When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visited Atlanta in March 2023, he seemed the Republican candidate to beat in the race for the White House. Even former president Donald Trump loyalists flocked to see him at the Capitol and a gun store stop, sending a surprising signal they were open to an alternative.
At the time, the reaction seemed to illustrate how willing many Georgia Republicans were to encourage rivals to Trump’s comeback bid. Republican activists and elected officials proudly joined the crowd.
DeSantis’ abrupt decision to quit the campaign on Sunday reconfigures the GOP race, giving former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley the head-to-head matchup she always wanted — and ridding Trump of one more pesky rival on his march to the nomination.
The exit also reshapes the political calculus in Georgia, where Haley supporters have renewed hope the nomination will still be in play by the time the state’s March 12 primary arrives.
Trump, meanwhile, continues to soak up Georgia endorsements, with a new round that includes Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper and more than a dozen GOP state senators announced earlier this morning.
The biggest name still on the state’s sidelines is Gov. Brian Kemp, who was viewed as most likely to back DeSantis rather than Haley. He still isn’t ready to pick a side, though he’s already said he’ll support Trump if he’s the nominee despite their tortured past.
Others will also have a decision to make. U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Suwanee, was DeSantis’ most prominent supporter in Georgia. After he dropped out of the race, McCormick called for Republicans to “unite for our next victory” but stopped short of endorsing either Haley or Trump.
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ABORTION RIGHTS CAMPAIGN. With the field clearing for former President Donald Trump’s comeback bid, his nemesis, President Joe Biden, is sharpening his message on an issue that has paid off for Democrats at the ballot box.
Biden today will convene a meeting of his Interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access and highlight his efforts to protect access to abortion and contraception. The gathering coincides with the 51st anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that long protected the right to abortion.
The court’s June 2022 overturning of the landmark ruling paved the way for restrictive laws in Georgia and other Republican-led states to take effect.
The president’s message invokes votes in Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio that rejected attempts to limit abortion, and accuses Republicans of pushing for “devastating new restrictions” in Congress.
“On this day and every day, Vice President Harris and I are fighting to protect women’s reproductive freedom against Republicans’ dangerous, extreme, and out-of-touch agenda,” Biden said.
The Biden campaign is also releasing a new ad blaming Trump for picking three conservative justices who voted to reverse the abortion protections.
The spot will run in battleground states and nationally during TV programming that attracts young, female audiences, including the season premiere of “The Bachelor” and on networks such as Bravo and HGTV.
On Tuesday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will hold their first joint campaign rally of the year in northern Virginia, where they will highlight their efforts to preserve abortion rights.
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Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
TRUMP BALLOT. About a dozen Georgia lawmakers have signed the Democratic-backed House resolution that urges state GOP officials to block former president Donald Trump from the state’s election ballot.
The resolution brought by Democratic state Rep. Roger Bruce of Atlanta won’t pass the Republican-led Georgia Legislature and even if it did, it has no power to force Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to erase Trump’s name from the ballot.
But it’s the latest effort by Democrats to invoke the 14th Amendment to try to bar Trump from the ballot in 2024 after the Colorado Supreme Court invoked the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause last month to disqualify Trump from that state’s election.
And a group of left-leaning plaintiffs in Georgia want the Georgia Supreme Court to consider a lawsuit seeking to oust Lt. Gov. Burt Jones from office. Jones was among a phony slate of GOP electors, designed to aid Trump’s failed effort to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election,
“I am concerned about the message we are sending to our children: break the law, brag about it, manipulate the elections, disrespect women and one day you too can grow up to be the president of the United States,” Bruce said. “That is not the message I want to send.”
Republicans have dismissed such complaints. Attorney General Chris Carr recently argued in court that the Colorado ruling would “create widespread chaos” in 2024 if allowed to stand.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
HATE CRIMES BILL. Expect a measure to make antisemitism a hate crime in Georgia to land in the Senate Judiciary Committee today with support from powerful allies.
Senate Pro Tem John F. Kennedy, R-Macon, plans to vouch for House Bill 30, which stalled in the Senate last year, at the committee’s 4 p.m. meeting. He will be joined by Rabbi Elizabeth Bahar of Temple Beth Israel in Macon, which was targeted last year by neo-Nazis.
As we told you last week, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Senate GOP leaders are making a renewed push for the measure.
This time, the bill would be joined by separate legislation that would increase penalties against those who litter and make terroristic threats, senior Senate officials said. The latter effort is aimed at cracking down on vile leaflets targeting Jewish neighborhoods and mirrors a similar law that has already been passed in Florida.
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Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
MEDICAID REVOCATIONS. As Georgia lawmakers consider some form of Medicaid expansion, state health officials report that at least 488,000 Georgians have had Medicaid benefits revoked since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More residents will lose coverage as officials continue to work through an eligibility audit, known as a redetermination, of the state’s 2.8 million Medicaid recipients. At this point, the state has reviewed the qualifications of fewer than half the current Georgia recipients.
The AJC’s Ariel Hart reports federal rules were expanded during the pandemic to allow everyone who got on Medicaid to remain covered without filing the annual qualification paperwork. That emergency amnesty ended last spring.
The rise in uninsured Georgians comes as leaders in the General Assembly have shown interest in a Medicaid expansion modeled on a waiver plan used in Arkansas. Legislators held a hearing on the matter last November.
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Credit: Casey Sykes
Credit: Casey Sykes
UNDER THE GOLD DOME:
- 8 a.m.: Committee hearings begin.
- 10 a.m.: The House convenes.
- 10 a.m.: The Senate gavels in.
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LISTEN UP. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson joined the “Politically Georgia” radio show Friday to talk about his run for president, which he suspended last week, as well as his warning that the GOP could be headed “off a cliff” without a change of course.
Catch up on that episode at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. And listen to Monday’s show live at 10 a.m. on WABE 90.1 FM, at AJC.com and at WABE.org.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden commemorates the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade abortion decision by convening a meeting of his Interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access.
- The U.S. Senate works on confirmations.
- The House is out this week.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
VETERANS WAIT TIMES. U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff has not shied away from using his Senate committee appointments to dig into issues that have long dogged federal agencies back home in Georgia.
Most recently, the Atlanta Democrat teamed up with former Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, to launch what they are describing as a bipartisan inquiry into delays veterans face when they attempt to receive treatment at Veterans Affairs clinics. Fellow Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, is among the half-dozen others who joined Ossoff and Scott in asking VA Secretary Denis McDonough to address the delays.
“We receive frequent communications from our veteran constituents regarding lengthy wait times in both scheduling and receiving health care through community care providers,” the group wrote. “Eligible veterans have earned timely, quality health care; These delays must be urgently addressed.”
In October, Ossoff launched a separate inquiry regarding delays Georgia veterans face waiting for decisions on their claims for benefits. At the time, Ossoff said he had heard from veterans who reported years-long wait times to receive a decision on their appeals of denied benefits.
Ossoff is also leading a bipartisan group of senators in asking the National Archives to reduce the backlog of veterans’ requests for copies of their personnel records. Delays in receiving copies of documents can stand in the way of veterans and their benefits, the senators said.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
TRAINING CENTER PROTEST. The demonstrations and vandalism that have marked the protests against Atlanta’s public safety training center spread to Savannah last week on the first anniversary of the officer-involved shooting death of activist Manuel Terán.
Protesters graffitied the downtown storefront of the training center’s architect, LS3P, with slogans and profanity. Savannah Police arrested and charged five individuals with criminal trespass in relation to the incident.
LS3P was founded in Charleston, South Carolina, and has offices in 12 cities in four states.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. It’s time to meet Jean Jeaques Rousseau Stadler Theyerl, the cat as unique as his name.
JJ calls AJC subscribers Nick Thereyl and Makayla Stadler his people. His hobbies include helping Nick practice banjo, playing fetch, and inspecting instrument cases.
Send us your dogs of any political persuasion and location, and cats on a cat-by-cat basis, to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us at @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Politically Georgia readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com, and adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.
