It didn’t take long for the knives to come out on the day after Herschel Walker lost his Senate contest in Georgia.
Republicans nationwide saw the Georgia race as tantalizingly winnable. But Walker ended up being the lone statewide Republican not to clear the 50% threshold and we all know what happened in the runoff.
On Wednesday, senior Republicans in Washington said that blame for the loss belongs squarely on President Donald Trump for getting Walker into the contest in the first place.
“President Trump lost again,” U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney told reporters in the Capitol, when asked about the Georgia loss.
“If you get endorsed by him in the primary, you’re likely to win. If you get endorsed by him in the general, you’re likely to lose,” Romney said, according to HuffPost reporter Igor Bobic. “So for someone who actually wants to win an election, getting endorsed by him is the kiss of death.”
Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, whose GOP seat flipped to Democrats by Lt. Gov. John Fetterman said the Walker loss, “is just one more data point in an overwhelming body of data that the Trump obsession is very bad for Republicans.”
Texas Republican John Cornyn said the Georgia loss means Trump “is less relevant all the time.”
Although Trump was instrumental in drafting Walker to run for the Georgia Senate seat, he also played a limited role in Walker’s general election campaign. And he stayed out of Georgia during the general election after polling showed a trip here would hurt Walker’s chances, not help.
Trump’s closest ally in the state, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, instead pointed to Senate Republicans, including Sen. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham (although Graham campaigned for Walker repeatedly). She also said Walker should have campaigned more with her.
“I was never asked very often by the Herschel Walker campaign to come speak at any of his campaign events,” she told Steve Bannon on his podcast. “They only asked me to maybe two I think. Two or three in my own district when he was campaigning all over the state, running for Senate. But they only asked me a couple of times in my own district, which I find extremely insulting.”
Our own Greg Bluestein’s analysis included sources blaming Walker’s wife, Julie, for maintaining control of Walker’s Twitter feed and overriding staff strategic decisions.
And Politico quoted a “person close to the campaign” who blamed Walker himself.
“He should have never run for this seat,” the person said.
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POTUS PROPS. Although he kept his distance from U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock during election season, President Joe Biden was quick to pick up the phone to congratulate Warnock for his victory Tuesday night, even before Warnock gave his victory speech.
“Congratulations, buddy,” Biden told him, with cheering audible in the background.
“Thank you,” Warnock said. “This will make it easier for us to get some things done.”
Biden signed off, “Sure it will, I guarantee you it will. Thank you, pal.”
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Credit: Nicole Craine/The New York Times
Credit: Nicole Craine/The New York Times
CONCEDE OR NOT CONCEDE. Herschel Walker never called U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock to concede defeat, leaving it to a senior aide to call one of the Democrat’s deputies to offer congratulations.
A few hours later, though, Warnock got a call from another Republican official. We’re told Kemp and the Democrat had a “cordial” conversation where they discussed areas where they can work together.
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BLANK SLATE. You can call them the Geoff Duncan voters. Election returns indicate roughly 2,694 voters went into the voting booth, but didn’t choose either U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock or Herschel Walker in the U.S. Senate runoff.
We know the lieutenant governor is among them, since he said he waited in line for an hour to vote, but was so disgusted by the choices he never cast a ballot.
We’d love to know if any of our readers did the same. If so, email gbluestein@ajc.com to share your story.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
EARLY PRIMARY. Don’t be too quick to count out Joe Biden’s push to move up Georgia’s presidential primary in 2024. Expect negotiations between state Democrats and Republicans, who would have to sign off on the change, to ramp up soon.
Gov. Brian Kemp has been tightlipped about the proposal to add Georgia to the slate of states holding February primaries. And while Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office initially sounded skeptical, his message has softened a bit.
State Democrats have long lobbied for the change, arguing that Georgia’s role as a diverse battleground state should elevate it above Iowa and New Hampshire, which have long been in the first wave of votes.
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POWER PLAYER. House Speaker Jan Jones announced Wednesday that state Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, will take over as chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
Hatchett succeeds state Rep. Terry England, who announced his retirement from the chamber earlier this year.
Our colleague James Salzer has more on Hatchett and how he landed the coveted, but sometimes taxing, job.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez for the AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez for the AJC
ANTE UP. Advocates are laying the groundwork for another push to legalize sports betting in Georgia ahead of the next legislative session — this time in a more favorable political climate.
A poll by Cygnal released Thursday suggests there’s plenty of support for legalizing sports betting, with 51% of voters saying they support it if the revenue is earmarked for pre-K and higher education programs. Just 24% opposed the idea. Check out the memo.
Supporters of sports wagering have pushed for years to legalize the practice, arguing that Georgia is leaving money on the table while Tennessee and other states have embraced it.
But the tide may be shifting this year. Incoming Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was a sponsor of sports betting legislation, which is backed by influential groups such as the Metro Atlanta Chamber.
And Gov. Brian Kemp is likely to embrace the measure, too.
Kemp spokesman Tate Mitchell said in August the governor plans to work with legislative leaders on a measure to allow sports betting in 2023. The governor opposed legalizing sports betting in 2018 but steered clear of the debate this year.
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Credit: Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Jenni Girtman for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
FAITH IN WARNOCK. The support from some quarters of the faith community, particularly Black pastors, was crucial in helping one of their own win Georgia’s key runoff election.
The faith community “really delivered” for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, said Robert M. Franklin Jr., a professor at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. “It was very much like the civil rights coalitions” during the movement, he told the AJC’s Shelia Poole.
At Warnock’s watch party Tuesday night, Franklin stood next to a rabbi and an imam in a show of interfaith unity, which was coordinated by African Methodist Episcopal Church Bishop Reginald T. Jackson and the voting rights organization Faith Works.
Black churches also provided rides to the polls and held voter registration drives for the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
The Rev. Jamal Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, went viral earlier this year when he delivered a fiery sermon criticizing Herschel Walker.
On Wednesday, Bryant said the people of Georgia had made the right choice.
“We are blessed to have this good man fighting for us in Washington,” he said in a statement. “And I’m encouraged that this Morehouse man, rooted in good Savannah soil, will speak to the issues facing our state and our nation with a moral clarity that will spur real progress for all.”
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The U.S. House is scheduled to give final approval to a bill creating federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriage, which would send it to President Joe Biden to sign into law.
- The House is expected to sign off on the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual bill that outlines policy and spending priorities for the military.
- The Senate is focused still on confirmations.
- Biden will deliver remarks on the economy with an emphasis on how he has worked to protect labor unions.
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Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC
WHIP IT UP. U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams lost her bid to co-chair the House Democrats’ messaging committee, but she will have a leadership role in the upcoming session of congress.
Williams, an Atlanta Democrat, was tapped to serve as one of Democrats’ regional whips, meaning she will help count votes coming in from members in the Southeast.
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CHATTER BOX. U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter has delivered more speeches on the House floor than all but one other member of Congress this session.
Carter landed second to Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee in C-SPAN’s tracking of member’s floor time. Jackson Lee spoke on 141 days over the last two years, while Carter, a Pooler Republican, logged 134 days. The second most loquacious Georgia lawmaker was Republican Andrew Clyde, at 49 days.
Carter often lands near the top of the list, which ranks members speaking days every two years. Although he spent more days speaking in the previous session covering 2019 and 2020 — 136 days — that was only enough to land him in fourth place.
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DANCING KING. A staffer for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock is enjoying a bit of viral fame after a video of him dancing with abandon at Tuesday’s election night party took off on social media.
MSNBC’s cameras caught Stuart Guillory, Warnock’s Washington-based scheduler, as he cut a rug on stage after the race was called.
His hip-shaking and arm-waving jig also caught the attention of a user on TikTok, who reposted the video alongside rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s song “Body.”
The TikTok video had nearly 600,000 views when we last checked. Eventually, the initial TikTok video was resposted on Twitter and Instagram, where it got at least another 300,000 spins.
People reacted with delight as he danced like nobody was watching, with one woman commenting: “He’s adorable! We’ve all adopted him as a cousin now!”
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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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