Hours after former President Donald Trump dealt a knockout blow to Nikki Haley in the Super Tuesday elections, his power to bend the GOP to his will was on display in Georgia.
It came in the form of a few paragraphs in Spanish from state Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King, who opined that four more years of President Joe Biden “would threaten the survival of the American dream.
“If we support President Trump and help Republicans win Congress,” he wrote, “we can undo the damage the Biden administration has done to our country.”
King has reason not to back Trump. The former president supported a primary challenge to King in 2022 solely because he was allied with Gov. Brian Kemp. King went on to rout the challenger, whose campaign consisted of promises to prevent “your insurance from going woke.”
But much like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, King joined the growing ranks of Republicans in Georgia and beyond who are uniting behind Trump now that Haley has suspended her campaign, effectively ceding the nomination to the former president.
Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
King’s endorsement came hours after Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene were photographed at Trump’s victory party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Attorney General Chris Carr, another Kemp ally who turned away a Trump challenger, also will back Trump in November.
“America cannot afford four more years of Joe Biden,” his strategist Heath Garrett said. “As a lifelong Republican, the attorney general will support the Republican ticket.”
There are notable exceptions among Georgia Republicans. Eric Tanenblatt, one of Haley’s top Georgia backers, echoed the former South Carolina governor by saying it’s up to Trump to unify the party by proving Haley voters “have a place under the tent.”
And Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who faced more of Trump’s wrath than just about any Republican, is staying neutral.
“I am fully focused on secure elections and work every day to ensure only American citizens vote in our elections,” he said in a statement. “At the end of the day, our U.S. elections must be decided by U.S. citizens.”
Even with Haley’s campaign suspended, her name will still appear on Georgia’s presidential primary ballot when voters go to the polls on Tuesday.
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GEORGIA 2024. The PrimaryPivot super PAC that encouraged Democrats to vote for Nikki Haley in the GOP primary to halt former President Donald Trump’s momentum is, well, pivoting after she dropped out of the race.
The organization is renaming itself PivotPAC and will launch the Haley Voters for Biden campaign to encourage her supporters in Georgia and other battlegrounds to back President Joe Biden in November.
“Haley voters will be the key swing voters in the November general election,” said PivotPAC executive director Kenneth Scheffler. “Sitting out or voting for a third party is not an option. If you want to stop Trump, you have to vote for Biden in November.”
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Miguel Martinez/AJC
Miguel Martinez/AJC
CATOOSA SHOWDOWN. A standoff is brewing in Catoosa County after the local GOP passed rules giving it the final say in who can qualify to run as a Republican and then refused to qualify several contenders for county commission.
As insider Greg Bluestein reported earlier this week, the party refused to abide by a judge’s order to allow the four candidates to run on the GOP ticket. There will be a 1 p.m. hearing today to hash out the differences.
In a 32-page pleading helpfully posted by our friends at Peach Pundit, a Georgia politics blog site, the county GOP argued the government can’t compel a political party to give up its rights to select candidates.
“To some, this may seem like a radical or foreign concept, since many people have gotten used to the idea that GOP and Democrat politicians are unaccountable to any set of principles or policy outcomes, often to the anger of voters,” wrote Alex Johnson, the party’s attorney.
He blamed political parties afraid to “exercise their First Amendment right to not associate with the politicians and candidates that have continuously failed” to live up to their promises.
If that seems rather spicy for a legal argument, consider the source. Johnson is a leader of the far-right Georgia Republican Assembly, and has long sought measures to punish mainstream conservatives he sees as traitors to the cause.
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Nell Carroll for the AJC
Nell Carroll for the AJC
WELCOME MAT. Two billboards financed by Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins’ campaign will greet President Joe Biden when he arrives in Atlanta on Saturday for a rally.
Both take aim at Biden’s border policies in the wake of the killing of Laken Riley, the nursing student who was slain on the campus of the University of Georgia. A Venezuelan native who authorities say crossed the U.S. border illegally is charged with murder in her death.
Collins, a Jackson Republican whose district includes Athens, has led a push for stricter immigration laws in Congress since Riley’s death.
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GEORGIA ADS. On a similar note, the Building America’s Future conservative group is spending $700,000 on TV ads that will play in Georgia and other battleground states bracketing the State of the Union Address. The ads pin the blame for Laken Riley’s killing on Biden’s immigration policy.
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SOTU NIGHT. The guests that members of Georgia’s delegation invited to tonight’s State of the Union address include a teacher whose student loans have been wiped clean, a megachurch pastor and one of the first patients in the nation to receive a new federally approved treatment for sickle cell disease.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter’s guest for President Joe Biden’s speech to a joint session of Congress is the patient who is receiving the sickle cell gene therapy. But Carter, R-St. Simons Island, said the person on his mind is Laken Riley, the 22-year-old nursing student killed two weeks ago on the campus of the University of Georgia.
“President Biden must use his State of the Union address to outline his plan to immediately secure our southern border,” Carter said in a statement ahead of the speech.
Nathan Posner for The AJC
Nathan Posner for The AJC
Some House Republicans consider Riley’s death as proof that the Biden administration has been negligent on border security and put Americans in danger, and they had hoped her parents would attend the State of the Union.
U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, whose district includes Athens, said Wednesday he offered an invitation to Riley’s parents but they declined as they continue to grieve. Collins, a Republican from Jackson, said that a seat will remain empty in honor of Riley.
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Hyosub Shin/AJC
Hyosub Shin/AJC
FIRST LADY’S GUEST. Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson will be among the guests sitting in first lady Jill Biden’s viewing area during tonight’s State of the Union address.
The White House says Johnson was chosen because his city is among the five designated as Investing in America Workforce Hubs. President Joe Biden pinpointed these locales as places where he is carrying out his economic agenda by investing in infrastructure, research and development while also creating high-paying jobs.
Jill Biden in July toured Augusta Technical College as part of a national blitz highlighting the workforce hubs.
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LISTEN UP. The panelists on Wednesday’s “Politically Georgia” radio show, political science professor Andra Gillespie and Democratic strategist Rick Dent, responded to the breaking news that Nikki Haley had suspended her presidential campaign and provided other Super Tuesday analysis.
On today’s show, the Associated Press’s Meg Kinnard and GOP strategist Eric Tanenblatt discuss Haley’s exit. Later, the AJC’s Tamar Hallerman joins for a discussion about the elected officials in the Trump election interference trial qualifying to seek another term in office.
Listen live at 10 a.m. on WABE 90.1 FM, at AJC.com and at WABE.org.
As always, you can find previous episodes of “Politically Georgia” on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Casey Sykes for the AJC
Casey Sykes for the AJC
UNDER THE GOLD DOME, Legislative Day 31:
- 7 a.m.: Committee meetings begin.
- 10 a.m.: The House gavels in.
- 10 a.m.: The Senate convenes.
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Steve Schaefer/AJC
Steve Schaefer/AJC
WILLIS HEARING. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has gone from being a witness at state Senate hearings to being the subject of those hearings, as was the case Wednesday.
That’s when the Senate’s new special investigative committee met to hear more than three hours of testimony from Ashleigh Merchant. She is the Cobb County lawyer seeking to disqualify Willis from the Trump election interference case and have all charges dropped against her client, Michael Roman.
Unlike the recent televised hearings that saw Merchant’s assertions challenged frequently by prosecutors, she was able to speak uninterrupted and at length with GOP state Sen. Bill Cowsert, an Athens Republican and the committee’s chairman, for nearly the entire session. The two focused on the timeline of the romantic relationship between Willis and special counsel Nathan Wade, and the narrative included Merchant’s detailed explanation of how she got her information.
At one point, an impressed Cowsert praised her as a “good investigative reporter.”
Democratic state Sen. Harold Jones II of Augusta was given 30 minutes at the end for follow-up questions. He asked Merchant how any of what she’s revealed proves a conflict of interest for the DA.
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ON THE BALLOT. Some of the biggest names in the Fulton County prosecution of former President Donald Trump are up for election themselves this year.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, the jurist overseeing the case, is on the May nonpartisan ballot. We learned Wednesday that McAfee will face a challenge from Robert Patillo, a civil rights attorney and radio host who plans to qualify for the race later today.
Also up is District Attorney Fani Willis, who was at the state Capitol on Wednesday to file her paperwork to run for reelection. Swarmed by reporters and curious onlookers, Willis dismissed the state Senate investigation unfolding against her.
“I think that people are angry because I’m going to do the right thing and I’m going to stand up for justice no matter who is the person that may have done wrong in Fulton County,” she said. “They can continue on with their games, and I will continue to do the work of the people.”
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GOVERNMENT FUNDING. In Washington hard-line conservative Republicans who want the House to pass long-term appropriations bills one by one voted en masse against a measure that packaged six into one large “minibus” bill.
Still, the legislation passed with the overwhelming support of Democrats and more than half of Republicans. As a result, a partial government shutdown set to begin Friday is likely to be averted. Budget negotiators now have until March 22 to bring the six remaining appropriations bills to the floor to keep those affected agencies from shutting down.
Six of Georgia’s nine Republican lawmakers voted against the $467.5 billion package, which was approved in a 339-85 vote. The six were Reps. Rick Allen of Augusta, Andrew Clyde of Athens, Mike Collins of Jackson, Barry Loudermilk of Cassville, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome and Rich McCormick of Suwanee.
The measure is being called a “minibus” — a play on the term “omnibus” — because it combined six of the 12 long-term spending bills, rather than all 12 packaged together.
The Senate is expected to take a final vote on the package on Friday just hours ahead of the partial shutdown deadline.
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Jacquelyn Martin via TNS
Jacquelyn Martin via TNS
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address this evening during a joint session of Congress.
- The House votes on the Laken Riley Act, an immigration policy measure named after the nursing student killed on the University of Georgia’s campus last month.
- The Senate has more confirmation votes lined up and could take procedural votes on the government spending “minibus.”
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Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. It’s not every day that two Georgians win prestigious national awards, so today’s Dog of the Day designation goes to two nationally recognized pups: Skippy Adams, the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 2024 Farm Dog of the Year, and Casper Wierwille, the winner of the group’s “People’s Choice Pup.”
Skippy is a border collie-Australian shepherd mix who calls the Adams family of McDuffie County his people. Skippy came to the Adamses after Donald Adams, a cattle farmer, was gravely injured in a farm accident. Through the Pharm Dog program, Skippy quickly became a valuable farm assistant to Donald after he was treated at Atlanta’s Shepherd Spinal Center.
Casper, a Great Pyrenees, calls the Wierwille family of Decatur her people. He is credited with saving the family’s flock of sheep from nearly a dozen coyotes.
Maybe most impressively, these two good dogs also sat quietly through a 20-minute news conference Wednesday led by Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper. That’s a feat not even some lawmakers can claim. For all that and more, they’re our dogs of the day.
Send us your dogs of any political persuasion and location, and cats on a cat-by-cat basis, to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us at @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Politically Georgia readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.
