Donald Trump is continuing to inject himself into races up and down the ticket ahead of Georgia GOP primaries.
It’s an ongoing byproduct of Trump’s unparalleled involvement in the state’s primaries after trying to overturn the Georgia election results in 2020. Some of his involvement is less helpful than others.
During his Monday tele-rally for his hand-picked gubernatorial candidate, David Perdue, this week, Trump predicted his Senate candidate Herschel Walker will get trounced in November if Trump’s nemesis, Gov. Brian Kemp, wins his primary in May.
“One of the problems also is if Brian Kemp gets in, I think it’s going to be very, very hard for Herschel Walker to win,” Trump told the listeners.
In a new and rambling robocall this week for U.S. Rep. Jody Hice that we got our hands on, the former president goes on for more than a minute and a half, talking about himself, repeating disproven election conspiracies, and floating a new one.
“Hello, this is President Donald J. Trump, hopefully your all time favorite president of all time,” Trump begins.
“Georgia has one of the worst secretary of states in America, and I mean the worst, RINO Brad Raffensperger.”
The former president then accuses Raffensperger of being “perhaps in collusion with Stacey Abrams, I don’t know if that’s possible, but perhaps,” and praises Hice for his commitment to “free, fair and honest elections.”
Hice was a key Member of Congress in Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign following his 2020 election loss and is now Trump’s pick to defeat Raffensperger in the GOP primary.
On Thursday, Trump also made his ninth endorsement in Georgia, when he came out for Jake Evans in the crowded 6th Congressional District GOP primary.
Evans had an inside track on the important nod since his father, Randy Evans, was a Trump donor and served as Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg.
Trump even gave Evans, Sr. a shout out in the endorsement.
And if all of that’s not enough, the “Team Trump” bus tour will make several stops around Atlanta and North Georgia this weekend, with several of Trump’s picks and Trump’s people on board.
A stop in Gainesville today will include David Perdue, Insurance Commissioner candidate Patrick Witt, Attorney General hopeful John Gordon, and Trump-adjacent players state Sen. Brandon Beach, Doug Collins, and Bob Cheeley-- all involved in Trump’s effort to overturn the last election in Georgia, and now win the next one.
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Get up to speed on the week that was in Georgia politics with today’s Friday edition of the Politically Georgia podcast.
We look at the continued fallout of the Supreme Court leak for Democrats and Republicans alike, along with David Perdue’s newest attack on Gov. Brian Kemp’s Rivian deal.
Listen below, or on Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Donald Trump may be against Gov. Brian Kemp, but that’s not the case for all of Trump World.
Marc Short, former Vice President Mike Pence’s White House chief of staff, joined Kemp’s team recently.
And we have now learned that former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci is all in for Kemp, too.
Our very own James Salzer spotted The Mooch’s name on Kemp’s most recent “two-day business report,” the short-term disclosure documents candidates have to file to report last-minute high-dollar donations ahead of Election Day.
Scaramucci contributed $7,600 – the maximum allowed for the primary – to Kemp on Wednesday, according to the filing.
In July of 2019, The Mooch predicted Trump would handily win re-election, but he eventually turned against the former president and helped create a Super PAC to support Biden.
Meanwhile, Kemp’s leadership committee – Georgians First – is also expected to report later today that it received a $5,000 contribution from former President George W. Bush, who has also felt the ire of Trump over the years. Bush largely steered clear of commenting on his successors, but in 2021 called the U.S. a “country divided” under Trump.
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It seemed like a helluva headline: Key Herschel Walker aide didn’t vote for Herschel Walker.
Not long after Walker spokeswoman Mallory Blount posted a picture Monday proclaiming she was proud to cast a ballot for the GOP Senate candidate, we heard from a few sleuths who said Blount voted in the Democratic primary.
Indeed, Fulton County election records initially backed up that claim.
It was news to Blount, a deeply conservative operative who once worked for Gov. Brian Kemp. She said she was “shocked” when Fulton County reported that she had requested a Democratic ballot “when I clearly had not.”
“Georgians have to be able to trust that their vote will be properly counted – and it doesn’t instill confidence when Fulton County botches the reporting on day one.”
Fulton officials have since corrected the data, which now accurately notes that Blount pulled a GOP ballot. Blount’s boss isn’t impressed.
“If they are messing this up on day one, what else are they doing?” Walker said, referring to this week’s start of early voting. “We have to be able to trust in our elected officials and our elections process - and that’s exactly why I’m running for U.S. Senate.”
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With or without Donald Trump’s endorsement, Dr. Rich McCormick’s team released the results of a recent Public Opinion Strategies poll that showed McCormick leading Evans by 25 points, 38% to 13%, among 6th District GOP voters.
As usual, take all internal polls with a grain of salt and keep in mind that the small sample size (300), puts this poll at a 5.66 point margin of error, although McCormick’s lead is still outside of that.
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U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock plans to cast his vote in Atlanta Friday and then head out to official events focused on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, including insulin.
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David Perdue has been making hay of the $1.5 billion in incentives that the state of Georgia used to woo EV maker Rivian to set up shop in Georgia.
Now 10th Congressional District hopeful, Democrat-turned-Republican Vernon Jones, has joined the anti-Rivian bandwagon as a GOP candidate in the district where Rivian’s is planning to break ground for its $5 billion plant.
In a press release, Jones called the state’s agreement with the company “shady” and “a slap in the face to rural Georgians.”
“Until the people of Walton and Morgan county are convinced the project should happen (they’re not), I am not convinced and will do all that I can to stop it.”
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Today in Washington:
- The House and Senate are both in recess today, returning for business next week.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday that senators will vote next week on a bill to codify a woman’s right to an abortion into federal law.
The move, of course, is in reaction to this week’s bombshell leak that the Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade as early as June.
But despite loud support from activists, Democrats won’t have the 60 votes to avoid a filibuster, the New York Times reports, and may not even have a simple majority in favor of the proposal.
But passing the bill is not the only goal for Schumer, who said in a floor speech Thursday, “Republicans can run but they can’t hide from the damage they’ve created.”
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Our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner Tiffany Porter.
Porter died this week at the age of 43 after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
She was both an Emory University Law grad and former professional cheerleader-- and became the first Black person to hold the tax commissioner job when she was elected in 2020. She is survived by four children
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Since it’s Friday, we always want to send you into the weekend with the columns we filed this week, including:
- Wednesday’s Political Insider column about the day the Georgia state Senate banned abortion;
- Thursday’s Washington Insider column from Jamie Dupree, “Abortion suddenly takes center stage;” and
- A lookahead at Sunday’s Political Insider column, with a dispatch from Northwest Georgia, “My (almost) perfectly normal day with Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
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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.
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