Athens – Donald Trump Jr. had a confession to make. He missed part of the invocation before his fundraising speech for Republican Brian Kemp in Athens to talk to a local icon.
No, not his father, who lost Athens-Clarke County by a huge margin. He was chatting with Herschel Walker, the Georgia football legend and vocal supporter of Donald Trump.
“The first time I went to Disney World was with Herschel Walker,” Trump Jr. told the audience at the Classic Center, which sits a block or two north of UGA’s campus. “He says to give everyone his best. He’s a great man from a great school.”
Walker does indeed go way back with Trump. He played in Trump’s short-lived United States Football League and was an ardent supporter of the Republican on the campaign trail.
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This morning, Stacey Abrams had her own high-profile support at Clayton State University. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a potential 2020 candidate, talked of the Supreme Court confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh as a turning point.
“When we fight we get stronger. When we fight, we get change. This fight was a righteous fight. We called at the privilege of powerful men who protect each other. We listened to voices of millions of survivors of sexual assault. We called out a system that is rigged for the rich and the powerful.”
Warren added that the narrow vote Saturday to confirm Kavanaugh was about “the raw naked power of privilege.”
“Saturday was tough. It hurt. Now it is time to turn our pain into power.”
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Another poll, another close race for Georgia governor.
A new 11Alive survey released Tuesday showed 47 percent support for Brian Kemp and 45 percent for Stacey Abrams – a statistically negligible difference within the margin of error.
Interestingly, the poll broke out numbers among suburbanites: Kemp held a narrow lead with suburban men, while Abrams led by 11 percentage points among suburban women.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll from last month showed a 45-45 split between the two candidates for governor. And a Landmark poll released last week showed the race within the margin of error.
Stay tuned: The AJC will release another poll, conducted by the University of Georgia, later this week.
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File this under “Politics, strange bedfellows, etc.”
A tipster notified us that Republican candidate for governor Brian Kemp - who supports the “religious liberty” proposal reviled by LGBT advocates - had advertisements on the gay dating app Grindr.
Specifically, it was a banner ad attacking Democratic rival Stacey Abrams’ stance on sex offender legislation.
While Kemp’s campaign had no comment, an adviser noted that the ad may have popped up because the Grindr user also visited his website.
We also reached out to the Democratic Party of Georgia which commended his “innovative advertising efforts” during Pride Week.
“But we don’t expect him to find much support,” added party spokesman Seth Bringman. “He has made clear that he would sign discrimination into law if he is elected governor, even though 400+ major Georgia employers have said that doing so would harm the state’s economy.”
You can consider the Kemp foray into an LGBT zone as yet another example of a surfeit of cash flowing into this gubernatorial contest.
