State Rep. Matthew Wilson (left) is running against Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King (right) in the 2022 elections. (Official state photos)
The field of Democratic candidates lining up to flip Republican-held state offices in Georgia for the 2022 election cycle has added another contender.
State Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven, announced his candidacy Wednesday against Republican Insurance Commissioner John King, who was appointed in 2019 amid felony fraud charges brought against his predecessor.
Wilson, who is among the General Assembly’s few openly gay members, launched his campaign in a video on social media highlighting his experience battling insurance companies as a personal-injury attorney based in Atlanta.
He joins a growing roster of Democratic state lawmakers challenging Republican incumbents for lieutenant governor, attorney general and labor commissioner after Democrats flipped Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats and helped spur President Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 elections.
King, a U.S. Army National Guard major general and former Doraville police chief who is Georgia’s first Hispanic statewide officeholder, has spent much of his tenure helping Gov. Brian Kemp expand COVID-19 testing facilities and temporary overflow hospital beds.
King replaced former Insurance Commissioner Jim Beck, who was indicted on fraud and money laundering charges shortly after taking office in 2019 amid a federal investigation into allegations he stole more than $2 million from the Georgia Underwriting Association, where Beck had previously worked.
Running on the Democratic ticket with Wilson so far in the 2022 cycle are state Sen. Jen Jordan of Atlanta, who is vying to unseat Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, as well as state Reps. Erick Allen of Smyrna and Derrick Jackson of Tyrone, who are both competing for lieutenant governor.
Current Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan’s office has indicated he may not seek reelection in 2022, leaving the field potentially wide open for Republican primary contenders aiming to hold Georgia’s second-highest office.
Democratic state Sen. Lester Jackson of Savannah has also thrown his hat in the ring to run against Republican Labor Commissioner Mark Butler.
Not yet officially on the Democratic ticket is rising star Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost to Kemp in the 2018 gubernatorial race and is expected to wage a rematch campaign in 2022.
The upcoming primary elections are set for May 24, 2022, and the general elections set for Nov. 8, 2022.
Gov. Brian Kemp (front) and first lady Marty Kemp (behind) have prioritized cracking down on human trafficking since the governor took office in 2019. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Gov. Brian Kemp signed three bills Tuesday aimed at boosting protections for victims of human trafficking in Georgia and raising awareness for children on the dangers and signs of trafficking.
The newly enacted measures mark the latest steps by Kemp’s administration and First Lady Marty Kemp, who heads the trafficking-focused GRACE Commission, to combat human traffickers and help victims in the metro Atlanta and elsewhere in the state.
“If you are someone who’s trapped, someone currently being trafficked, know that we will not stop until you are set free,” Kemp said at a bill-signing ceremony in Buford. “We are working daily to support you and to help you, and to go after those who are victimizing you.”
Two bills the governor signed allow trafficking victims and Georgia’s attorney general to bring lawsuits against traffickers and their associates to recover monetary damages, and let victims file name-change petitions under court seal to shield their identities.
A third measure adds a course on human-trafficking awareness to grades six through 12 in Georgia schools, as well as new courses on the harms of vaping and tobacco use for all grades to supplement existing instruction on drugs and alcohol.
All three bills passed unanimously in the General Assembly during this year’s legislative session. They were sponsored by state Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Buford, who is one of Kemp’s floor leaders, and Georgia Rep. Bonnie Rich, R-Suwanee.
Lawmakers also passed measures last year that Kemp signed to toughen penalties for commercial drivers with human-trafficking criminal convictions and allow victims to clear their court records of any offenses stemming from activities while they were being trafficked.
Kemp has made fighting human trafficking a priority since taking office in 2019, charging the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to crack down harder on traffickers through a multi-agency task force.
Those efforts come alongside a push led by Marty Kemp to increase awareness over how to spot trafficking and protect victims via a new hotline launched last fall to alert law enforcement officers of sexual or labor exploitation and to receive help for victims.
She also spearheaded a trafficking-awareness course on how to spot abuse that thousands of state government employees have completed over the past year.
“With these important initiatives, we can continue taking important steps to end modern-day slavery and ensure that our state is a safe haven for those who have been victimized,” Marty Kemp said at Tuesday’s bill signings. “These are only the most recent steps in the ongoing fight to end human trafficking, and certainly not our last.”
Rev. Abraham Mosley, chairman of the Stone Mountain Memorial Association, discusses proposals for a new exhibit on the park’s Confederal carving and relocating Confederate flags after a meeting on April 26, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Stone Mountain could see changes around the park’s controversial Confederate carving and other symbols under proposals expected to face votes next month.
Recommendations to set up a new museum exhibit telling the checkered history of the large Confederate mountainside carving and to relocate Confederate flags at the park were pitched at a Stone Mountain Memorial Association board meeting Monday.
Monday’s meeting was the first chaired by Rev. Abraham Mosley, who was tapped last week as the association’s first Black chairman after serving on its board of directors since 2019. Mosley said the exhibit and relocation proposals mark a “good start” to address widespread problems with the park.
“You can’t get there overnight,” Mosley said after Monday’s meeting. “If you’re going to walk a mile, you’ve got to take that first step.”
The giant carving has long faced outrage as a symbol glorifying the Confederacy, depicting Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. The adjacent park features Confederate flags and street names also targeted for removal and renaming.
Efforts to erase the carving gained steam amid recent nationwide protests against racism and police brutality but remain hamstrung by a state law enacted in 2001 that forbids altering or removing “the memorial to the heroes of the Confederate States of America graven upon the face of Stone Mountain.”
That law was bolstered by legislation the General Assembly passed and Gov. Brian Kemp signed in 2019 that bans removing, relocating or defacing monuments and other historical symbolsowned by state agencies including those dedicated to the Confederacy.
Despite legal limitations, the association’s CEO, Bill Stephens, unveiled recommendations Monday to build a new exhibit that “tells the story of the carving” including the park’s 1915 hosting of a revived Ku Klux Klan.
His proposals call for relocating Confederate flagsin the park, renaming Stone Mountain’s Confederate Hall Historical and Environmental Education Center to “Heritage Hall,” renaming certain streets like Highway 78 in honor of Georgia leaders and building a chapel on the mountain’s summit.
Stephens said the proposals aim to ease concerns from potential new corporate partners looking to fill the sponsorship gap left by Marriott, which he said does not plan on renewing a longstanding partnership with the park to run its main hotel and conference center that is set to expire in 2022.
The proposals also aim to curb heavy financial losses seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing uproar over Confederate symbols that hacked the park’s revenues from $49 million in 2019 to $22 million last year, Stephens said.
“Economically, we can’t stay the way we are,” Stephens said at Monday’s meeting. “Change is inevitable. We can either take charge of it or be defined by it.”
Representatives from Georgia’s NAACP chapter and the advocacy group Stone Mountain Action Coalition praised the proposals Monday but argued they do not go far enough to heal wounds caused by the park’s ties to the Confederacy.
“Bigger changes need to be made,” said Bona Allen, a member of the coalition whose ancestor fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. “You have the authority, you have the obligation and you have the ability to remove these symbols immediately.”
State Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, highlighted legislation he brought in the General Assembly this year that would allow the association to remove the carving. His bill stalled in the 2021 legislative session but will be alive for consideration when lawmakers return next January.
Opponents and Confederacy backers pointed out the proposed changes could run afoul of state law and urged the association board to instead promote so-called “heritage tourism” that could include dramatized tours of the park with guides in period costumes.
“[Tourists] come here to see the antebellum South,” said Tim Pilgrim, division commander of Georgia’s Sons of Confederate Veterans chapter. “They want to see soldiers. … They want to see ‘Gone with the Wind,’ Tara. … And this is especially true of foreign visitors.”
Mosley said he expects the board to vote on the proposals during next month’s meeting.
U.S. Rep. Doug Collins rallied in his hometown Gainesville during his campaign for U.S. Senate on Aug. 28, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins announced Monday he will not run for any office in the 2022 election cycle, ending speculation over potential bids for top statewide seats.
Collins, who lost an open-format election for one of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats last fall, said he aims to play a role in “shaping our conservative message” to help Republicans win back majorities in Congress.
“For those who may wonder, this is goodbye for now, but probably not forever,” Collins said in an announcement on social media Monday. “I believe that we, as conservatives, must be able to clearly communicate our values, and I will help keep that fight going.”
A Baptist pastor and U.S. Air Force Reserve chaplain from Gainesville, Collins joined the Clarkesville-based law firm Oliver & Weidner in February after placing third in the open-party special election to replace retired Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson last November.
Collins waged a fierce battle for a majority share of conservative voters in the special election against then-Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to hold Isakson’s seat until the election. Loeffler then lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in the Jan. 5 runoff.
Collins served four terms from 2013 until 2021 representing Georgia’s 9th Congressional District, which stretches from Gainesville and Athens northeast to the South Carolina border. U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde of Jackson now holds that seat.
Prior to his Senate campaign, Collins served a stint as ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, where he gained national attention as one of then-President Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters during Trump’s first impeachment inquiry in 2019.
Collins was Trump’s preferred pick over Loeffler for Gov. Brian Kemp’s appointment to the vacant Senate seat, opening a rift within Republican ranks between the president and Georgia’s governor that continued through the January runoffs and amid Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 elections that state officials and federal courts repeatedly rejected.
Georgia Republican losses this past election cycle prompted speculation Collins might challenge Kemp in his 2022 reelection campaign or seek a rematch against Warnock, who has already drawn several Republican challengers in recent weeks.
Collins’ backing out of 2022 races comes amid mounting speculation that former University of Georgia football star Herschel Walker may challenge Warnock in the upcoming cycle.
Walker’s potential candidacy picked up steam last month after Trump urged him to run for the Senate as a Republican, calling the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner “fantastic” and “unstoppable.” Walker has not yet announced whether he will run against Warnock.
President Joe Biden, joined by Vice President Kamala Harris (back), spoke on the recent spa shootings and COVID-19 federal aid at Emory University in Atlanta on March 19, 2021. (White House video)
President Joe Biden plans to visit Atlanta next Thursday, marking his 100th day in office.
It will be the second time Biden travels to Georgia since taking office in January, following his win over former President Donald Trump in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election by 11,779 votes.
Biden’s visit comes as his administration pushes a $2.3 trillion infrastructure package and continues overseeing distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
Details on Biden’s Atlanta visit next week have not yet been disclosed by the White House. The president will be joined by First Lady Jill Biden.
Georgia has taken center stage in national politics over the past several months as Democrats competed for and won both of the state’s U.S. Senate seats, handing Democrats control of Congress and the White House until at least the 2022 midterm elections.
The state remained a political lightning rod after Republican state lawmakers passed and Gov. Brian Kemp signed controversial changes to Georgia’s mail-in and early voting laws late last month.
Biden called the state Republican-led voting changes “Jim Crow in the 21st century,” echoing Democrats’ efforts to paint the measures as acts of voter suppression targeting minority voters. Republicans argue the law changes are needed to bolster confidence in the state’s election system.
Democratic leaders including Georgia U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are now pushing national legislation on elections that aims to curb some impacts from Georgia’s recently enacted voting law changes.
Biden’s prior visit to Atlanta March 19 alongside Vice President Kamala Harris came days after mass shootings at three spas in the Atlanta area left eight people dead including six Asian American women. The killings sparked nationwide calls for solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islanders community.
During that visit, Biden mourned the shooting victims and touted a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that Congress had passed shortly before the president’s Atlanta tour.
The president also during that visit hailed Georgia as a key battleground state that paved the way for passage of the new pandemic relief bill due to Warnock’s and Ossoff’s election. He urged supporters to oppose the Republican-led elections bill, which at the time had not yet passed in the General Assembly.
“We’re in a fight again,” Biden said in March. “It’s a fight we need because if anyone ever doubted that voting matters, Georgia just proved it did. … If anyone ever wondered whether voting can change a country, Georgia just proved it can.”
Biden previously visited Georgia several times ahead of last year’s general election in November and the Senate runoffs in January.
