ATLANTA – The Republican Party’s huge wins Tuesday in Virginia have shaken the national political landscape to such a degree that Georgia’s 2022 U.S. Senate race is now considered a toss-up.
That’s according to the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. In the Virginia governor’s race, Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a longtime associate of both former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, and a former Virginia governor himself.
Fellow Republicans Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares captured the lieutenant governor and attorney general posts, respectively. It also appears Republicans have taken the majority in the state House of Delegates, claiming at least 51 of the chamber’s 100 seats.
Democrats now hold a narrow majority in Virginia’s state Senate.
“Needless to say, this is a horrible result for Democrats, and for the White House,” writes the center’s Larry Sabato.
Now, Sabato is revising his nationally publicized Crystal Ball, and is now calling Georgia’s U.S. Senate race next year from Leans Democratic to Toss Up.
“Given the usual presidential party midterm drag, and the poor environment, our ratings are just too bullish on Democrats,” Sabato wrote.
Several Republicans are seeking the opportunity to face incumbent Rev. Raphael Warnock next November – University of Georgia football legend (and first-time political candidate) Herschel Walker and Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, along with Latham Saddler, Kelvin King, James Nestor and Jared Craig.
Walker is widely considered the frontrunner in terms of cash, name recognition and endorsements, including from former President Donald Trump and the top two Republicans in the U.S. Senate: Mitch McConnell from Kentucky and Missouri’s John Thune.
“While we have not been particularly impressed with Republican candidate recruiting in these races —Walker seems like a particularly risky choice in Georgia, assuming he wins the nomination — these moves are almost entirely about the environment,” Sabato wrote.
Sabato also has changed his projections from Leans Democratic to Toss Up in Arizona for Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly and for Democratic Sen. C. Cotez Masto in Nevada. The Senate seat now held by Democrat Michael Bennet of Colorado is being changed from Safe Democratic to Leans Democratic.
“There were a lot of electoral questions that the Virginia gubernatorial race was well-positioned to help answer,” Sabato wrote. “Could Republicans make up ground in the suburbs with Donald Trump no longer in the White House? Would Republican voters turn out in force with Trump gone?
“Could Democrats fall even further in heavily white, rural/small town areas? Was the history that suggested holding the White House is a burden for the presidential party in Virginia still operative?
“Unfortunately for Democrats, and fortunately for Republicans, the answers to all of these questions were a resounding ‘yes.’ ”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Calling President Joe Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate for federal contractors “a big government power grab,” Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday the White House is attempting to turn employers into “the vaccine police.”
“This is a recipe for financial disaster,” Kemp said, just minutes before the General Assembly gaveled into a special redistricting session. “The Biden administration wants to invade the personal lives of thousands of Georgians and burden hundreds of businesses of all sizes.”
On Friday, Georgia joined several other Republican-led states in filing a long-threatened complaint against Biden and other federal agencies over the White House’s COVID vaccine mandate.
Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. The lawsuit claims the mandate is unconstitutional.
Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black said Biden’s mandate could impact whether Georgia has enough workers to properly inspect food and meat.
“We need clarity on this,” said Black, who also is seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.
“This lawsuit is not about COVID vaccines,” said Carr. “I am pro vaccine. I am vaccinated myself. This lawsuit is about Biden overstepping his authority. It’s about whether a president has the authority to run a state agency through his federal contracting power. And he does not.”
On Tuesday, the White House released the results of a poll conducted by Small Business for America’s Future, which it said shows widespread support among small businesses for encouraging vaccinations, including with workforce requirements.
The poll, conducted Oct. 18-26 among 1,032 small businesses connected through the organization’s network, found 60% of small business owners believe vaccination efforts are important to ensuring a full economic recovery from COVID-19.
It also found support (68%) for requiring vaccinations for federal government employees, and 87% of small business owners agreed that requiring companies with 100 or more employees to have all of their workers vaccinated or tested weekly will help get more Americans back to work.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers will converge at the state Capitol Nov. 3 to begin redrawing Georgia’s political maps, a once-a-decade exercise to accommodate population shifts reflected in the U.S. Census.
Democrats and Republicans are offering vastly different visions for how Georgia should be represented in Congress, with Republicans seeking to maintain their majority in the Peach State’s 14-member U.S. House delegation and Democrats looking to even things up.
“Expect a lot of rhetoric,” Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan told Capitol Beat. “I expect both good and bad ideas to echo throughout the halls. There will obviously be disagreements from people all across the state, but we will follow the letter of the law.”
This is Duncan’s first reapportionment session as the state Senate’s presiding officer.
“I was a product of reapportionment when I was elected to a newly drawn [Georgia House] district,” said Duncan, a former state representative who is not running for a second term as lieutenant governor. “I’ve told my staff to become experts on the rules and the law so we execute the process properly.”
Georgia House and Senate Democrats released a proposed congressional map last month. Democrats said their map would provide a fair opportunity for voters of color in Georgia to elect representatives of their choice, as minorities would make up a majority of the residents in six of the 14 districts (Districts 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, and 13).
But with Republicans in control of the General Assembly, any map Democrats suggest – whether a congressional map or proposed boundaries for state House and Senate districts – promises to be dead on arrival.
For the GOP, the key question will be whether to try to regain one of the two congressional seats in Atlanta’s northern suburbs lost to the Democrats during the last two election cycles or go for broke and try to take back both seats.
A congressional map Georgia Senate Republicans released in late September appears to take the more cautious approach. It goes after the 6th Congressional District seat Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, won in 2018 by moving heavily Republican Forsyth County into the district and removing more Democrat-friendly North DeKalb County.
Earlier this month, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, along with RepresentUs, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization, gave the GOP map a “C” on its Redistricting Report Card, based on partisan fairness, competitiveness and geographic features. The organization said its “C” grade means the proposed map is average, and could be better but also worse.
The same report card gave the Democrats’ map a “B” for partisan fairness and said the map would give a slight partisan advantage to Democrats. It also gave the Democratic map two “C’s” for competitiveness and geographic features.
RepresentUS recently ranked Georgia as one of 35 states that are most at-risk for partisan gerrymandering. The organization said risks are high because new election maps can be controlled and drawn by politicians in secret and rigged for partisan gain. It also said so-called “rigged” election maps are hard to challenge in court.
Democrats say their map is likely to lead to a 7-7 split in Georgia’s congressional delegation. Currently, there are eight Republicans in Congress representing Georgia and six Democrats.
The GOP map was overseen by Duncan and state Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, who chairs the Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee.
At the state legislative level, Democrats on Friday released their own map that redraws the state’s 180 House districts. Submitted by House Minority Leader James Beverly, D-Macon, Democrats said the map would improve representation of urban and suburban residents and non-white Georgia voters.
The proposal contains 22 districts in which minorities are a majority of residents and a majority of the voting age population, an increase from the 20 such districts currently.
In a statement, Democrats said the new map more fairly represents the partisan makeup of Georgia’s electorate by establishing 25 districts that likely would elect Democrats, 27 that probably would elect Republicans, and four competitive districts. Currently, Republicans hold 34 of the state Senate’s 56 seats.
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 six other states in filing a long-threatened complaint against President Joe Biden and other federal agencies over the White House’s COVID vaccine mandates.
Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr filed the complaint late last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. Other states joining the complaint are Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia.
The lawsuit claims the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate is unconstitutional.
“This vaccine mandate on federal contractors will only further divide Americans and hamstring our economy,” Kemp said. “Polling shows 70% of unvaccinated Americans say they would quit their jobs if their company required the COVID-19 vaccine.
“From an employer’s perspective, nine in 10 fear significant reductions in their workforce if they had to implement vaccine mandates. We will not allow the Biden administration to circumvent the law or force hardworking Georgians to choose between their livelihood or this vaccine.”
The plaintiffs are asking the court to block the defendants and those acting in concert with them from enforcing the mandate on any state of Georgia federal contracting agency, subcontractor, and employee.
Democrats were decrying the lawsuit even before the complaint was formally filed.
“Brian Kemp and Chris Carr’s lawsuit is nothing more than a dangerous political stunt,” said Rhyan Lake, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “Rather than put partisanship aside to get Georgians vaccinated, Georgia Republicans have decided to wage a war on the side of COVID-19.
“The vast majority of Americans support President Biden’s actions to protect our communities’ health against the spread of coronavirus, and Georgia’s recent rise in vaccinations prove that it is working. Kemp and Georgia Republicans should end their pro-COVID antics, heed the call of Georgians, and join Democrats in fighting to end this pandemic.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Democrats and Republicans will converge at the state Capitol Nov. 3 to begin redrawing Georgia’s congressional districts, a once-a-decade exercise to accommodate population shifts reflected in the U.S. Census.
Both parties are offering vastly different visions for how Georgia should be represented in Congress, with Republicans seeking to maintain their majority in the Peach State’s 14-member U.S. House delegation and Democrats looking to even things up.
Georgia House and Senate Democrats showed their cards Oct. 21 by releasing a proposed congressional map ahead of the special legislative session.
Democrats said their map would provide a fair opportunity for voters of color in Georgia to elect representatives of their choice, as minorities would make up a majority of the residents in six of the 14 districts (Districts 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, and 13).
“We are focused on maps that fairly reflect Georgia,” said state Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta. “We’ve had a lot of growth in minority groups. We believe the maps should reflect these significant changes.”
But with Republicans in control of the General Assembly, any map Democrats suggest – whether a congressional map or proposed boundaries for state House and Senate districts – promises to be dead on arrival.
For the GOP, the key question will be whether to try to regain one of the two congressional seats in Atlanta’s northern suburbs lost to the Democrats during the last two election cycles or go for broke and try to take back both seats.
A congressional map Georgia Senate Republicans released in late September appears to take the more cautious approach. It goes after the 6th Congressional District seat Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, won in 2018 by moving heavily Republican Forsyth County into the district and removing portions of North Fulton and North DeKalb counties more friendly to Democrats.
Brian Robinson, a former top aide to then-Gov. Nathan Deal and a Republican political commentator, said Democratic inroads in recent years have left the GOP without the voting strength to take back both the 6th and 7th district seats.
“We can’t draw 6 and 7 as Republican districts,” he said. “But the opportunity is there to bring back one Republican.”
Earlier this month, the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, along with RepresentUs, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization, gave the GOP map a “C” on its Redistricting Report Card, based on partisan fairness, competitiveness and geographic features. The organization said its “C” grade means the proposed map is average, and could be better but also worse.
The same report card gave the Democrats’ map a “B” for partisan fairness and said the map would give a slight partisan advantage to Democrats. It also gave the Democratic map two “C’s” for competitiveness and geographic features.
“If all levels of government are to be responsive to the needs of Georgians in education, health care, and infrastructure for the next 10 years, the state needs a community-based districting process,” said Jack Genberg, an attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center. “So far in this process, the leaders of the Georgia legislature have shown a disdain for the public and their needs. They’ve run a sham process.”
Genberg said legislators scheduled all of their community meetings on redistricting before census numbers were actually released.
“Legislators made these pre-data, pre-guideline meetings inaccessible to wide swaths of Georgians whose first language is not English, Georgians with mobility issues and other disabilities, those who are hearing impaired, and people unable to attend in-person events during a resurging pandemic or because of work or family obligations,” Genberg said.
RepresentUS recently ranked Georgia as one of 35 states that are most at-risk for partisan gerrymandering. The organization said risks are high because new election maps can be controlled and drawn by politicians in secret and rigged for partisan gain. It also said so-called “rigged” election maps are hard to challenge in court.
Democrats say their map also is likely to lead to a 7-7 split in Georgia’s congressional delegation. Currently, there are eight Republicans in Congress representing Georgia and six Democrats.
“Georgia has changed significantly over the last decade, and our proposed congressional map reflects that growth,” said U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Columbus. “Georgia voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around, and this map guarantees that.”
The GOP map was overseen by Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and state Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, who chairs the Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee.
“This map not only meets principles of redistricting, but we are proud to present a map that regardless of political party, Georgians can be proud of,” Duncan said when the map was released. “Ensuring that any maps we produce are fair, compact, and keep communities of interest together will continue to be of upmost importance.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
