Prominent Black Democrats rally behind Keisha Lance Bottoms
Today’s newsletter highlights:
- Atlanta News First will host a Town Hall between Keisha Lance Bottoms and Rick Jackson in October.
- Mike Collins called a former aide’s antisemitic social media posts “abhorrent.”
- Brian Kemp endorses Tim Fleming for secretary of state.
Men for Keisha
Republicans want to make Keisha Lance Bottoms’ record as Atlanta mayor a major liability in the governor’s race. Her successor offered an unequivocal defense on Sunday.
Mayor Andre Dickens told roughly 1,000 people at a virtual rally for Bottoms that her track record through the coronavirus pandemic and protests for racial equality gave him no doubt she could lead Georgia as the nation’s first Black woman elected governor.
“When people ask me what kind of governor she’d make, I don’t have to guess,” Dickens said. “I watched her do the hardest version of this job in one of the hardest years in the history of the United States. She cared and she led.”
Dickens said he knows something about the pressures of that office.
“The days that test you — they don’t really announce themselves. Nobody hands you a memo saying that today’s the day something crazy is about to pop off. You don’t get any notes ahead of time.”
The rally focused on mobilizing Black men behind Bottoms, with a lineup that included U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, singer and actor Tyrese and former U.S. Ambassador Andrew Young.
The Gathering Spot co-founder Ryan Wilson moderated the event, which streamed on Roland Martin’s YouTube channel.
That audience was no accident. Black men overwhelmingly support Democrats, but they are more likely than Black women to support Republicans — a gap that could matter in a tight race.
Warnock argued that Bottoms would fight to expand Medicaid and block efforts to redraw political maps to eliminate majority-Black districts.
“if Rick Jackson is governor, they’ll continue those efforts to redraw those lines,” he said of Bottoms’ Republican opponent, adding: “It’s about our votes, our voices and our power.”
And Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, urged Black men to start mobilizing now.
“Keisha needs us,” Moore said. “She needs us to show up. She needs us to show out. And we are going to have her back because she’s always had ours.”
Things to know
Good morning! The midterms are in 64 days. You have until Oct. 5 to register to vote. Now, here are three things to know for today:
- Whoever wins Georgia’s lieutenant governor race in November will lead the state Senate chamber for the next four years ― but the scope of his power will rest in the hands of the likely Republican majority, Riley Bunch reports.
- Democratic political operative Billy Linville writes in an opinion essay that he’s never supported a Republican. But GOP nominee for governor Rick Jackson changed his mind.
- A teacher’s group says the Cobb County School District questioned an estimated 200 teachers last week over whether they walked out of the superintendent’s address at the beginning of the school year, Cassidy Alexander reports.
Debate watch
There will be at least one forum for Georgia’s rivals for governor. The rest is still up in the air.
Bottoms said Monday she has accepted six televised debates across the state. But she and Jackson have agreed to just one event: the Oct. 6 Atlanta News First town-hall style forum.
Bottoms also accepted invitations from Middle Georgia Matters for Sept. 17, 11Alive for Sept. 22, the Atlanta Press Club for Oct. 12, WJCL-TV in Savannah for Oct. 13 and CNN for an undetermined date.
“I’m ready to debate Rick Jackson in Atlanta, Macon and Savannah,” Bottoms said, accusing him of “hiding behind his billions of dollars made off of insider state contracts.”
Her campaign says Jackson has yet to accept the Atlanta Press Club invitation.
Jackson’s campaign leveled its own accusation, saying he accepted the Atlanta News First town hall on July 10 and Bottoms had stalled.
“Only the flailing campaign of a failed politician would spend more than six weeks ducking a debate, then suddenly demand six of them after Georgians begin to learn the truth about her disastrous record as mayor of Atlanta,” Jackson spokesperson Garrison Douglas posted on X. “The fact is Keisha Lance Bottoms has become desperate and can’t talk her way out of what she did to Atlanta.”
‘Abhorrent’
After weeks of criticism that he hasn’t condemned antisemitism among people close to him forcefully enough, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins gave his strongest public pushback yet over the weekend.
“Those views are absolutely abhorrent. They don’t represent my values or the values of this country,” the Republican Senate nominee told Newsmax. “As a matter of fact, this week was the first time that it was brought to my attention, and I absolutely condemn it.”
Collins was responding to revelations about a former political aide’s posts featuring Nazi and Ku Klux Klan imagery. They come after a series of controversies involving his son-in-law, former staffers and his own account.
At the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual meeting in Las Vegas on Sunday night, he sharpened his attacks on U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, casting the Democratic incumbent as a “power hungry” elitist whose policies hurt Israel.
“Jon Ossoff running around as a moderate is one of the biggest con games in political history,” Collins said.
His earlier responses left some Jewish leaders wanting more. At a July news conference about his son-in-law’s antisemitic posts, Collins said, “We fully addressed that.”
At a private gathering, he answered a request to specifically denounce white supremacy by saying, “Hate has no place in America.”
Ossoff has seized on the revelations to paint Collins as unfit for office.
“Yet another week, yet another scandal for the bigot Congressman Mike Collins and his collapsing Senate campaign,” he said.
Birthing rules
Georgia midwives filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn some state laws they say make it difficult for them to care for patients. Now, they’re turning to the federal government for help navigating — and potentially circumventing — Georgia’s restrictions.
The group of maternal health leaders said that federal investment in alternative birthing options like birth centers and efforts in Congress to create workforce development pipelines for midwives could help bolster their ability to care for patients.
“If you’re looking at the maternal and infant mortality rates in this country — especially in the state of Georgia that mirror that of third world countries — then we need to be looking at something differently than the current model,” U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, said. “And not investing in birth centers is not helping the women that we say that we’re here to support.”
Williams visited the Atlanta Birth Center last week, as the center prepares to pause services in October while its leaders search for a new, more affordable location.
“It’s taken over a million dollars in philanthropy for the last three years just to keep the birth center’s doors open,” said Tamara Taitt, the center’s executive director.
Where they stand
In politics, it’s easy to get lost in the drama of the horse race. Who’s up? Who’s down?
That’s why today, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is launching a series about where the candidates stand on the issues. Each week, we’ll highlight where the Democratic and Republican nominees for governor stand on the important issues shaping our state.
First up: immigration.
Sophia Epply reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently announced more 1,200 immigrant arrests in Georgia as part of a federal enhanced immigration enforcement operation. Partnerships between ICE and local law enforcement have strengthened, in part because of the Georgia Criminal Alien Track and Report Act, a law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2024.
Read more here to explore how Bottoms and Jackson would approach this issue.
Listen up
Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast Greg Bluestein and Tia Mitchell answer listener questions about why Lt. Gov. Burt Jones still isn’t endorsing Rick Jackson for governor and what it means for the Republican nominee to embrace the party establishment while calling himself an outsider.
You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on Apple Podcasts, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.
Today in Washington
- President Donald Trump will make an announcement on healthcare affordability.
- The House has evening votes scheduled.
- The Senate is in recess until Sept. 14.
Kemp’s blessing
Kemp has formally endorsed Tim Fleming for secretary of state. Kemp was secretary of state from 2010 to 2018, and Fleming was his deputy.
“Tim Fleming knows this job because he’s done the job,” Kemp said, pointing to the office’s role overseeing elections, licensing and business services. “Georgians can’t afford someone learning on the fly.”
Shoutouts
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Before you go
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns has appointed three people to a new literacy task force, including his wife, Dayle Burns, a retired elementary school educator and administrator. The other two are Amy Lingo, dean of the College of Education at Georgia Southern University, and Lesley S. Taylor, the regional literacy coach for First District RESA.
That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider information to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.