Public polls and internal figures have long pointed to a close race between U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican hopeful Herschel Walker.
But Gov. Brian Kemp has held a solid lead over Democrat Stacey Abrams for the governor’s race in most surveys. Now a pair of polls released this week from Quinnipiac University and Echelon Insights show Kemp deadlocked with Abrams.
The Quinnipiac poll, which showed Kemp at 50% and Abrams at 48%, had a margin of error of 2.7%, while the Echelon poll also had Abrams and Kemp within the margin of error of 3.5%.
The two new polls buoyed Democrats, along with data that emerged from the left-leaning TargetSmart that suggests a higher number of women, Black Georgians and voters of color are requesting mail-in ballots.
“The polls this week confirm what we know: Our race is tied,” said Abrams campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo.
But Kemp still has plenty of reason to be optimistic, including another recent poll from InsiderAdvantage that pegs him with a 50% to 42% lead.
At a stop in Calhoun, the governor said the tide has dramatically shifted since Democrats flipped the state in the last election campaign.
“The political science winds are blowing differently now than where they were in 2020,” he said to cheers from the crowd of roughly 100.
***
Troy Stolt/Chattanooga Times Free Press
Troy Stolt/Chattanooga Times Free Press
RUNNING MATE. At the same stop, Gov. Brian Kemp was asked if he stood by Burt Jones, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor who faces scrutiny for his role as a “fake” GOP elector.
“He’s the nominee of our party and I’m going to support the ticket. I’m going to campaign with him. You would have to ask him about individual positions he’s taken.”
Kemp added: “I’ll control what I can control. I think the voters of this state know where I stand. Look, even if people don’t like positions I’ve taken, you know there are things I promised people I would do. So they can at least appreciate that I’ve done what I said I would do.”
***
Alyssa Pointer/AJC
Alyssa Pointer/AJC
LOEFFLER EFFORT. While Democrats say they feel especially strong about their chances with women voters, former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler isn’t letting their appeals to female voters go unanswered.
Loeffler’s Citizens for a Greater Georgia announced a new women’s outreach effort this week to boost GOP women through the state Senate State Senate leadership committee. We’re told the outreach will include events, digital ads, mail, and phone and text outreach.
Former state Rep. Meagan Hanson is chairing the effort and events are planned in the metro Atlanta area and at stops around the state.
The women’s outreach is one of several parallel efforts from Loeffler’s Greater Georgia umbrella to target specific voter groups that GOP campaigns once largely left to Democrats, including Latino and Black voters, as well as Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Loeffler has said all of those groups include conservative voters.
“In contrast to the portrayal by the media and Washington politicians, not every strong American woman is a liberal. They are proud mothers, businesswomen and community leaders — who want to protect the American Dream, and to restore security and opportunity for their families,” she said.
***
HOSPITAL HELP. At a Capitol news conference later this morning, Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to join a group of local leaders to announce a new cash infusion to boost Grady Memorial Hospital ahead of the closure of Atlanta Medical Center.
Stacey Abrams launched a digital ad to greet the news of Wellstar’s plans to shutter AMC, blaming Kemp’s “far-right politics” for the hospital’s decision to close down.
“Stacey Abrams has a plan to keep Georgia jobs without raising taxes,” the narrator says in the ad’s final seconds.
***
ENDORSEMENT AWRY. Earlier this month, Senate candidate Herschel Walker released a list of 112 county sheriffs backing his bid. A tipster noted that one of them is in trouble with the law.
Miller County Sheriff Richard Morgan was suspended from office for 60 days by Gov. Brian Kemp in late August. He was arrested on Aug. 10 and faces charges of sexually battery and violating his oath of office.
***
RAIL CRISIS. If unions representing freight rail engineers and conductors had failed to reach a contract agreement by Friday, a worker strike could have led to renewed supply chain headaches across the nation.
But President Biden said early Thursday morning that freight rail companies and unions representing tens of thousands of workers reached a tentative agreement to avoid what would have been an economically damaging strike.
In Georgia, a freight rail strike would have likely caused logjams at the port in Savannah and contributed to rising costs and delays, the AJC’s Michael Kanell reports. The Georgia Ports Authority said that cargo awaiting rail transport represents about 17% of all container trade.
The Ports Authority says it has space to stack up and store up to 20,000 idle containers and off-terminal space that can also be used to store rail containers awaiting transport.
***
AJC
AJC
PHARMACIST RIGHTS. U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter is taking the lead on legislation that would give pharmacists the right to refuse to fill prescriptions for abortion-inducing medication.
Carter, who is a pharmacist himself, was among the lawmakers who criticized the Biden administration after it issued guidance in July saying that pharmacists are required to fill prescriptions for pills that can induce abortion. That guidance came on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning federal protections for abortion.
“I think what they’re trying to achieve is to force the pharmacist to carry a medication or to dispense medication that morally and consciously they may object to,” Carter, R-Pooler, said Wednesday. “And I object to that. Just because a pharmacist or a doctor has a white coat doesn’t mean they lose their First Amendment rights.”
Carter’s bill, which lists U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens, among the cosponsors, would undo that guidance. While it has little chance of passing Congress right now with Democrats in control, it would get more traction if Republicans regain control of the House or Senate after the midterms.
Wade Herring, Carter’s Democratic opponent in November, said the legislation amounts to “waging a war on women.”
“Carter just proposed a bill that nationalizes a rule that allows pharmacists to override a doctor and deny women medications like birth control,” he said in a statement.
***
Jason Getz/AJC
Jason Getz/AJC
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden is hosting the inaugural United We Stand Summit, an event intended to address the rise in hate crimes and anti-democratic violence.
- The Senate has more confirmations teed up, while the House has votes scheduled on federal employee statutes, whistleblower protections and census counts. Both chambers are expected to wrap their work for the week today.
- U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams and three other lawmakers, including one Republican, are introducing a bill today that would create a 90% refundable tax credit up to $500 for individuals who purchase safes for their firearms.
***
Vino Wong /AJC
Vino Wong /AJC
STOCK TRADING SCRUTINY. Georgia U.S. Reps. Austin Scott and Rick Allen are among 97 members of Congress, from both parties, who reported trading stocks in companies that can be influenced by committees on which the lawmakers serve, according to a New York Times’ analysis.
Lawmakers are not barred from trading stocks in individual companies, even when the businesses’ interests intersect with their work in Congress. But the practice has led to increased scrutiny during the coronavirus pandemic, and there are multiple proposals pending that would put an end to or strict limits on it, including a bill from U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
The Times reported that Allen, R-Augusta, traded stocks in pharmaceutical companies while serving on a committee that considered a prescription drug pricing bill. He also traded in John Deere stock while serving on the Agriculture Committee.
Scott, a Tifton Republican, traded shares in General Electric, which has a military contracting business that could be affected by legislation pending before Scott’s Armed Services Committee. Scott’s office told the Times that his wife inherited less than $20,000 worth of GE stock.
The most high-profile example of a member or their spouse trading stocks that could be affected by Congressional action is likely Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Paul Pelosi traded between $25 million and $81 million worth of stocks and financial assets between 2019 and 2021, the Times reports. However, Pelosi is not on the list of 97 lawmakers for the Times since she does not sit on Congressional committees.
***
Jason Getz
Jason Getz
DEMOCRACY PUSH. The Atlanta-based Carter Center has launched a bipartisan effort designed to encourage candidates and voters to uphold five key doctrines for elections: integrity, nonviolence, security, oversight and the peaceful transfer of power.
Among the first to sign were the three candidates for Georgia Secretary of State: incumbent Republican Brad Raffensperger, Democratic state Rep. Bee Nguyen and Libertarian Ted Metz.
Raffensperger’s office worked with the Carter Center in 2020 through its election security task force.
Carter Center staff were also the only nonpartisan observers for Georgia’s risk limiting audit in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
***
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.
