State Election Board member denies formally asking Trump campaign for job
Today’s newsletter highlights:
- Gov. Brian Kemp to raise money for Cobb County candidates.
- U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams to hold fundraiser during Usher concert.
- Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan speaks at a “Republicans for Harris” event.
Did a Republican member of Georgia’s State Election Board lobby for a position with Donald Trump’s second administration if the former president wins in November?
The Guardian reported that Rick Jeffares, a former state senator who was tapped to the board in January, said he proposed himself as a candidate for a regional director of the Environmental Protection Agency to Trump aide Brian Jack, now the GOP nominee for an open U.S. House district.
“I said if y’all can’t figure out who you want to be the EPA director for the southeast, I’d like to have it,” Jeffares was quoted as saying to Jack in the report. “That’s all I said.”
That would raise all sorts of red flags, given that Jeffares is part of the three-member majority of the board lionized by Trump for a series of recent votes. The board decided to reinvestigate Fulton County’s handling of the 2020 recount and approve a rule that could give partisan county election board members more discretion to question the outcome of votes.
Jeffares told your Insiders what happened is more complicated. He said he turned down the EPA job during Trump’s first term and mentioned to friends that he’d consider the job now, but that he never made a formal ask.
“I didn’t talk to anyone in the Trump administration. It’s been a hardship on us ever since Trump mentioned us at the rally,” he said of the former president’s praise for Jeffares and two other election board members in Atlanta last week.
He added: “How the rumor got started that I would join the administration is beyond me. It’s all just to make us look like criminals. I have emails and voicemail messages that would make you blush.”
A spokesperson said Jack has met thousands of activists and elected officials since joining Trump’s campaign, and he can’t recall any conversations with Jeffares.
“But his position has been crystal clear: anyone lobbying for a role in a future administration is only hurting President Trump and themselves, and distracting from the campaign before us,” the spokesperson said.
Democrats quickly highlighted the report. Lauren Groh-Wargo, the director of the Fair Fight political organization founded by two-time gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, said it raises “serious ethical concerns.”
“Georgians, it’s more important than ever to get registered and make a plan to vote early,” she said.
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BATTLEGROUND COBB. Gov. Brian Kemp is going to bat for the last governing body in Cobb County to be led by a GOP majority.
David Chastain, a third-term Republican member of the county’s school board, isn’t up for reelection until 2026.
But the self-described “moderate Republican” sent a notice this week that Kemp is holding an Aug. 26 fundraiser for four GOP officials on Cobb’s November ballot: School board chairman Randy Scamihorn, board member Brad Wheeler and John Cristadoro, who is running to succeed a retiring member. The fundraiser would also benefit Kay Morgan, a candidate for Cobb County Commission Chair.
More curious, our AJC colleague Cassidy Alexander reported, is how Chastain promoted the fundraiser.
Some parents received an email Tuesday that resembled an official district dispatch. It was labeled a Cobb County Board of Education “Town Hall Newsletter” and featured a picture of a smiling Chastain at the top.
In it, Chastain framed the school board races in stark terms, as a choice between academic success and “injecting personal political views into the classroom.”
We heard from some parents who thought it was a misuse of county letterhead. But in small lettering, a label called it a “campaign newsletter.” And a disclaimer at the bottom said the details are “only the views of some of the school board members.”
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ELECTION CONNECTION. A former Mesa County, Colorado, county clerk has been found guilty for her role in helping pro-Trump activists copy election data from a Dominion Voting Systems machine there following the 2020 election, The Washington Post reports.
If that sounds like a familiar plot, that’s because it’s nearly identical to the charges against officials in Coffee County, Georgia, where pro-Trump activists also copied election data from a Dominion Voting Systems machine following the 2020 election.
The cases are similar, but not yet proven to be directly connected, our colleague Mark Niesse tells us.
The primary connection is that both Mesa County and Coffee County were places where election skeptics breached and copied election information. MyPillow founder Mike Lindell may have been involved in both.
Election security experts have alleged that the breaches are related and they’ve asked the FBI to investigate it as a national conspiracy. That hasn’t happened.
Fulton County charges are still pending against Coffee County Elections Director Misty Hampton and Republican operative Cathy Latham. The other two people charged in connection with Coffee, Sidney Powell and Scott Hall, have pleaded guilty.
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MONEY. Next week’s Democratic National Convention will be packed with events, including plenty of fundraisers thrown by members of Congress for their campaigns or finance committees.
Punchbowl News reports U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, is getting a jump on the competition by holding a fundraiser Friday night in a private suite at Usher’s concert in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.
Of course Usher, an Atlanta native, will be on stage. He made a splash earlier this summer when he went to Capitol Hill to lobby on behalf of Americans with diabetes and afterward rode the in-house Senate subway with his U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, an Atlanta Democrat.
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REPUBLICANS FOR HARRIS. Former GOP Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan was a featured speaker Tuesday night during a call meant to encourage Republicans to vote for Democrat Kamala Harris for president in November.
Duncan is among the nation’s most prominent Republicans supporting Harris, joining former U.S. House members Joe Walsh and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Denver Riggleman of Virginia on the call.
Duncan spoke for about four minutes, saying he didn’t agree with all of Harris’ policies but felt it was important to support her to keep former President Donald Trump from returning to the White House.
“I just want my party back,” he said. “Selfishly speaking, I’m supporting Kamala Harris because I think she’s a steadier hand than Donald Trump will ever be. I think it will create an opportunity for us to have four years to heal and rebuild this party.”
Nearly 60,000 people listened to the call, according to host Olivia Troye, who was an adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence.
Unlike other pro-Harris virtual events, the Republicans for Harris call focused less on fundraising and signing up volunteers and more on giving viewers talking points to convince family and friends to support Harris.
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LISTEN UP. Today on “Politically Georgia,” former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, the first Black woman mayor of the city, talks about Vice President Kamala Harris rising to the top of the ticket as a Black and Indian woman in the Democratic Party.
Then Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon offers his take on the state of Georgia’s GOP.
Listen live at 10 a.m. on WABE 90.1 or follow “Politically Georgia” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
On Tuesday’s show, former Gov. Nathan Deal talked about his new children’s book featuring his own pet, “Veto, the Governor’s Cat,” and why he thinks fellow Republicans should avoid personal attacks on the campaign trail.
The AJC’s Mark Niesse also joined the show to talk about election issues and recent controversial decisions made by the State Elections Board.
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THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Tuesday that three independent presidential candidates appear to have submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
But that isn’t the last hurdle for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz. Each of them submitted more than the minimum 7,500 nominating petition signatures to qualify for the ballot, although just barely for De la Cruz.
However, all three candidates face legal challenges on whether they are qualified to appear on the ballot. An administrative law judge will hold hearings on these challenges next week.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden hosts the first-ever White House Creator Economy Conference, convening 100 digital creators and influencers to discuss the burgeoning industry. In the afternoon, he speaks on the phone with José Raúl Mulino, the president of Panama.
- The U.S. House and Senate are in recess until Sept. 9.
- Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff holds a Senate Human Rights Subcommittee hearing in Atlanta as part of his investigation into the abuse of pregnant women in state prisons and jails.
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A CHANGE OF PACE. Daniela Campos López has a new (temporary) gig.
Normally an aide to Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, López said Tuesday she has taken an official leave from her Senate duties and joined the Harris-Walz Campaign as its deputy communications director for Georgia.
Campos’ previous boss, Ossoff, will hit the campaign trail himself soon enough, since he’s up for reelection in Georgia in 2026.
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DOG OF THE DAY. By popular demand, we’re happy to report we’ve got several Georgia pups to share with our readers later this week.
But first we have to award today’s Dog of the Day to Veto, one of two cats who call former Gov. Nathan Deal their person.
Veto, along with his brother Bill (get it?), was born in a barn in North Georgia and ferried to the Governor’s Mansion by then-Deal chief of staff Chris Riley to tackle the residence’s growing chipmunk population. But Bill and Veto quickly became valued members of the Deal family, too.
They moved back to the Deals’ home in Gainesville when the time for politics and chipmunking had come and gone. And now they’re the stars of Deal’s first children’s book, “Veto, the Governor’s Cat.” The book is dedicated to the memory of the late first lady Sandra Deal, a book lover herself, with a portion of the proceeds going to literacy initiatives sponsored by the Deal Foundation.
The launch event for the book happens tonight at the Atlanta History Center. But before that excitement, Veto, you’re our Dog of the Day!
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AS ALWAYS, Politically Georgia readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to adam.beam@ajc.com, greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.
About the Authors
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
Tia Mitchell is the AJC’s Washington Bureau Chief and a co-host of the "Politically Georgia" podcast. She writes about Georgia’s congressional delegation, campaigns, elections and the impact that decisions made in D.C. have on residents of the Peach State.
Patricia Murphy is the AJC's senior political columnist. She was previously a nationally syndicated columnist for CQ Roll Call, national political reporter for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily, and wrote for The Washington Post and Garden & Gun. She graduated from Vanderbilt and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Adam Van Brimmer is a journalist who covers politics and Coastal Georgia news for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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