Fellow Georgians, it’s time to pick a couple of presidential candidates.
And this time our state will have plenty of say in determining which Republican and which Democrat makes it to the November ballot.
On March 1, we go to the polls. Count me among the excited.
We Georgia voters are in a great spot this selection season. We are voting early enough in the process to be among the deciders.
Thanks to leadership from Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the South will speak loudly that day in what is being dubbed “The SEC primary.” For those of us with an affinity for college football, we know that’s shorthand for the Southeastern Conference. Georgia will join Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Oklahoma as southern states that will go to the polls. Four other states will also have presidential preference contests, meaning this is the biggest single day of presidential voting outside of the general election.
To make sure we Georgians are well informed leading up to this critical and potentially historic vote, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is covering the candidates as they cross the nation.
We are concentrating on the South. But we’re showing up wherever the candidates are, in what is so far a riveting, unpredictable contest between some of the unlikeliest candidates we’ve seen emerge in modern politics.
Here’s what we have delivered so far:
- The AJC has dispatched a reporter to every major presidential debate since the first contest in Cleveland on Aug. 6, when the Republicans kicked off the race before a record TV audience. We've followed the candidates from the bellweather state of Ohio, to Reagan country in Simi Valley, California, to early voting Iowa and New Hampshire. We've spent weeks in South Carolina, the first southern state to vote. On behalf of the Georgia electorate we want to be present and positioned to report on the dynamics of both party's races and to tell the story of campaign 2016 through a Georgia lens.
- The AJC has created an SEC Primary page on MyAJC.com. Think of it as an indispensable digital resource that features our reporting on the races as we track them through the early voting states. You'll find our enterprise and analysis on how the races are taking shape in Georgia, archived and easy to navigate. That page also features breaking news from our staff and other trusted sources and updates on how the races are progressing in the other southern states voting March 1.
- The AJC is focusing on the South. As the migration from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt continues to drive population gains, the South's influence on national politics continues to increase. The race for president and this year's congressional elections will determine just how much clout the South is able to muster. That clout is critical to the region's ability to address its common problems, from closing persistent health and wellness gaps, to improving underperforming education systems to rebuilding the South's transportation systems to modernizing its job base. Also, this race could produce the first southern president since George W. Bush was elected out of Texas. Southerners still in the race for president include Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
Our politics team is lead by Senior Editor Susan Potter, who has orchestrated campaign coverage over several presidential election cycles for the AJC. She oversees a team that is probably familiar to loyal AJC readers. It includes Jim Galloway, one of the nation's most veteran and decorated political columnists. She also directs reporters Greg Bluestein, Aaron Gould Sheinin, Kristina Torres and Tamar Hallerman, our new Washington, D.C. correspondent. As we get closer to March 1, this team will grow exponentially. We will fan out over the state and our mission will be to cover every candidate who steps foot in Georgia and provide an unmatched flow of information through election night.
For journalists, nothing gets the adrenaline going like election season. As a rabid non-partisan, I am well-suited for election season. My passion is about participation, focusing on the most urgent discussions and making sure every onehas equal access to the ballot. So I am at once frustrated by the lack of engagement among those who refuse to exercise their right to vote, heartened by the serious conversations that emerge from our uniquely egalitarian process and entertained by the inevitable mudslinging that will set the Internet on fire.
And I can’t wait to meet the characters who will emerge and give voice to some of our frustrations in ways we don’t expect. Think Joe the Plumber from 2008. Or Atlanta’s own Killer Mike this year.
I like it all. I understand some of the frustration we have with politics that is at turns, petty, mean and hopelessly divisive. But I appreciate that politics is an endurance contest, where a victorious candidate has to have the chin to withstand sharp elbows and learn how to throw a few. The AJC is committed to being there every step of the way, with blow-by-blow coverage. And may the candidate with the stiffest chin win.
Leroy Chapman Jr. is a deputy managing editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who is in charge of three reporting teams including politics. Email him at Leroy.Chapman@ajc.com.
