On some GOP ballots, a question of Amazon and ‘South Georgia’ secession
Guns in schools. A wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. And a "State of South Georgia."
Unlike some past elections, the Georgia GOP didn’t include any ballot questions on statewide ballots. But prodded by conservative groups, 17 counties included their own inquiries to test their party’s base on a range of familiar – and some oddball – issues.
The analysis was provided by Brant Frost V, a leader of the Georgia Conservatives in Action group who said it shows “those of us who have been working to get conservative legislation passed at the Capitol are speaking for the vast majority of Republican primary voters.”
Here are some of the findings:
- About two-thirds of Republican voters in Coweta and Whitfield counties oppose offering Amazon "billions of dollars" in incentives to locate its second headquarters in Atlanta.
- Three-quarters of GOP voters in Gordon, Lumpkin and Whitfield counties say business owners have the right to refuse service based on religious beliefs. And about 87 percent of GOP voters in Pierce and Ware counties want "religious liberty" adopted in Georgia.
- In Harris and Pierce counties, about two-thirds of GOP voters want medical marijuana decriminalized. And roughly the same proportion oppose legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.
- In Lumpkin County, a whopping 90 percent of Republicans support a border wall.
- And in Pierce County, in southeast Georgia near Waycross, about one-quarter of Republicans want the counties south of Macon to join to "form the 51st state of South Georgia."
About the Author
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
