U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (left) and U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath are opposing each other in the May 24 Democratic primary in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District
ATLANTA – The two Democratic congresswomen running against each other in Atlanta’s northern suburbs have plenty of money to wage their campaigns heading into the final stretch.
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath raised $790,640 during the first quarter of this year, bringing her total for the campaign to more than $3.9 million, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Her opponent in the May 24 Democratic primary in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District, Carolyn Bourdeaux, raised $591,541 in January, February, and March, giving her a total for the campaign of just more than $3 million.
Bourdeaux has represented the Gwinnett County-based 7th Congressional District for the past two years. McBath was elected in the 6th District in 2018 but decided to run in the 7th District this year after Republicans in the General Assembly redrew the 6th District map to heavily favor the GOP.
Both candidates are stressing the grassroots nature of their campaigns. McBath received 94% of her campaign contributions during the first quarter from individual donors who gave $250 or less, while 78% of Bourdeaux’s individual contributions were for less than $200.
Neither has accepted contributions from corporate political action committees.
McBath still had more than $2.85 million remaining in her campaign war chest at the end of last month, compared to about $2.1 million for Bourdeaux.
While five Republicans are running in the heavily Democratic district, none had raised $100,000 through March 31. The leading GOP candidate in fundraising, Mark Gonsalves, had brought in $74,983 through the first quarter.
Other Republicans in the race include Mary West, YG Nyghtstorm, Lisa McCoy and Michael Corbin.
The 7th Congressional District includes most of Gwinnett County and the Johns Creek area of Fulton County.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – There will be a lot of new faces in the General Assembly come next January.
But the breakdown between majority Republicans and minority Democrats may not change much.
Twelve of the 56 Georgia senators are not seeking reelection this fall, while 54 of the 180 members of the state House of Representatives aren’t running for another two-year term under the Gold Dome.
That’s an unusually large amount of turnover, driven in part by the ambitions of lawmakers leaving their seats to seek statewide office in positions including lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state. But many others simply have had their fill of the job.
“It was a combination of having been there awhile and the demands of the job, the sacrifices of being away from homes and businesses,” said House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge.
At the same time, high turnover in the General Assembly is being accompanied by a larger than usual number of contested races for legislative seats.
In the House, contests for 87 of the 180 seats feature at least one Republican and one Democrat. The ratio is nearly the same in the Senate, where at least one candidate from each of the two major parties is on the ballot in 27 of 56 races.
Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, attributes the large number of contested races to the once-per-decade redrawing of legislative maps to accommodate changes in population reflected in the U.S. Census.
The legislature’s Republican majority made major changes to many House and Senate districts, forcing incumbents to court lots of new constituents on the campaign trail while encouraging newcomers to jump into the fray.
“Especially in a district that has swapped some population in and out, parts of the district would be like an open seat,” Bullock said.
In the immediate aftermath of the General Assembly’s redistricting special session last November, the consensus among Georgia political observers was that the new maps put Democrats in a position to gain up to six seats in the House and pick up at least one seat in the Senate. While Republicans were in control of drawing the new districts, growing minority populations in suburban Atlanta were expected to help Democrats gain ground.
“The changing population is spreading further out of Atlanta, putting some districts in Gwinnett [County] and North Fulton up for grabs,” Bullock said. “Democrats came close to winning them in 2018 and 2020.”
“We are optimistic about potential gains in the Senate,” Monica Fambrough, spokeswoman for the Georgia Senate Democratic Caucus, added in an e-mail. “We do expect to pick up at least two seats, and we are going to be competing in several districts where we see a path for gains in the future.”
Fambrough pointed to Senate Districts 6, 7, 14 and 48 in Atlanta’s northern suburbs as competitive districts where the Democrats have fielded strong candidates.
Even if those gains are realized, Republicans still would remain in control of the General Assembly. The GOP now holds 34 Senate seats to 22 for the Democrats, while the House includes 103 Republican members and 77 Democrats.
On the House side, Ralston said he’s not buying that Democrats will gain six seats.
“We’re a competitive state now because of the changing demographics. We get that as Republicans,” he said. “[But] I think [a six-seat pickup] is a real reach for them. I expect we’ll end up pretty close to where we are now. We may pick up one or two [seats].”
Ralston said Republicans will be able to talk on the campaign trail about a strong list of accomplishments during the recently concluded General Assembly session, including an overhaul of Georgia’s mental health system, a tax cut and an economy that has remained strong despite the pandemic, outperforming other states.
“We were the last to close and the first to reopen,” he said. “That put us in a good position economically.”
Democrats supported the mental health bill, but most voted against the Republicans’ other priorities. Democratic candidates will tell voters Republicans have made Georgia less safe by allowing the carrying of concealed firearms without a permit and are threatening their voting rights by empowering the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to look into complaints of election fraud on its own.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Rev. Raphael Warnock (front) campaigns on Election Day, Nov. 3, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., raised more than $13.6 million during the first quarter of this year, the senator’s campaign announced Thursday.
Combined with the $9.8 million Warnock brought in during the fourth quarter of last year, the campaign now boasts $25.6 million cash on hand. Warnock’s fundraising in January, February and March set a record for money raised by a U.S. Senate candidate in the first quarter of an election year.
“Georgians see Reverend Warnock fighting to lower costs for hardworking families, and they’re ready to send him back to the Senate,” campaign manager Quentin Fulks said. “From fighting to cap the cost of insulin and lower prices at the gas pump to pushing for student loan debt relief, Reverend Warnock’s commitment to serving the people of Georgia continues to drive the biggest grassroots fundraising effort in any Senate race this cycle.”
Warnock received contributions from 183,000 individual donors during the first quarter, with an average donation of $40.
Meanwhile, Republican frontrunner Herschel Walker’s campaign raised $5.5 million during the first quarter, one of the largest totals among GOP Senate candidates during the quarter, Walker’s campaign reported Friday.
The University of Georgia football legend raised $5.4 million during the fourth quarter of last year.
“Our team has traveled to every corner of Georgia shaking hands with voters and hearing about how they are fed up with Joe Biden and Raphael Warnock,” Walker said. “We can’t do this by ourselves, and Georgians are coming out in record numbers to join our team.”
Walker received more than 50,000 donations during the first quarter from all 50 states.
Fundraising by the other candidates in the race falls well below that of Warnock and Walker. Republican Latham Saddler, an Atlanta banking executive and former Navy SEAL officer, raised $651,000 during the first quarter, bringing his total for the campaign to nearly $4 million.
“When it comes to the serious, non-celebrity candidates in this race, our campaign has far outpaced the others and is the only one able to afford significant voter contact,” Saddler said Friday. “We are strongly positioned to emerge as the campaign that will take on Herschel Walker in the runoff.”
First-quarter reports from the campaigns of Republicans Gary Black, Kelvin King, Josh Clark, and Democrat Tamara Johnson-Shealey were not posted on the Federal Election Commission website as of Friday.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia has joined 19 other mostly Republican-led states in suing the Biden administration over the upcoming termination of a policy that allows border officials to turn away immigrants due to COVID-19.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Louisiana, challenges a decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to end enforcement of the Title 42 public health policy effective May 23. The CDC instituted the policy in March 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic began spreading across the country.
“In a move as hypocritical as it is dangerous, the Biden administration has declared the public health emergency over for migrants intent on entering our country illegally but not for Americans still forced to wear a mask on airplanes,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said Thursday.
“Revoking Title 42 while in the midst of an unprecedented border crisis poses an immediate threat to our national security, endangers our communities and places immense burden on our law enforcement officers.”
President Joe Biden announced the termination of the policy recently following pressure from immigrant advocacy groups and some Democrats.
But other Democrats have joined Republicans in criticizing the administration for rescinding Title 42 without a plan for how to handle the influx of immigrants expected to result.
The lawsuit seeks to block the administration from repealing the policy. Specifically, it asserts doing away with Title 42 is arbitrary and capricious and illegally bypassed notice and comment requirements.
Besides Georgia, states joining the suit include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Utah.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
President Donald Trump rallied for then-Republican U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler ahead of the Senate runoff elections in Dalton, Georgia, on Jan. 4, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Donald Trump’s endorsement doesn’t seem to mean much in Georgia’s Republican primary race for governor.
But the former president’s blessing apparently makes a big difference further down the GOP primary ballot.
Those are the findings of an unusual poll conducted March 20 through April 8 by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs Survey Research Center.
Some of the 736 likely Republican primary voters interviewed by phone simply were asked which candidate they preferred for various races, while others were informed which candidate in each contest have been endorsed by Trump.
In the gubernatorial race, GOP Gov. Brian Kemp led former U.S. Sen. David Perdue 47.9% to 37.2% among voters who weren’t told that Trump had endorsed Perdue. When given that information, voters still preferred Kemp but by the slightly narrower margin of 46.2% to 39.2%.
Trump’s support made a much larger difference in the U.S. Senate Republican primary. Trump endorsee Herschel Walker held a huge lead in both polls, but he drew the support of 76% of voters who were told he had Trump’s backing. Walker’s support among voters who weren’t told of the endorsement fell to 64.3%, still well ahead of several opponents.
It was in the down-ballot races where Trump’s endorsement made the most difference. State Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson, who is running for lieutenant governor with Trump’s endorsement against Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, saw his support in the poll soar from 29.7% to 58.9% among voters told Trump was backing his candidacy. Miller’s support dropped slightly from 10.6% to 8.2% when voters were told he was not Trump’s pick.
The large contingent of undecided voters in the lieutenant governor’s race – 54.2% – fell significantly to 29.8% among voters who were told Trump was backing Jones.
Incumbent Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, who refused to go along with Trump’s attempts to overturn the presidential election results in Georgia in 2020, decided not to seek reelection.
U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Greensboro, who Trump is backing for secretary of state against incumbent Brad Raffensperger, doubled his support in the poll – from 30.3% to 60.3% – when voters were told of the former president’s endorsement.
Conversely, support for Raffensperger dropped from 22.7% among voters who weren’t told of the endorsement, to 16.3%. It was Raffensperger who stood up to Trump when the then-president called in January of last year asking him to “find” the 11,780 votes Trump would need to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia.
Trump’s endorsement even carried weight in a race that doesn’t directly involve anyone who has riled the former president. Little-known Patrick Witt, who is challenging incumbent Insurance Commissioner John King, saw his support skyrocket from just 8.3% when voters weren’t told Trump had endorsed Witt, to 51.8% among voters who were made aware of the endorsement.
King’s support slipped by a much smaller margin, from 10.6% to 7.2%. A third candidate in the race, Ben Cowart, also dropped from 9.6% to 4.5% when voters were told Trump had endorsed Witt.
UGA political science professor M.V. Hood III wrote in an analysis of the poll that Trump’s endorsement made less difference at the top of the ballot because most voters had made up their minds in the high-profile gubernatorial primary. While Trump’s endorsement of Walker moved more voters to support him, it made little difference because the UGA football icon already had a huge lead in the Senate race, Hood wrote.
However, the huge swing of support toward Trump-endorsed candidates further down the ballot could have an impact, Hood wrote.
“In the absence of other information, many may rely on Trump’s endorsement in determining their votes in these races,” he wrote. “Of course, it should be noted that they will need to seek out this information ahead of time as Trump’s endorsement will not appear on the Republican primary ballot.”
The poll’s overall margin of error was plus-or-minus 3.6%.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
