Democrats turn to former presidents for campaign boost in Georgia
Today’s newsletter highlights include:
- Hurricane Helene cost Georgia farmers an estimated $6.46 billion.
- New polling highlights the gender gap among presidential candidates in swing states.
- The Atlanta Press Club will host two congressional debates on Sunday.
The former presidents are coming to town.
Bill Clinton is embarking on a two-day swing through east and South Georgia starting on Sunday to encourage people to vote early.
And we’re told that Barack Obama could soon deploy to the state, fresh off his attention-grabbing rally on Thursday in Pennsylvania.
Neither are strangers to the Georgia campaign trail — particularly Obama, who most recently held several get-out-the-vote rallies for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams in 2022.
Democrats hope both can appeal to distinct groups of voters.
Clinton will focus on rural voters in Republican-leaning areas where former President Donald Trump thrives. His events won’t be rallies, officials say, but retail stops and cozier venues where there’s a better chance for personal interaction.
Obama’s trips to Georgia tend to feature large-scale events at arenas or college campuses. He’s likely to work on revving up the party’s base, particularly Black voters, who are showing softer than typical support for the Democratic nominee in recent polls.
Trump’s campaign cast the upcoming visits as a sign of weakness. Georgia GOP chair Josh McKoon said the “sugar rush” toward Harris after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race is wearing off.
“The crash is here and they can bring Julia Roberts, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama,” said McKoon. “But all the queen’s horses and all the queen’s men can’t put the Harris/Walz campaign together again.”
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GOOD MORNING! We’re 25 days away from the presidential election. The AJC Politics team is working with journalists across the newsroom and Georgia to help you understand the critical role our battleground state has in this year’s election.
Alex Sanz, the AJC’s deputy managing editor and politics director, shared this note about our commitment to you: more of the trusted reporting you’ve come to expect from the AJC.
Here are four things to know today:
- Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, is expected in Gwinnett County later today for a closed-door fundraiser. If you’ve got the invite, send it our way.
- The Georgia GOP canceled its “Victory Dinner” set for Oct. 22 with U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina. The reason is pretty clear-cut: former President Donald Trump is holding an event the same day in Savannah.
- Julia Roberts’ final campaign event in Georgia for Vice President Kamala Harris was canceled on Thursday because of a nearby shooting. “Everyone from our team and event attendees are safe,” according to a campaign aide of the Clayton County rally.
- Atlanta failed to maintain the thousands of shut-off valves buried below the city, exacerbating the city’s water crisis in late May, the AJC’s Thad Moore reports.
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BATTLEGROUND BLITZ. Georgia might be one of only a handful of competitive battleground states, but Michigan offers a twofer: a close presidential race and a tight Senate contest.
That’s why U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., trekked to Michigan to campaign with U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the party’s nominee for an open Senate seat.
He was standing with her when Slotkin said Democrats need to go on the offensive and create their own liberal blueprint for the nation’s future, much like the sweeping conservative plan that promises to overhaul the federal government.
“Where’s our project 2025?” Slotkin said on Thursday, according to Julie Tsirkin of NBC News. “Does anyone know what the five-year plan is — or even a 10-year plan — to restore the right to an abortion?”
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BIG NUMBER. There’s never a good time for a hurricane. But for Georgia farmers, Hurricane Helene had particularly terrible timing.
The storm wiped out harvests for lots of farmers across the state. Thursday, we got an idea of how much it cost them: $6.46 billion.
That’s a big number. It comes from the University of Georgia commodity analysts, Georgia Forestry Commission foresters and a state economic model. It includes:
- Sum of direct crop losses
- Losses to businesses that support agriculture and forestry.
- Losses to agriculture workers.
- Estimated recovery costs.
“Right now, the future is uncertain for thousands of Georgia farmers and farm families who were devastated by Hurricane Helene,” Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said.
Nationwide, just 13% of farms participated in federal crop insurance programs in 2022. Plus, federal farm income was already projected to decline $6.5 billion this year compared to 2023.
Now, Georgia leaders are preparing for a tough, lengthy fight for federal relief aid to help with the recovery even as local officials work to uncover the extent of the damage.
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IMMIGRANT GUNS. It’s not everyday you see a Georgia Republican propose banning some people from owning guns. But U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde of Athens is targeting his proposal to a specific group of people: immigrants living in the country illegally.
It’s already illegal for these immigrants to buy or possess a gun in the United States. Clyde’s bill seeks to make sure the IDs some governments give these immigrants can’t be used to buy guns.
Nineteen states — but not Georgia — and the District of Columbia issue driver’s licenses to people living in the country without legal status. And the federal government has issued ID cards to immigrants in deportation proceedings through its Secure Docket Card pilot program.
“We must ensure illegal aliens with government-issued IDs cannot obtain firearms and wreak havoc on our communities,” Clyde said.
But immigrants without legal status can’t use these government-issued IDs to buy guns, according to Charles Kuck, the former national president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. People who buy guns from a federal firearms dealer must fill out a form, and noncitizens must include their green card number or other status document.
“These folks are not given any of those documents, so they cannot complete this form,” Kuck said. He said Clyde’s proposal “is a great piece of political propaganda, but it has no connection to the real world in which we live and in which firearms are purchased.”
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GENDER GAP. Former President Barack Obama had a stern message on Thursday for Black men thinking of voting for Republican Donald Trump.
“You’re thinking about sitting out or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is? Putting women down? That’s not acceptable,” Obama said.
A new swing-state poll from Emerson College shows why Democrats are worried about the gender gap in this year’s election.
Former President Donald Trump was up 14 percentage points among men in Georgia, while Vice President Harris had a 10-point lead among women. The only state with a similarly wide margin was Pennsylvania, where men were +14 for Trump and women were +11 for Harris.
The gap was even wider in an AJC poll from last month, where Trump was +13.8 among men in the state and Harris was a whopping +16.9 among Georgia women.
This trend played out across Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada and Wisconsin. The only exception was Arizona, where Trump was +2 among men and +3 among women.
Trump’s allies have tried to get him to tone down his rhetoric around women, with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley saying he and his running mate “need to change the way they speak about women.”
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ROBERTS FOR AMERICA? Don’t miss the story about celebrities campaigning in Georgia by the AJC’s Greg Bluestein and Maya T. Prabhu.
The chants of “Julia, Julia, Julia" echoed throughout the cramped Kamala Harris campaign office where dozens of volunteers were canvassing for the vice president — and awaiting a celebrity appearance.
Julia Roberts, a Smyrna native, quickly quieted the crowd Thursday with a smile.
“I'm not running for anything," she said. “Ever."
Never say never. Roberts even has an amazing anecdote ready for the trail: Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, paid for her parents’ hospital bill when she was born.
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LISTEN UP. Today on “Politically Georgia,” Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear joins the show to talk about what Vice President Kamala Harris needs to do to win Georgia. Then, the hosts will talk gun safety with Dr. Mark Rosenberg, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Be sure to download the AJC’s Politically Georgia podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are uploaded by noon each day, just in time to have lunch with us. You can also listen live at 10 a.m. EDT on 90.1 FM WABE. Have a question for the show? Give us a call at 770-810-5297.
On Thursday’s show, Augusta Mayor Garnett L. Johnson talked about long term recovery from Helene. The AJC’s Mark Niesse discussed all of the lawsuits related to the State Election Board. And Brandon Hutchison, the executive vice president and general manager of Atlanta Motor Speedway, spoke about Hurricane Milton relief efforts.
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ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL. Here’s what’s happening today:
- First lady Jill Biden will campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in Yuma, Arizona.
- Producer and rapper Jermaine Dupri will headline a “Brothas and Brews” campaign event for Harris in Atlanta.
- U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., will campaign for Harris on college campuses across Georgia, including the Atlanta University Center, Georgia State University and Berry College in Rome.
- Former President Donald Trump will speak at campaign rallies in Aurora, Colorado, and Reno, Nevada.
- Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — Harris’ running mate — will speak at a campaign event in the Detroit suburbs.
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DEBATE TIME. The Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series will host two general election debates on Sunday featuring candidates for Georgia’s 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts.
U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, and Republican A. Wayne Johnson have been invited to face off at 1 p.m. in the 2nd District debate.
Third district candidates Brian Jack, a Republican, and Maura Keller, a Democrat, have been invited to debate at 2 p.m.
You can watch the debates live on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s website or the Atlanta Press Club’s Facebook page.
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BIOLAB FALLOUT. Democrats in Georgia’s congressional delegation have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to better regulate the chemical at the heart of the BioLab crisis in Conyers.
The chemical, known as trichloroisocyanuric acid or TCCA, was part of a toxic plume that spread over the city after a Sept. 29 fire at the BioLab facility. The lawmakers sent a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan saying the chemical has not faced the same scrutiny as other toxic or flammable substances, the AJC’s Dylan Jackson reports.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, whose district includes Conyers, took the lead on the letter. The other signers are U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as well as U.S. Reps. Nikema Williams and David Scott of Atlanta, and Lucy McBath of Marietta.
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KNOW YOUR STUFF. The presidential candidates talk a lot about health care. But how much power does the president have to influence the nation’s health policy? The AJC’s Ariel Hart has the answers in another edition of the AJC’s series examining the top issues on voters’ minds this year.
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SHOUTOUTS. Kudos:
- Blayne Alexander, the former 11Alive reporter, landed a job as correspondent for “Dateline” on NBC. Alexander, who had been an Atlanta-based reporter for NBC News, will join the long-running true crime series following maternity leave.
- Pragathi Kasani-Akula of Cumming, a 17-year-old scientist who developed a prototype for a low-cost, less invasive test to detect triple negative breast cancer after her mother’s own diagnosis. Kasani-Akula is one of 10 “Girls Leading Change” honorees selected by the White House Gender Policy Council. First lady Jill Biden celebrated these young leaders during an event at the White House on Thursday.
Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that! Click here to submit the shoutouts. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.
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AS ALWAYS, send your best scoops, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.
About the Authors
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
Tia Mitchell is the AJC’s Washington Bureau Chief and a co-host of the "Politically Georgia" podcast. She writes about Georgia’s congressional delegation, campaigns, elections and the impact that decisions made in D.C. have on residents of the Peach State.
Patricia Murphy is the AJC's senior political columnist. She was previously a nationally syndicated columnist for CQ Roll Call, national political reporter for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily, and wrote for The Washington Post and Garden & Gun. She graduated from Vanderbilt and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
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