ATLANTA — When Republicans running for office rallied with Gov. Brian Kemp south of Atlanta this week, they rarely mentioned President Donald Trump but repeatedly targeted Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms.
The event at the Monroe County Conference Center in Forsyth Monday night featured GOP candidates up and down the ballot, with gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson as the headliner.
Before the event started, Kemp signed an executive order suspending the motor fuel tax to offset rising prices, blaming “unstable” global markets.
Both Bottoms and Jackson have said they want to help farmers deal with the rising cost of diesel.
Bottoms has blamed the increases on President Donald Trump and the war in Iran. She mentioned him repeatedly at an event in Atlanta Sunday.
But his name came up only a couple of times at the GOP event, according to a video feed provided by C-SPAN in a partnership with Capitol Beat.
U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, running for re-election, thanked voters for sending him to Washington to stand with Trump against Iran and that country’s efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon. And Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, vice chairman of the state Public Service Commission, mentioned the president when he said Republicans needed to turn out and vote to show that Georgia is a “Bulldog red” state.
Far more speakers mentioned Bottoms’ name even though Jackson is the only candidate running against her.
Most of them attacked her handling of public unrest during her term as mayor of Atlanta, when Black Lives Matter protests intersected with frustration over COVID-19 disruptions.
State Rep. Tim Fleming, R-Covington, the GOP candidate for Georgia secretary of state, was Kemp’s chief of staff in that era, when, he said, “riots and violence hit the streets of Atlanta, while Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms allowed civil unrest to spiral.”
State Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, noted that police cars burned, businesses were looted and a Wendy’s restaurant on Atlanta’s south side was set ablaze after police fatally shot a man named Rayshard Brooks there.
“Things got so out of control that Governor Kemp had to call in the National Guard — twice,” he said.
Insurance Commissioner John King, running for re-election, is a former police chief.
“Get used to burning patrol cars” if Bottoms wins in November, he warned. “Complete disorder. That’s what they’re trying to get us to forget,” he said of Bottoms’ campaign.
All of this set the stage for Jackson, who talked of cutting taxes, holding government accountable and continuing Kemp’s policies. Jackson is endorsed by Trump, but he did not mention the president. Instead, Jackson focused on his opponent, repeating the criticism of Bottoms’ handling of public safety as Atlanta mayor.
“Leadership stepped back and lawlessness stepped in. That Wendy’s is a symbol of failed leadership,” Jackson said. “As governor, I will back the blue. I will make public safety a daily responsibility.”
With polls reporting approval numbers for Trump dropping, Bottoms has reminded voters that Jackson allied himself with the president.
Jackson said at an April debate that “there’s nobody that supports President Trump more than I do now” and that “I’ll be just like him, with a Southern tone.”
Bottoms said Sunday that she had watched Jackson respond in a C-SPAN interview to a question about how he would help homeless veterans.
“His response was telehealth for homeless veterans would be a solution and then he said it’s an untapped marketplace,” she said. “So that tells you where his mindset is: everything is a business proposition for him. So when he says he wants to be just like Donald Trump with a Southern tone, he’s projecting that.”
Bottoms has repeatedly attacked Jackson over his business dealings, including the contracting his company has done with the state of Georgia and a Texas data center he has invested in.
Much of Jackson’s presentation Monday revisited a story he frequently tells about his childhood. Raised by an alcoholic single mother, he said he wound up a ward of the state, in foster care. As an adult, he became wealthy through a business he founded in the healthcare sector.
He called it “God’s money,” and he talked about how he had helped children in foster care, giving them college scholarships and helping them succeed.
“The state gave me a chance. Now I feel a responsibility to take everything I have lived, everything I have learned and everything I have built and put it to work to help others,” Jackson said. “I’m not running because I have something left to prove. I’m running because I have something else to give.”