U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (left), U.S. Rep. Doug Collins (center) and Rev. Raphael Warnock (right) are competing in the Nov. 3 special election.
Rev. Raphael Warnock joined a growing chorus of Democratic lawmakers and civil rights leaders Tuesday in pushing to restore a key aspect of the federal Voting Rights Act in the wake of Congressman John Lewis’ death.
Warnock, the Democratic front-runner in the race for U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s seat, challenged Republican opponents Loeffler, R-Ga., and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins to back restoring certain rules for federal oversight of elections that the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated in the Voting Rights Act in 2013.
“Those who will offer pious platitudes in honor of John Lewis over the next coming days need to get busy in Congress renewing the Voting Rights Act,” Warnock said.
Warnock, senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, has fixed voting rights as a central theme of his campaign in the free-for-all race to unseat Loeffler, echoing many other Democratic leaders who have elevated the issue in recent years, particularly in Georgia.
Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman gwho was appointed to the Senate seat late last year following former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s retirement, praised Lewis’s “grit, tenacity [and] courage” in a statement last Friday shortly after his death.
“As a leader in the civil rights movement, he always pushed America to live up to its promise of freedom and equality,” Loeffler said.
Lewis, who died at age 80 following a seven-month battle against pancreatic cancer, was a leading voice in calls to fully renew the Voting Rights Act with the federal oversight provision intact, arguing its absence could promote voter suppression.
The Supreme Court in 2013 overturned a provision in the law that required some states to receive federal approval before making changes to election procedures. Those provisions were central to the Voting Rights Act but were deemed outdated and not backed by data in the court’s majority opinion.
Senate Republican lawmakers including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have opposed restoring the oversight provision on grounds it could interfere with state elections authority and have dismissed claims of voter suppression by Democrats.
Collins, R-Gainesville, a preacher and former defense attorney who recently served as Republican ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, said last year the federal oversight provision was outdated but stressed the Voting Rights Act still contains rules that prohibit and punish discrimination in elections.
Collins has lobbed criticism at Loeffler over use of her wealth in the campaign and co-ownership of a Women’s National Basketball Association team, noting the league’s Planned Parenthood backing. He also has noted the Democratic Party’s support for racial discrimination in laws enacted during the slavery and Jim Crow eras of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The race to fill the remaining two years of Isakson’s term has drawn a field of 21 contenders in the Nov. 3 special election, in which candidates from all parties will be on the same ballot. A runoff between the top two finishers will be held in January if no candidate gains a simple majority.
ATLANTA – The state of Georgia is stepping up its coronavirus testing capacity with a new partnership.
The state is working with Raleigh, N.C.-based Mako Medical to provide enough supplies and services for 10,000 tests per day, a capacity increase that will allow Georgians to receive results within 48 hours.
“As demand for testing has soared across the country, many private labs have been unable to process tests quick enough to aid in contact tracing and mitigation efforts,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “With some Georgians waiting well over a week for their results, the status quo is unacceptable.
“This new partnership will not only expand the number of tests the state is able to administer, but also greatly reduce the turnaround time of those tests. This is vital to Georgia’s efforts in our fight against COVID-19.”
Georgia has worked with other companies, including LabCorp, to beef up testing since the coronavirus pandemic took hold in the state back in the early spring.
“Expanded and streamlined testing is absolutely crucial,” said Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health. “Our contract with Mako Medical will boost test processing capabilities and enable our army of contact tracers to respond quicker to newly identified cases.”
The contract with Mako was announced as the number of positive COVID-19 cases in the state reached 145,575. As of late Monday, 3,176 Georgians had died from the virus.
High school football in Georgia will start two weeks later than usual due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a vote Monday by the Georgia High School Association.
The GHSA board voted unanimously to push first-week games back from Aug. 21 to Sept. 4. The season will still have 10 games and a five-round playoff.
Scheduling for pre-season conditioning remained unchanged and can start July 27. No other fall sports were delayed by the GHSA vote on Monday.
Some school districts like Atlanta Public Schools might have ditched fall sports entirely without a two-week delay for football, said GHSA Trustee Jasper Jewell.
Several rules are in place for high school football teams including prohibiting use of locker rooms, sanitizing helmets before and after workouts, drinking only from personal water bottles and reporting positive COVID-19 test results to the GHSA.
Parents, local school officials and public health experts in Georgia have roundly warned of safety risks involved in resuming classes for the 2020-21 school year without measures in place like options to start with online instructions, social distancing for in-person classes and the importance of masks.
The state Department of Education has issued guidelines and recommendations aimed at helping local school districts decide how to hold classes in the fall via a mix of regular in-person classes and online instruction options.
Classes switched to all-online instructions in March to close out the 2019-20 school year as the COVID-19 outbreak in Georgia took hold.
Professional and amateur sports – including high school teams – were given the green light by Gov. Brian Kemp last month to resume training and competitions so long as they followed self-imposed distancing and cleanliness rules.
Kemp has suggested he could move to shut down sports in the fall if enough Georgians do not voluntarily wear masks in public. He has opposed mandating masks in the state, going so far as to sue Atlanta officials last week to block the city’s recent masking requirement and reopening rollback.
State Sen. Nikema Williams was tapped by Georgia Democratic leaders Monday to run as the party’s nominee to replace Congressman John Lewis in the upcoming Nov. 3 election, following the civil rights icon’s death on Friday.
Lewis’ death at age 80 precipitated a frantic search over the weekend to pick a new nominee to run for his 5th Congressional District seat in November, since the civil rights leader had already won the Democratic primary in June and therefore needed to be replaced.
Williams, who currently chairs the Democratic Party of Georgia, touted her background as an activist and seasoned lawmaker during a party meeting Monday, which resulted in her selection as the nominee for the Atlanta-based congressional seat Lewis held for more than three decades.
She cast herself in the mold of Lewis as a fighter who would push for voting rights and follow up on her work in the Georgia Senate, to which she was elected in 2017. Beyond the state Capitol, she holds executive positions in the National Domestic Workers Alliance.
“I have a long career in activism, advocacy and policy to serve as a strong fighter for our communities and values nationally,” said Williams, D-Atlanta. “I believe my experiences, accomplishments and proven record of fighting for my constituents and party values make me the ideal candidate for this seat.”
Williams will need to drop her re-election bid for her Atlanta-based 39th state Senate District seat in order to run for Congress. The Senate district, like Lewis’ congressional district, leans heavily Democratic.
Lewis, a prominent civil rights leader who was beaten by police in Selma, Ala., during a protest march in 1965, served 33 years in Congress before his death following a seven-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
Lewis was poised to defend his seat for an 18th consecutive term against Republican challenger Angela Stanton King. But his death sparked a complicated and quick-moving process for state Democrats to pick his replacement to square off against King rather than let Republicans claim the reliably blue district.
Under state law, Democratic leaders had until Monday at 4:30 p.m. to hand in their replacement nominee to the Secretary of State’s office, prompting a hectic round of weekend inter-party wrangling to winnow down a list of 131 people who applied for a chance to be the nominee.
By Monday, those applicants were trimmed to five finalists: state Rep. Park Cannon, D-Atlanta; Atlanta City Councilman Andre Dickens; former Morehouse College President Robert Franklin; Georgia NAACP President James Woodall; and Williams.
Party leaders picked Williams by a near-unanimous vote during a meeting that ran close to the deadline. Before voting, they took turns to honor Lewis, praise the five finalists and slam the state law that forced them to submit a replacement nominee within one business day.
Speaking at Monday’s party meeting, Williams recalled growing up just across the Georgia line in Smiths Station, Ala., where she hitched rides on her grandfather’s truck to help hand out slate cards for voters in her neighborhood on Election Day.
She reminisced over reading about her great-aunt, Autherine Lucy, who was the first Black student to attend the University of Alabama in 1956. Williams noted joining a union while in college, teaching in Fulton County schools and working for Planned Parenthood Southeast as public-policy executive.
Williams also described being arrested during protests after the controversial 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election, framing the event as an example of the fighting spirit similar to that which Lewis showed in his life.
“He showed me the value of putting myself, sometimes physically, in between the dangerous policies that the most vulnerable communities are hurt by,” Williams said. “His leadership and fighting spirit are needed now more than ever in this country.”
ATLANTA – Georgia’s public college and university presidents are fully onboard with plans to open campuses to in-person instruction during the upcoming fall semester.
That’s the sentiment expressed in a recent letter to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents signed by the presidents of 24 of the system’s 26 campuses.
“Resuming in-person classes this fall will be a difficult but important task, and it is one we are committed to achieving, as it serves the best interests of our students and the state of Georgia,” the letter stated. “The campus experience is an essential part of the educational growth that is critical for the overall success of our students.”
The letter comes as some K-12 school systems in Georgia are choosing to stick with online classes only this fall as a way to discourage the spread of COVID-19.
The largest school district in the state, Gwinnett County Public Schools, announced Monday that it would open Aug. 12 with online-only instruction. Atlanta Public Schools made the same decision earlier this month.
Other K-12 school systems are going with a hybrid of in-person and online classes to start the fall semester.
The university system transitioned to online-only instruction during late March and early April as the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Georgia. An analysis completed early last month found the conversion went smoothly, and the system stuck with online courses during the summer semester.
However, since early April, system Chancellor Steve Wrigley and the regents have been developing plans to bring back in-person classes this fall.
“While the transition to online went well thanks to faculty, staff and students, clearly for many students it was an unsatisfying experience,” Wrigley wrote in response to a letter dated July 2 from faculty members at Georgia Tech expressing concerns about the health risks to students, staff and faculty of reopening the campus.
“The delivery of this instruction will certainly be different than last fall as accommodations are made for the medically fragile and as institutions adapt to space and other conditions unique to each campus. … [But] we believe in the value and importance to students of the on-campus experience. It is simply a richer, more well-rounded educational experience.”
The university system announced July 7 that students, faculty, staff and visitors to the system’s 26 college and university campuses would be required to wear masks starting July 15.
The 25th signatory to the letter, University of Georgia President Jere Morehead, sent the letter on behalf of the other 24 presidents. The only president not to sign the letter, Kimberly Ballard-Washington, is serving Savannah State University in an interim role.
