for a second to let everyone know she was secretly freaking out, and that she could name the complete IMDB filmography for even the most obscure actors there. Abrams even told actor Jim Beaver, who plays the curmudgeonly Uncle Bobby, that she calls her niece "Idjit," Bobby's catchphrase and chosen term of endearment.

My favorite thing is that one of the guest stars bandmates, who are not in the show, were invited to the Zoom call.
My favorite thing is that organizers invited one of guest star's bandmates, who isn't even in the show. Screenshot of Fair Fight event.

Today is Abrams's 47th birthday. She's busy "doing a bunch of crap" today, she said, but tomorrow she's going to shut herself in and finally watch the last three episodes of Supernatural, which aired in November. She called it her "Supernatural weeping day."

"I refuse to ruin my birthday by ending my show," Abrams said. I'm afraid she's in for some disappointment since, in my opinion, the finale was garbage, but I'll save that for another Slog post.