Georgia’s Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff said Thursday that they were encouraged by their Democratic colleague Joe Manchin’s willingness to compromise on a new, narrower version of the For the People Act, a federal voting and campaign finance overhaul.
But they stopped short of voicing full support for the list of voting and campaign finance law changes to the legislation that Manchin endorsed on Wednesday. Both senators said they wanted to see legislative text first and continue to work with their colleagues on a deal.
Stacey Abrams, the former and likely future candidate for governor, initially came out much more forcefully. In a Thursday morning CNN interview and follow-up post on social media, she said she supports Manchin’s proposal “as a vital step.”
“What Sen. Manchin is putting forward are some basic building blocks that we need to ensure that democracy is accessible no matter your geography,” Abrams said, adding that she would “absolutely” back his proposal.
That seemed to ruffle the feathers of some Democrats and voting rights activists who want a more expansive version of the legislation. Meanwhile, Abrams’ positive comments also provided fuel for Republicans looking for more reasons to oppose the measure.
A bit of clean-up followed a few hours later when Abrams’ Fair Fight voting advocacy group sent an email to allies expressing more skepticism toward the Manchin plan.
“This compromise proposal is a positive building block — but it doesn’t do enough to protect voters and elections workers who are under unprecedented attack, it doesn’t support voting by mail, adequate polling location access and more,” read the email. “So it’s a building block to getting good done, but we must keep the pressure on.”
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Sherrilynn Ifill also posted a thread on Twitter encouraging Abrams to approach the Manchin plan more carefully.
“I presume that @staceyabrams meant that Manchin’s proposals were a first step,” Ifill wrote. “Election Day as a holiday, counting provisional ballots regardless of precinct & others are great. But there are serious questions. Does the proposal purport to mandate federal voter id?”
Abrams in a reply to Ifill appeared to agree that more work is needed.
“Correct — I applaud a necessary step towards action & agree with many of the principles of registration, access + counting votes,” she wrote. “But as we know, getting this done will require more debate & engagement.”
Manchin, for his part, told reporters he’s been keeping party leaders — and Abrams — in the loop.
“I’ve been talking to Stacey, you know I talked to everybody. And I’ve been working across the aisle with all the Republicans trying to get people to understand that that’s the bedrock of our democracy, an accessible, fair, and basically secured voting,” he said.
Senators are now home for the weekend, but an initial vote on the election law is planned for next week. The question now is how far they will go in hopes of getting the 60 votes necessary to avoid a filibuster.
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There’s been a “will he or won’t he” game going for months about whether Herschel Walker will run for U.S. Senate. We are leaning more toward the “he will” camp, and Thursday’s development only bolstered that assessment.
That’s because Walker tweeted a video of himself saying “I’m getting ready” as he stood in a garage with a car sporting a Georgia license plate. The implication, of course, is that he’s formally moved from Texas to Georgia — something he must do before running for office.
Vehicle records, however, have yet to reflect the update if he indeed recently registered his car. A search found registration for the license plate in the video was suspended this month, no current emissions test and $85 worth of penalties.
Regardless, take Walker’s tweet as a sign he is happy to further stoke the speculation that he’s running — and freeze other prominent Republicans from joining Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black in the race.
It came days after Donald Trump Jr. posted video of his father alongside Walker at his birthday celebration in New Jersey. The former president has pleaded with Walker to challenge U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock next year.
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Look for Vice President Kamala Harris in Atlanta today as a part of her nationwide tour to boost rates for COVID-19 vaccinations.
The White House advises that Harris will tour a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination site at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Later she’ll deliver remarks at a COVID vaccination mobilization event at Clark Atlanta University and participate in a conversation on voting rights with community leaders at Clark Atlanta later in the day.
Gov. Brian Kemp used the V.P.’s trip to Georgia to tweak her on a trip she hasn’t made but he has-- to the Southern border with Mexico.
“While @VP still has not been to the border, I’d be happy to arrange for her to receive a briefing from @GeorgiaGuard leadership on their efforts to secure our nation’s border while she visits Georgia today,” he tweeted.
For your traffic guidance, Harris will travel into Hartsfield Jackson International Airport around 11 am and will leave in the late afternoon, so plan accordingly.
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“Business casual” isn’t happening for Kasim Reed, who showed up for an interview at Colony Square with the AJC’s Wilborn Nobles this week “rocking a grey Tom Ford suit,” Nobles reports.
The interview, of course, was about much more than the former-and-possible-future mayor’s attire.
Reed told the AJC his team didn’t have a fundraising account open until 2:00 on Wednesday, June 9, but ultimately, “We raised $550,000 in 15 hours.”
None of the other candidates have that kind of support from the community and other business leaders, Reed said.
He also defended himself from a recent audit of the city’s finances during his tenure by pivoting back to his successes as mayor.
“The folks who are doing all this talking have no idea what it is to be mayor of a major American city at 40 years old,” he said.
“For the folks who are uncomfortable with what happened in my administration, they’ve got other folks. I’m not everybody’s cup of tea and at 52 years old I’m not going to change or contort myself into something else. I’m a better man because I’m more mature.”
Look for much more reporting on the race for mayor from Nobles, J.D. Capelouto, and the AJC.
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Hoping to drum up support for President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, his administration released a map showing where reliable high-speed internet access lags across America.
On the map, the red zones are the problem areas. Georgia is mostly red except for Metro Atlanta, the coast and boundaries of the largest cities.
Biden’s plan calls for spending $100 billion on improving broadband access across the country. Recent counter-offers from Republican negotiators have taken that amount down to $65 billion, but there is no agreement.
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U.S. Rep. Jody Hice is running for Georgia secretary of state, hoping to unseat incumbent Brad Raffensperger. But we also noticed that he is technically keeping his options open.
The Greensboro Republican filed paperwork this week that allows him to keep raising money to run for re-election in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District if he decides he wants to keep his seat instead.
Don’t interpret this document to mean that Hice is abandoning his run for secretary of state. It’s more like an insurance plan, which incumbents seeking a different office use frequently before deciding to go full-in on the new venture.
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Republican Rich McCormick’s rematch against Democratic U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District will rely heavily on whether the newly drawn district boundaries make the seat bluer or redder later this year.
If the 7th remains a Democratic-leaning and immigrant-heavy district, then McCormick might have a hard time explaining to voters the support he is already receiving from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene’s political committee donated $1,000 to McCormick’s campaign late last year by passing the money through the House Freedom Fund.
When we asked McCormick whether he was aware of the money from Greene and how he would respond to constituents who might have an issue with her controversial statements, he told us he didn’t have any knowledge of the donation. We replied with the receipts, but didn’t hear back.
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The Georgia Board of Regents made history when they chose M. Brian Blake to become Georgia State University’s next president. Blake, who previously served as provost at George Washington University, will be Georgia State’s first Black president.
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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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