Rev. Raphael Warnock (front) campaigns with Stacey Abrams (back) on Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock has drawn the first Republican challengers in his bid to hold the seat he won in historic fashion during the 2020 election cycle.
Latham Saddler, an Atlanta banking executive and U.S. Navy SEAL veteran, opened his candidacy in an announcement highlighting his tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and tenure as a National Security Council official in former President Donald Trump’s administration.
Saddler’s candidacy comes after Kelvin King, an Atlanta small-business owner in construction and U.S. Air Force veteran, jumpstarted his campaign earlier this week. A Black man, King aims to unseat Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator in Warnock.
Warnock, the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, rocketed to national prominence along with fellow Georgia Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff after winning runoffs Jan. 5 to hand Democrats control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.
It marked the first time Democrats have held both Senate seats in Georgia since 2002.
Their races against former Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue attracted record-setting campaign donations and put Georgia on the political map as a battleground state for years to come.
Unlike Ossoff, Warnock will need to win election in 2022 for a full six-year term after claiming victory in the recent runoff to fill the remaining two years of retired U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term.
Warnock’s 2020 campaign focused on boosting health care for Georgians via Medicaid expansion and protecting voter rights, both issues the freshman senator will likely lean on during his 2022 reelection bid.
Election laws should also feature prominently in the race after Republican state lawmakers overhauled Georgia’s mail-in and early voting rules, sparking controversy in the legislative session that ended late last month.
Georgia’s candidate field for 2022 is taking shape early with several high-profile announcements in recent weeks, including Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan’s run for state attorney general against the Republican incumbent, Chris Carr.
Republican U.S. Rep. Jody Hice of Greensboro has also launched a primary challenge against Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, as has former Alpharetta Mayor David Belle Isle.
Gov. Brian Kemp, the state’s top Republican, has drawn a primary challenger in Appling County educator Kandiss Taylor. He could face a slew of other primary contenders before likely battling his 2018 Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams in a rematch for governor.
Democrats in Georgia are pushing to continue building momentum amid changing suburban demographics and strong grassroots efforts that saw the party win the state’s presidential election and the two Senate seats in the 2020 cycle.
Republicans are angling to lock in their current statewide seats and reverse 2020 losses such as Warnock’s seat and suburban Atlanta congressional districts that flipped for Democrats in recent years but could swing back to Republicans after redistricting this fall. Republicans will be in charge of the redistricting process because they control both chambers in the General Assembly.
Also up for grabs statewide in 2022 will be Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan’s seat, though his office recently signaled he may not seek a second term. Contenders are likewise lining up to run for Georgia labor and insurance commissioners.
The upcoming primary elections are set for May 24, 2022, and the general elections set for Nov. 8, 2022.
ATLANTA – The Port of Savannah set an all-time record last month, handling nearly 500,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containerized cargo.
That represented an increase of 48% over March of last year, when the coronavirus pandemic was starting to slow the movement of freight.
The March showing put the port at 3.9 million TEUs for the first three quarters of fiscal 2021, putting Savannah on track to top 5 million for the first time ever in a single fiscal year.
“The port and the entire logistics community continue to serve as an economic engine for coastal Georgia and the entire state as we accelerate our economic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Gov. Brian Kemp said Thursday. “This record-setting month proves that Georgia is open for business!”
“Last month’s performance constitutes a massive turnaround from the same period a year ago,” added Will McKnight, chairman of the Georgia Ports Authority board.
“The board’s decision to invest more than $100 million per year over the next three years will not only make Savannah better able to handle this new level of trade, but to take on additional business as our customers grow.”
Rail played a major role in Savannah’s growth, with volumes at the port’s Mason Mega Rail Terminal increasing by 29.7% in March. Only half of the project’s 18 tracks are operational, with the rest scheduled to open later this year.
Another freight rail project, the Appalachian Regional Port near Chatsworth, saw an increase of 37.7% in lifts last month, moving an additional 761 containers compared to March 2020.
Meanwhile, the authority plans to break ground in September on the first phase of a project that will add 650,000 TEUs of capacity at Savannah’s Garden City Terminal. A separate project adding 750,000 TEUs of space is due for completion in 2023.
ATLANTA – Former University System of Georgia Chancellor Hank Huckaby died Wednesday at age 79 after suffering a stroke last week.
Huckaby served a brief stint in the state House of Representatives representing a Watkinsville-based district and before that spent years as an administrator at the University of Georgia.
He was named chancellor of the university system in 2011 and served in that role until retiring in early 2017.
“He was a true gentleman and a pillar of the Athens and Oconee County community,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “Hank left Georgia better than he found it, and for that, we are forever grateful. We will continue to lift the Huckaby family up in our prayers in the coming days.”
“Hank was devoted to this state and served it in many capacities,” added current system Chancellor Steve Wrigley, who succeeded Huckaby. “He always kept the people of this state first in his work.
“His last role as chancellor was exemplary both in our state and nationally, putting Georgia on a path to be a top public higher education system in the nation. I learned a great deal from him through the years, and I shall miss him greatly.”
Huckaby’s signature accomplishment as chancellor was launching a consolidation initiative that shrank the number of colleges and universities in the system over several years from 35 to 26. The move was aimed both at cutting costs and improving the quality of education.
Huckaby also presided over strong enrollment growth, helping spur an increase in the number of graduates.
Early in his career, Huckaby taught at Emory University and Georgia Perimeter College. He went on to serve as an administrator at Georgia State University, Gordon College, and UGA, where he rose to senior vice president for finance and administration.
Huckaby also served in the administrations of three Georgia governors. He was budget director under Zell Miller, executive director of the Georgia Housing and Finance Authority under Joe Frank Harris and commissioner of the state Department of Community Affairs under George Busbee.
ATLANTA – Doug Hooker, who has led the Atlanta Regional Commission for nearly a decade, will retire next March, the ARC announced Wednesday.
“It has been an honor and privilege to work alongside Doug Hooker for the past nine years,” ARC Chairman Kerry Armstrong said. “Doug has brought a depth and breadth to ARC that has served our region well with a myriad of accomplishments. His strategic leadership has continued to provide valuable counsel to the board and our staff.”
Hooker joined the 10-county regional planning agency as executive director in 2011. An engineer by trade, he spent two decades in metro Atlanta’s public and private sectors before coming to the ARC, including a stint as commissioner of public works for the city of Atlanta.
Hooker has carried out a broad range of duties at the ARC, including transportation planning, aging services, workforce development, water conservation, and homeland security.
“It has been the greatest accomplishment of my career to lead ARC through a transformative journey over these past nine years,” he said. “I am enormously proud of what we have accomplished together as an agency and as a regional force.”
Highlights of Hooker’s tenure at the ARC include helping to launch Aerotropolis Atlanta, a public-private partnership that works to improve the economic competitiveness of the area around Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and his role in Learn4Life, a collaborative workforce readiness initiative aimed at improving education outcomes in metro Atlanta.
Armstrong said a search committee will be formed to look for a successor to Hooker in the coming months.
State Sen. Jen Jordan (left) announced her candidacy against Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (right) on April 14, 2022. (Official Senate office and Attorney General office photos)
Georgia Sen. Jen Jordan, an Atlanta attorney and Democrat, announced Wednesday she is running for state attorney general against the Republican incumbent, Chris Carr.
Jordan enters the race with fellow Democrat Charlie Bailey, also an Atlanta attorney and former prosecutor, who lost to Carr in 2018 by about 100,000 votes.
Competition looks to be stiff between the Democratic nominee and Carr, who previously served as then-U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s chief of staff and as commissioner of the state Department of Economic Development.
Georgia Democrats have narrowed the playing field since 2018 amid changing suburban demographics and strong grassroots efforts that saw the party win the state’s presidential election and both U.S. Senate seats in the 2020 cycle.
Candidates are already mustering 2022 campaigns to compete for key statewide offices currently held by Republicans including governor, lieutenant governor and secretary of state — though Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan’s office recently signaled he may not run for a second term.
Jordan’s announcement Wednesday came as a video highlighting her background of being raised by a single mother in rural Dodge County and her work in the state Senate, where she gained influence for loudly denouncing Georgia’s anti-abortion law, which was blocked in 2019 by a federal judge.
Carr, a strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, looks to patch rifts among Republicans after avoiding attacks from Trump, who bashed Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for not moving to intervene in the 2020 general election that Trump claimed was fraudulent.
Beyond federal issues, Carr has focused on bolstering Georgia’s efforts to crack down on gang crimes and human trafficking, as well as implementing protections for trafficking victims that state lawmakers passed in recent years.
His office was also tasked with appointing a new prosecutor to handle the high-profile shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick last year after it was revealed coastal Georgia district attorneys faced troubling conflicts of interest in the case.
More recent controversies are poised to follow Carr in his upcoming reelection campaign including ties to the Republican Attorneys General Association’s fundraising arm, which was accused of sending robocalls urging protests that led to Trump allies storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Carr, who chairs the association, denied any knowledge or involvement in the robocalls.
With Trump’s support intact, Carr could avoid drawing the kind of serious primary challengers that Kemp and Raffensperger now face.
Raffensperger will have to fend off Republicans U.S. Rep. Jody Hice of Greensboro, who attacked his handling of the 2020 elections, and former Alpharetta Mayor David Belle Isle.
Kemp so far has drawn a Republican opponent in Appling County educator Kandiss Taylor and could face a slew of other primary challengers including former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins and Vernon Jones, a former Democratic state representative and DeKalb County CEO who switched parties last year.
Kemp would then face a likely rematch against Democrat Stacey Abrams, his 2018 gubernatorial opponent who narrowly lost election and has since devoted her time to voter registration and election-integrity issues.
The upcoming primary elections are set for May 24, 2022, and the general elections set for Nov. 8, 2022.
