Today’s newsletter highlights:
- Georgia leaders from both parties will attend the presidential inauguration.
- Legal challenge to Georgia’s Rivian plant ends.
- Today is the deadline for some people to buy subsidized health insurance.
Four months after a deadly shooting at a Georgia high school, the issue of gun violence is still prevalent in voters’ minds.
A new AJC poll out this morning shows 51% of Georgia voters are “somewhat” or “very” worried that either they or someone in their family would be a victim in a mass shooting.
But while most Georgians (55%) say they think stricter gun laws would reduce mass shootings, only 28% said lawmakers should pass them. Instead, 58% say they want lawmakers to spend more money on school resource officers and metal detectors.
The poll, which surveyed 1,000 registered voters and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, highlights the complex and sometimes contradictory feelings of voters. For example, a majority of voters said they believe transgender people are discriminated against, but they also support laws directing which bathrooms they can use and what sports teams they can play on, the AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu and Michelle Baruchman report.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Overall, the poll mostly confirms the plans for Georgia’s legislative leaders by showing strong support for two of their policy priorities.
About 70% of registered Georgia voters say they support Republican efforts to require transgender girls to play sports based on the gender on their original birth certificate. Meanwhile, about 80% of voters back legislation that would “guarantee access” to in vitro fertilization treatments after an Alabama court ruling raised concerns over whether the procedure could be in legal risk.
House Speaker Jon Burns and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, both Republicans, have each pledged to pass both measures during this year’s legislative session.
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Credit: Jeff Amy/AP
Credit: Jeff Amy/AP
GOOD MORNING. It’s day three of Georgia’s legislative session. Most of the action is still happening off the floor. Gov. Brian Kemp outlined $1 billion in new spending during a speech to Georgia business leaders on Wednesday. He’ll deliver his State of the State address tomorrow.
Here are three things to know for today:
- A judge postponed a hearing until Jan. 28 in a disputed House election between Democratic state Rep. Mack Jackson and Republican challenger Tracy Wheeler, the AJC’s Mark Niesse reports.
- The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a case that could determine the fate of Georgia’s law that aims to stop kids from accessing pornography websites, the AJC’s Caleb Groves reports.
- The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would strip federal funding from schools that don’t ban transgender girls from competing in women’s sports. Georgia’s delegation fell along party lines, with Republicans voting for it and Democrats against it, Tia Mitchell reports.
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Credit: Jon Elswick/AP
Credit: Jon Elswick/AP
INAUGURATION NATION. Georgia’s political elite plan to show up in force to President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
Democratic U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock each plan to attend, which for Warnock means he won’t preside over Martin Luther King Jr. Day services at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where he is the senior pastor.
Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Attorney General Chris Carr, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper all plan trips to Washington for the inauguration.
You might be surprised that Raffensperger is on the list, since Trump has vilified him for years after he refused his repeated demands to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Well, Raffensperger sent over a lengthy statement noting the inauguration is a “crowning moment” for democracy, calling the return of conservative governance “a beacon of light after years of mismanaged government, inflation, and the weakening of our status on the world stage.”
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Credit: Jon Elswick/AP
Credit: Jon Elswick/AP
RAISE THE FLAGS. President-elect Donald Trump has expressed dismay that flags would be flying at half-staff across Washington during his inauguration weekend. This is because the one-month period of mourning designated by President Joe Biden after the death of President Jimmy Carter doesn’t end until Jan. 28.
But Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has changed that, at least for the flags he controls at the U.S. Capitol. He announced on X that flags will be raised to full-staff on the day of Trump’s inauguration and lowered back to half-staff the next day “to continue honoring President Jimmy Carter.”
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Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
REV UP. The Georgia Supreme Court said Tuesday it won’t hear an appeal by neighbors of the proposed $5 billion Rivian electric vehicle plant who challenged zoning and permitting for the site.
It marks the end of an ongoing legal battle for the California-based automaker, which is poised to receive a nearly $6 billion federal loan to build its plant an hour east of Atlanta.
A poll making the rounds at the Capitol showed roughly 70% of respondents approve of the project. That ticked up 5 percentage points when the pollster mentioned the plant’s plan to hire 7,500 Georgia workers.
The poll by RSC Polling surveyed 600 residents in a five-county swath surrounding the plant earlier this month.
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Credit: Ariel Hart/AJC
Credit: Ariel Hart/AJC
RECORD-SETTING ENROLLMENT. It wasn’t that long ago that anything associated with “Obamacare” was radioactive to Republicans, as evidenced by Georgia’s steadfast refusal to expand its Medicaid program.
But when the window closes later today on Georgia Access’ first open enrollment period, more than 1.5 million people will have purchased subsidized health insurance through the state’s website — a new record, as first reported by the AJC’s Ariel Hart.
This website is possible because of the federal Affordable Care Act. And yet its success will be heralded by members of both parties, but for different reasons.
Republicans like it because it puts more people on private insurance — albeit with generous taxpayer subsidies — which is much more likely to be accepted by doctors and hospitals because it pays them more than Medicaid.
“Everybody accepts private insurance, for the most part,” said state Sen. Ben Watson, a Republican from Savannah and chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. “The access that they have … is fabulous.”
Democrats like it in part because, as state Rep. Scott Holcomb of Atlanta said, “It demonstrates there is an incredible need in the state of Georgia for health insurance and that there is a role to play for the government in health insurance.”
A big question is whether Georgia will be able to sustain this enrollment next year if the new Republican-controlled Congress allows those generous federal subsidies to expire. Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration has spent a lot of money to promote open enrollment. But many experts say it’s the subsidies that have driven the majority of the increase.
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Credit: Adam Beam/AJC
Credit: Adam Beam/AJC
TODAY UNDER THE GOLD DOME:
- 10 a.m.: The House and Senate convene.
- 11 a.m.: The Senate Transportation Committee meets to discuss a road-dedicating resolution.
- 3:30 p.m.: Gov. Brian Kemp and legislative leaders announce their health care priorities at news conference.
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LISTEN UP. Today on “Politically Georgia,” the AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu talks about the latest AJC poll results. Then, you’ll hear an interview with U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta.
Be sure to download the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Have a question for the show? Give us a call at 770-810-5297. Episodes are uploaded by noon each day, just in time to have lunch with us. You can also listen live at 10 a.m. EDT on 90.1 FM WABE.
On Tuesday’s show, the hosts reported from the Georgia Chamber’s Eggs & Issues breakfast and recapped the first day of the Legislative session.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
MCBATH’S FLIP. U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Marietta was one of seven House Democrats who voted for the Laken Riley Act this week after opposing a previous version of the legislation.
Not much changed in the new bill, which requires the federal government to detain and begin deportation procedures for immigrants living in the country without legal permission who have been charged with burglary or theft. But the latest version does remove a lengthy segment that blasted President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
McBath told the AJC she decided to support the bill in part because she sympathized with the family of Laken Riley, the nursing student killed last year in Athens. A Venezuelan man who prosecutors say entered the country illegally was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
“I have been a person who lost their child; I’ve been there,” said McBath, who lost her son to gun violence. “I understand unequivocally what the family has thought and been feeling, and that is how I always think. I think about the human cost.”
McBath, a potential candidate for governor in 2026, said she understands that votes on controversial bills like this one are going to be scrutinized.
“I always vote with my heart and my conscience, and I’ll vote no differently than the way I have voted in the past,” she said.
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Credit: Patrick Semansk/AP
Credit: Patrick Semansk/AP
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden will deliver a farewell address to the nation at 8 p.m.
- The House is scheduled to vote on legislation that would change the law for certain residents of Taiwan whose income is currently taxed by both the United States and Taiwan.
- The Senate continues to work on the Laken Riley Act, although the next procedural vote has yet to be scheduled.
- U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., and members of the Senate Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing for John Ratcliffe, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
PLUM ASSIGNMENTS. U.S. Rep. Brian Jack, the newest member of Georgia’s congressional delegation, continues to make his mark as one of the highest-profile and better connected members of the freshman class.
The former White House aide to President-elect Donald Trump has been appointed to two powerful committees: Rules, the panel that controls which bills make it to the U.S. House floor, and Oversight, which leads investigations of federal agencies.
Jack, R-Peachtree City, also has been named the chairman of the Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development, which falls under the House Small Business Committee.
Both roles are rare for a first-term lawmaker. Other Georgia Republicans that have subcommittee gavels:
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, will lead a subcommittee related to the Department of Government Efficiency, the advisory commission created by Trump to find ways to reduce federal spending.
- Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, who is in his sophomore term, will lead the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee.
- Rep. Rick Allen, R-Augusta, in his sixth term, will chair the Education and Workforce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions.
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SHOUTOUTS. Transitions:
- Ed Elkins, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Norfolk Southern, took over Tuesday as chair of the Georgia Chamber. Elkins succeeds Pedro Cherry, president and CEO of Atlanta Gas Light and Chattanooga Gas, who continues with the Georgia Chamber as immediate past chair.
- Former Republican state Sen. Don Balfour and Washington-based public affairs specialist Andy Beck have joined Ohio River South in executive vice president roles as the firm builds out its practice in the nation’s capital.
SHOUTOUTS. Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that! Click here to submit the shoutouts. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.
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AS ALWAYS, send your best scoops, gossip and insider info to: greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.
