New Kemp-backed ad roils Georgia’s Republican US Senate race

Today’s newsletter highlights:

• Test your knowledge with our news quiz.
• David Scott criticized for not voting in elections.
• Rich McCormick opposes mid-decade redistricting.

Shutdown shift

Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate (left to right): Buddy Carter, Mike Collins and Derek Dooley. (AJC)

Gov. Brian Kemp had hoped to avoid a messy Republican primary for the U.S. Senate by throwing his weight behind former football coach Derek Dooley. Instead, the race has reached new levels of antipathy — in part because of Kemp’s own doing.

A Kemp-backed group on Thursday released an ad blaming Republican U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins for the government shutdown, lumping them in with Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. It’s a stark departure from weeks of Republican talking points, which have steadfastly blamed Democrats for the funding impasse now in its second month.

“What do Mike Collins, Buddy Carter and Jon Ossoff have in common? They all failed and shut down the government,” a narrator says of Collins and Carter, who are both Republican Senate candidates.

Collins and his allies responded swiftly, questioning why Kemp would “be using dark money to attack Republican members of the Georgia delegation by parroting the anti-Trump Democrat lie that ‘Republicans are to blame for the shutdown.’”

Collins said on X that not only was the ad was contrary to the message from House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and President Donald Trump, “but it’s also disconnected from reality.”

Carter and Collins both voted to pass a Republican bill that would reopen the government. But that bill has stalled in the Senate as Democrats and Republicans fight over whether to extend health insurance subsidies scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

The ad comes after a new AJC poll showed Collins is the early front-runner in the race with 30% of support among likely Republican primary voters. Carter was second at 20% while Dooley was third at 12%. Nearly 40% of voters are undecided.

Friday news quiz

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ramped up her criticism of House Speaker Mike Johnson this week.

Good morning! It’s Day 38 of the federal government shutdown. We’re only 66 days away from the start of Georgia’s legislative session. The May 19th primary for U.S. Senate, governor and other offices is 193 days away. There’s a lot to look forward to.

In the meantime, see how much you know about the week’s political news by taking our quiz. You’ll find the answers at the end of the newsletter.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene continued her criticism of GOP leadership during two high-profile interviews. Who were they with?

• A) Rachel Maddow and Howard Stern
• B) Stephen Colbert and Jake Tapper
• C) Bill Maher and the hosts of “The View”
• D) Jimmy Kimmel and Jon Stewart

Multiple incumbent mayors across metro Atlanta were forced into runoff elections scheduled for Dec. 2. Which of the following cities is not having a runoff for mayor?

• A) Roswell
• B) Marietta
• C) South Fulton
• D) Sandy Springs

A new AJC poll shows support for childhood vaccine mandates tops 80% across all generations of likely Democratic primary voters, except one. Which one is it?

• A) Baby boomers
• B) Millennials
• C) Generation X
• D) Generation Z

Democrats celebrated decisive statewide wins for the Public Service Commission this week. Compared to the 2024 presidential election, what statistic showed just how dominant they were?

• A) Twenty-two counties flipped from Republican to Democrat.
• B) Democratic candidates increased their share of the vote in 157 out of 159 counties.
• C) Democrats would have won even without any votes at all from the five core metro Atlanta counties: Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett.
• D) All of the above.

No show

U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta, is running for reelection in 2026. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

U.S. Rep. David Scott did not vote in the previous six elections, according to a public records request filed by one of the Democrats hoping to unseat him next year.

It’s awkward whenever elected officials, who spend so much of their time urging others to vote, don’t take their own advice. But it’s especially eye-opening to have sat out the 2024 presidential election, when Democrats mounted a major get-out-the-vote effort in Georgia.

“I cannot fathom any elected official asking his constituents for their votes every two years while not even bothering to go vote himself,” said state Rep. Jasmine Clark, one of multiple Democrats challenging Scott in the primary next year.

“We need leaders who will do everything possible to turn out votes for Democrats up and down the ballot in 2026.”

Scott, through a spokesperson, declined to comment. He has become a major target by Democrats calling for a generational change amid questions about his age and fitness for office.

Aside from Clark, Scott is also facing challenges from state Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, and Everton Blair, former chair of the Gwinnett County Board of Education.

Across the aisle, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Derek Dooley has faced similar criticism after he did not vote in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Dooley said he didn’t vote because he was consumed by his job as a football coach.

No budget, no pay, no play

With the government shutdown dragging into its second month, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Derek Dooley penned a column in the Washington Times with more than a few swipes at U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins as well as Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.

Dooley suggests banning taxpayer-funded billboards, radio ads and other member communications, which he calls a “taxpayer-funded reelection campaign.”

With Carter and Collins back in Georgia during the shutdown, he also suggests restricting members of Congress from leaving Washington or receiving a salary when government funding lapses. Finally, Dooley calls for a ban on stock trading by members of Congress and their families, including cryptocurrency.

That’s an idea that Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff has championed since he challenged wealthy former Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue in 2020.

Redistricting déjà vu

U.S. Rich McCormick, R-Suwanee, is up for reelection next year. (Nathan Posner for the AJC)

U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick is only in his second term, but he’s no stranger to shifting political lines.

The Republican narrowly lost a Gwinnett-based congressional seat in 2020 when it was one of the nation’s premier swing districts. Two years later, he won it once the lines were redrawn to make the seat safely Republican.

Now, with Republicans in several states pushing mid-decade redraws at President Donald Trump’s urging to lock in more GOP seats, McCormick says he is against following suit in Georgia.

Why?

“Because I personally am not a big fan of what’s happened nationally,” he told us. “I think this is a game played by the Democrats for a long time. I don’t like to play the same games.”

Campaign watch

Rep. Esther Panitch, D-Sandy Springs, is the only Jewish lawmaker in the state Legislature. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Aaron Baker, a transgender woman and Jewish community organizer, says she will run against the only Jewish member of the Georgia Legislature in next year’s Democratic primary.

State Rep. Esther Panitch, D-Sandy Springs, has made her Jewish identity the forefront of her politics. She co-sponsored legislation that added an antisemitism definition to the state’s hate crime law and has been a vocal ally of Israel.

But Panitch has also faced criticism for some of her social media posts, including accusations that she bullies those who disagree with her pro-Israel stance.

Baker, who frames herself as a democratic socialist, said lawmakers have ignored the struggles of real Georgians and instead passed “anti-immigrant, anti-DEI and anti-trans legislation to scapegoat people like me.”

“We need people in the Gold Dome who will fight to uphold our civil rights,” Baker said. “We need a seat at the table because if you don’t, then you’re on the menu.”

Panitch declined to comment.

Clark’s moves

Macon Mayor Pro Tem Seth Clark was one of 25 leaders to join the NewDEAL, a national network of Democratic state and local elected officials with more than 200 members across the country.

Clark’s name will be familiar to readers as a key player in Macon’s years-long effort to make the Ocmulgee Mounds Georgia’s first National Park and Preserve.

He may become more familiar to Georgians in the future, since he’s considering a run for lieutenant governor next year.

Listen up

Today in Washington

• President Donald Trump will meet at the White House with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary.
• The House is on an indefinite recess.
• The Senate could take another vote on the House-passed government funding bill.

Praising Pelosi

Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was greeted by staff in Washington after she announced she was stepping down as Democratic leader of the House. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)

Democrats across the nation swiftly issued glowing messages to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after her announcement she will not seek another term in 2026.

“Nancy Pelosi has been the most effective and consequential Speaker in U.S. history,” U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, said on X. “It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to have served alongside her, witnessing her courageous and tenacious leadership firsthand.”

But it was U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s kind words about Pelosi that drew the most attention. Pelosi was critical of Greene after she was elected in 2020 and facilitated a successful effort to remove Greene from committees in early 2021.

And Greene has long criticized Pelosi’s wealth and her husband’s stock trading. But on Thursday, the Rome Republican said she had respect for the nation’s first female speaker.

“I will praise Nancy Pelosi; she had an incredible career for her party,” Greene said during an appearance on CNN. “I served under her speakership in my first term of Congress, and I’m very impressed at her ability to get things done. I wish we could get things done for our party like Nancy Pelosi was able to deliver for her party.”

Shoutouts

U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Augusta, is seen during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing in Washington in May. (Nathan Posner for the AJC)

Today’s birthdays:

• U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Augusta.

Tomorrow’s birthdays:

• State Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania.
• State Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta.