Capitol Recap: Georgia Democrats help pump energy and cash into Harris’ campaign

That night, Georgia’s 109 delegates to the Democratic National Convention shared their unanimous support for a Harris candidacy as the party’s nominee.

A coalition of Black sororities and advocacy groups acted even more quickly. They formed an umbrella organization called Win With Black Women to hold a Zoom meeting only hours after Biden’s withdrawal from the race, drawing 44,000 women and more than $1.5 million for the Harris campaign.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens followed that by participating in a Win With Black Men streaming meeting that its host, commentator Roland Martin, reported raised $1.3 million from 17,000 donors.

Georgia Republicans also geared up quickly.

They portrayed Harris as an extension of an unpopular Biden administration they said is responsible for inflation and troubles on the U.S. border with Mexico.

While Harris got off to a fast start, she could find problems further down the path toward Election Day on Nov. 5.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll of likely Georgia voters that was conducted before Biden dropped out shows Trump leading Harris 51% to 46% in a head-to-head matchup, just outside the margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

The same poll revealed some of Harris’ vulnerabilities. More than half of likely Georgia voters have an unfavorable view of her, including 55% of independents, about one-quarter of moderates and nearly 10% of Democrats.

Harris could appeal to Asian American voters in Georgia

Vice President Kamala Harris’ heritage could appeal to one of the fastest-growing segments of Georgia’s electorate: Asian Americans.

Harris’ mother was a cancer researcher from India, which means Harris could become the first Indian American to top a major political party’s ticket.

Georgia saw its number of Asian American and Pacific Islander voters grow by more than 80% between 2010 and 2020, one of the fastest rates in the country.

And AAPI voter turnout in Georgia increased by 84% between 2016 and 2020, more than in any other state in the country, according to the research and policy organization AAPI Data.

There are nearly 239,000 registered voters in Georgia who identify as AAPI, a significant bloc in a state where Democrat Joe Biden defeated GOP President Donald Trump in 2020 by less than 12,000 votes.

Asian American voters, however, say policy could mean more than shared heritage in winning their support, and many of them have not been happy with the Biden-Harris administration’s response to the Israel-Hamas war.

“What matters to our electorate is having someone who reflects our views on policies, not just someone who looks like us,” said Murtaza Khwaja, a native of Pakistan and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta. “It’s incredibly exciting, but, as the saying goes, skin-folk isn’t necessarily kinfolk.”

Harris also isn’t the only Indian American with a connection to this year’s campaign. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, is also of Indian descent.

New election auditing plan may not be in place in time for presidential vote

Lawmakers this year tried to add another layer to the auditing process for Georgia elections, but that plan is now on hold and may not take effect in time for November’s presidential vote.

The plan was to upload images of every ballot cast in Georgia for use as part of an independent vote count.

The General Assembly budgeted $5 million for the plan, but it hit a snag when Clear Ballot, a company that wasn’t chosen to receive the state’s contract, filed a protest that may not be resolved in time for November’s election.

Enhanced Voting won the contract for $1.5 million, one-third of Clear Ballot’s $4.6 million bid.

Clear Ballot says it’s more qualified and that Enhanced Voting hired former Clear Ballot employees who could be depending on patented technology.

The new auditing technology would be the latest step to validate elections or uncover problems.

Demands for greater scrutiny of elections — almost exclusively from Republicans — have grown since GOP President Donald Trump lost Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes.

Three vote counts, including a manual tally of all 5 million ballots, showed Biden won. Since then, investigations have uncovered errors that didn’t change the outcome, such as double-scanned ballots during Fulton County’s audit and recount.

Investigations have dismissed Trump team allegations of drop box ballot stuffing, counterfeit ballots and dead voters, but the Republican majority has continued to push through new voting laws in the General Assembly every year since 2020.

U.S. Senate panel examines effects of Georgia abortion law

Georgia’s abortion law bans most abortions once fetal cardiac activity has been detected, about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant.

Exceptions that would allow abortions include when the mother’s life is in danger.

Medical professionals, however, told a subcommittee led by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff that it is often difficult to determine whether a patient qualifies for an abortion under that provision in the law.

Dr. Nisha Verma, a Georgia OB-GYN, said she has tended to patients who were in the process of miscarrying a fetus. However, sometimes there is still cardiac activity present for a few moments longer.

“We are having to wait until later in that process, until they get sicker, until they have more bleeding, until they have an infection until we can intervene,” Verma told the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Human Rights.

Dr. Aisvarya Panakam, a first-year medical resident, said the state law also deters would-be doctors from practicing in Georgia.

Even though the state faces a shortage of medical specialists, including OB-GYNs, Panakam said she chose to look for a program elsewhere because she was not confident she could provide patients the kind of medical care they need under the law that took effect two years ago following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

Credit: Markus Schreiber/AP

Credit: Markus Schreiber/AP

Kemp leads trade mission to Italy

Gov. Brian Kemp took another excursion overseas this past week in the name of trade.

Kemp visited South Korea last month. This time, he was in Italy on the first Georgia trade mission there since 2017.

Several Italian manufacturers, such as firearms maker Beretta and tiremaker Pirelli, do business in Georgia. Trade between Italy and Georgia in 2023 amounted to $3.4 billion worth of business.

It was Kemp’s second visit to Europe this year, following a trip to Davos, Switzerland, in January to participate in the World Economic Forum.

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

Ossoff ban on stock trading in Congress moves forward

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s bill seeking a ban on members of Congress and their family members from trading stock in individual companies cleared its first hurdle this past week.

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee advanced the bill in a bipartisan vote, but only after several Republicans objected to provisions that would require lawmakers and people working in the White House to sell off holdings in individual businesses once they are elected.

U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said the ban could force future members of Congress, or even presidential candidates such as Donald Trump, to sell stakes in their own private family businesses.

“We don’t want to have people trading stocks. Had the legislation been drafted to prevent that, I’d support it,” Romney said. “But it calls for divestitures of all sorts of assets that people would have that will prevent them from running for political office. It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing because it’s been drafted in a thoughtless way.”

Ossoff, speaking in support of the proposal, said:

“Georgians of all political persuasions, Americans of all political persuasions overwhelmingly agree that members of Congress should not be playing the stock market while we hold office, while we make policy that affects businesses and industries, while we have extraordinary access to privileged and confidential information.”

During the earliest phase of the coronavirus pandemic, Georgia U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler faced scrutiny after buying and selling stock at the same time they were receiving closed-door briefings about the virus’ spread.

Both denied wrongdoing, and neither faced any charges.

Ossoff, however, made it an issue in his run against Perdue, which culminated in the Democrat’s victory in the state’s 2021 Senate runoffs.

Ossoff has proposed similar bans in the past that failed to gain traction.

Georgia reps score points in House legislation

Members of Georgia’s U.S. House delegation this past week notched a few victories.

U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, won approval in the House for a bill that would amend restitution guidelines to make them applicable beyond just victims of crimes. It’s now headed to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, R-Jackson, succeeded in adding provisions to the Water Resources Development Act. One was a proposal to add resources for a study on deepening the Port of Savannah. The other could help lower hydropower utility rates for customers such as those in Elbert County.

U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, also saw amendments added to the same water legislation, including proposals for flood studies in College Park and an expansion of environmental programs in Atlanta and East Point.

The House approved the bill, which is now in the hands of the Senate.