Gov. Brian Kemp has ruled out a run for president, but key Republicans are nudging him to be open to a draft movement as former President Donald Trump seems to be dominating a low-energy GOP field. Veteran GOP strategist Mike Murphy is among the loudest voices behind the idea.
On an episode of the Hacks on Tap podcast, Murphy said Kemp could “get in and run the damn table as a late discovery” if he makes his move by June.
Murphy said it was “almost a tragedy he’s not running.” Here’s more:
“What he needs is some of the money to come see him. Because I hear that’s what he’s worried about …Two days in New York and he would want to run for president because he would get $30 million in commitments. But apparently nobody has explained to him how that works.”
Kemp doesn’t need a lot of explanation about how to raise cash. He’s also been to two major GOP donor retreats around the country this year and he’ll be at the posh resort of Sea Island this weekend raising a bundle from donors himself.
Murphy added that if he were a Kemp adviser, he’d play into a media narrative that Kemp is a “generational, effective outside Washington and proven Trump-proof” candidate.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger may have made the case for Kemp run, too, when he announced the March 12 presidential primary date.
He said the date would ensure Georgia will be a “national focus” and added:
“Because Georgia is a bellwether state — if you can win here, you can win nationally.”
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LISTEN UP. The tragic events in Atlanta this week led to a flurry of response in Washington, D.C. In our Friday edition of the Politically Georgia podcast, out D.C. Insider Tia Mitchell joins the pod to talk about that, the newest members of the Georgia congressional delegation, and the date-certain for Georgia’s 2024 presidential primary.
Listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.
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Nathan Posner for the AJC
Nathan Posner for the AJC
PARTISAN DIVIDES. U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock started the morning Thursday as a guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” talking about his efforts to push for gun control legislation in Congress in light of incidents like Wednesday’s shooting in Midtown Atlanta.
“The good news is that there is growing consensus in the country that we have to do something,” the Atlanta Democrat said. “And then there’s a disconnect between what the people want and what they’re getting out of the government. And so, we have to stand up in this moment.”
But the reality is, it will be difficult to get Republicans, especially in the increasingly conservative U.S. House, on board with any significant new firearm restrictions.
Most Republican elected officials in Georgia responded to the shooting with statements that offered condolences to the victims and praise to first responders, while avoiding any mention of gun policies.
Only Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, took the moment to blame fellow Georgians for the tragedy and call for more guns, not fewer.
“Unfortunately, this is one of many murders that happen every single week in crime-ridden Atlanta,” Greene said in a statement. “The Democrat mayor and Democrat DA won’t do their job to protect the citizens in our state’s capital, so that means every hospital, business, and person should be protected with a firearm.”
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Natrice Miller/AJC
Natrice Miller/AJC
DATE SET. Mark your calendars for Tuesday, March 12, 2024. That’s when Georgians will go to the polls to make their presidential primary picks.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger made the final decision and announced it at the Capitol Thursday, our pal Mark Niesse reports.
The new date means Georgia will vote one week after Super Tuesday, by which time the nominees may or may not be obvious. It also means that Democrats’ hopes of becoming an early Democratic primary state are officially dashed.
Although President Joe Biden had announced Georgia as one of the first five states he wanted to see in the early order, the decision really wasn’t up to him.
In the end, Raffensperger said he wouldn’t schedule separate dates for the parties to vote and if either party would lose delegates, a move would be off the table. With existing RNC rules keeping Georgia in the middle of the order, March 12 became the optimal day, Raffensperger said.
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Miguel Martinez for the AJC
Miguel Martinez for the AJC
BILL SIGNING. Gov. Brian Kemp will be at the Chatham County Sheriff’s office in Savannah this afternoon to sign Senate Bill 92, the law creating a state-appointed council over local elected prosecutors.
The legislation passed this session over the loud objections of Democratic district attorneys around the state, including Fulton County DA Fani Willis.
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Ariel Hart/AJC
Ariel Hart/AJC
SPOTTED. Speaking of bill signings, Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a slew of new bills into law, inking several at a time in formal bill signing ceremonies or with larger, splashier press events for the highest-profile measures.
He picked the governor’s office this week for a photo opportunity of him signing Senate Bill 222, the bill making it a felony for local governments to accept money from nonprofit organizations that gave millions of dollars during the 2020 presidential election.
On hand as Kemp signed the measure, which was championed as a way to keep elections free from outside partisan money, was former Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Kemp appointed Loeffler to the U.S. Senate in 2019 and is among the top two GOP donors in the state.
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BIG SPENDER. Speaking of money, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is among the most prolific fundraisers in the country. But her local paper, the Rome News-Tribune, noticed that Greene had her worst fundraising quarter on record in the first quarter of this year.
Greene reported raising $601,518 between Jan. 1 and March 31 and spending more than twice that, $1,593,579.
Her campaign account still shows nearly $1 million cash on hand, but that includes a $550,000 personal loan from Greene to her campaign on the books.
Greene still has the kind of money most House campaigns only dream of. But the numbers also show Greene’s incredible burn rate, spending big to raise cash online and travel across the country to stump for other GOP candidates. She spent more than $11 million in the 2022 campaign cycle.
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IT KEEPS COMING. Revelations regarding the financial dealings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his family continue to mount.
On Thursday, ProPublica revealed that Texas billionaire Harlan Crow had paid the tuition at a now-closed boarding school near Dahlonega for Thomas’ grandnephew when he was in the justice’s care. The tuition was $6,000 per month.
Separately, the Washington Post reported that conservative activist Leonard Leo arranged for Thomas’ wife, Ginni, to be paid for consulting work without her name showing up on paperwork.
According to the Post, which reviewed documents from about a decade ago when the transactions occurred, Leo instructed Kellyanne Conway to bill a nonprofit group he was affiliated with and use the money to pay Ginni Thomas’s firm, Liberty Consulting.
“No mention of Ginni, of course,” Leo said of one $25,000 payment.
In total, Liberty was paid $80,000 between June 2011 and June 2012. The documents did not say what work Thomas did for the payments. Leo is best known for working on behalf of organizations that lobby to get more conservatives nominated to judgeships.
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Nathan Posner for the AJC
Nathan Posner for the AJC
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden will convene his “Investing in America” cabinet for discussion on his economic agenda.
- The U.S. Senate and House are in pro forma session;
- U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff will meet with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan at the Port of Savannah’s to discuss planned upgrades and air pollution reductions.
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Courtesy photo
Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. With the coronation of King Charles III set for Saturday in London, we thought we’d bring you some Georgia royalty today.
Meet Princess Coconut Chanel Sherburn, of the Ball Ground Sherburns.
Princess Coconut calls AJC subscriber Terry Sherburn her subject. And we’re told by a reliable source that a lap is her throne and The Jolt is her morning read. To that we say, long live Princess Coconut.
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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
