Georgia Republicans are racing to capitalize on concerns about illegal immigration and border security with a string of election-year initiatives meant to put Democrats on the defensive.
The Georgia Senate voted Monday on party lines to condemn President Joe Biden’s immigration policies and encourage Congress to close the U.S.-Mexico border and finance a border wall, while the state House will vote on a similar resolution today.
And Gov. Brian Kemp is set to address plans to send more Georgia National Guard troops to the border at a Tuesday news conference. The announcement comes just days after he traveled to Texas to back the state’s standoff with the White House over border control policies.
With polls showing an increasing number of voters expressing concerns about illegal immigration, state Republicans are aiming to reclaim the narrative after a GOP-led setback in Congress last week scuttled a compromise border deal.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
At former President Donald Trump’s urging, GOP House leaders in Washington tanked a bill that would have made it harder for migrants to enter the U.S. The border crisis is a popular Trump campaign issue.
Kemp and other Republicans are blaming Biden for the inaction, saying the Democrat’s recent calls for a border deal are “completely political” after ignoring years of calls from local leaders earlier in his term to curb illegal immigration.
The governor has repeatedly said he’s willing to send more state National Guard troops to the U.S. border to augment the force of 29 Georgia Guard members already stationed there. But he’s also blamed Biden for not seeking a more comprehensive solution using his federal powers.
“I’m glad to try to send more resources and help,” he said in an interview, “but I’d rather be answering the president’s call to send resources to protect the whole southern border — not just the southern border in Texas.”
Democrats say it’s nothing but a political ploy that would ultimately humiliate Georgia.
“Is this really where we want to be as a body, that we’re condemning the president of the United States? Is this really where we stand now?” asked Democratic state Sen. Harold Jones II of Augusta. “Because in reality, he’s really tough on the border.”
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
ELECTION DAY. Voters go to the polls today in special elections to replace GOP state Sen. Mike Dugan in Carrollton and state Rep. Barry Fleming, R-Harlem, in the Augusta area.
Dugan resigned from the state Senate earlier this year and is now a candidate for the 3rd District U.S. House seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson. Fleming resigned in order to accept a judicial appointment from Gov. Brian Kemp.
If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in each race, the top two finishers will go to a runoff.
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Credit: Casey Sykes for the AJC
Credit: Casey Sykes for the AJC
UNDER THE GOLD DOME, Legislative Day 20:
- 8 a.m.: Committee meetings begin.
- 10 a.m.: The House convenes.
- 10 a.m.: The Senate gavels in.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
WORTH WATCHING. The Senate will vote today on Senate Bill 340, legislation from state Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta, to make gun safes and firearm safety devices exempt from sales taxes.
Unlike SB 344, which the Senate passed last week, the measure being considered today limits tax savings to safe storage and safety devices and would not apply to guns or ammunition. It’s also the rare gun bill that has bipartisan support. State Sen. Jason Anavitarte, the Dallas Republican who sponsored SB 344, is also a co-sponsor of SB 340. State Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, also has safe-storage bill on track for action soon in the House.
Up for a vote in the House today is HR 1019, that chamber’s resolution condemning President Joe Biden for his executive actions related to the Southern border-- and supporting Gov. Brian Kemp in spending state resources on border security.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
OUT OF THE HOPPER:
- The state House passed House Bill 977, sponsored by Rep. John LaHood, R-Valdosta, to require more audits of statewide elections. As the AJC’s Mark Niesse reported, the bill is the latest Republican-sponsored proposal to tweak election rules ahead of this year’s presidential race, along with proposals to eliminate computer codes from ballots, investigate the secretary of state’s office, post ballot pictures online, add watermarks to ballots and ban ranked-choice voting.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
- The state Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 421, a measure to make swatting a felony in Georgia. Multiple elected officials in Georgia, including several state senators, have been victims of swatting recently, when an anonymous caller contacts police to report a fictitious crime at the home of the swatting victim. It often results in a massive police response, as well as fear and confusion.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
BLACK CHURCHES UNITE. The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, two Black church denominations with a combined 140,000 Georgia parishioners, announced Monday they are creating a faith-based turnout effort among Black voters, the AJC’s Mark Niesse reports.
The effort could benefit President Joe Biden, since Black voters were crucial to his 2020 win in the state. The election-year effort will include Sunday voter registration events, church town halls, training of faith leaders, voter guides and assistance for voters getting to the polls. The biggest challenge for the effort is how to reach young Black Georgians.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
“The Black church has got to correct itself and become more socially active,” said Bishop Reginald Jackson, who leads more than 500 African Methodist Episcopal churches in Georgia. “When young folks see that the Black church also cares about what’s happening to them, you’ll see a response and a return of millennials and Gen Z.”
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LATE NIGHTS, EARLY MORNINGS. After a group of Senate Republicans played out a version of a talking filibuster late Monday, scheduling back-to-back speeches that stretched overnight, lawmakers approved a foreign aid bill to send billions of dollars to Israel and Ukraine.
Debate wrapped around 5:15 a.m. today and the final vote tally on the $95.3 billion package was 70-29. Both Georgia members, Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, voted in favor of the bill.
But the question of whether House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, will allow the bill to come to the floor in his chamber is one we still don’t have an answer for. On Monday, Johnson criticized the measure because it fails to address U.S.-Mexico border security policy.
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MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise returns to his legislative duties today after missing last week while undergoing cancer treatment. The Louisiana Republican’s comeback is expected to revive the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Scalise represents the tie-breaking GOP vote on a measure that split the House last week, when three Republicans broke ranks and declined to cast ballots against Mayorkas. He is an appointee of President Joe Biden.
The bill is sponsored by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome, who celebrated Scalise’s return on social media. If there are no absences or changes of heart to throw things off, Republicans should have the votes to narrowly pass the impeachment resolution, with the vote expected later today.
However, the Senate could dispose of the issue quickly and without putting Mayorkas on trial. Democrats say Republicans disagree with Mayorkas on policy but have fallen far short of identifying “high crimes and misdemeanors” that he committed.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
LISTEN UP. On Monday’s episode of the “Politically Georgia” radio show, the AJC’s Ernie Suggs discussed the newspaper’s Black History Month series. And state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, addressed legislation moving through the state House, including whether Medicaid expansion could happen this session.
Coming up on Tuesday’s show, state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, joins to discuss his bill to give a sales tax holiday on guns, ammunition and accessories, while AJC editor Shannon McCaffrey calls in to talk about court hearings on efforts to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team from the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his allies.
Listen at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. And listen to Tuesday’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 has no public events on his schedule and will lunch at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris.
- The Senate voted early this morning on the foreign aid package for Israel and Ukraine.
- The House could try again to pass articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
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SUPER APOLOGY. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. campaigned in front of 124.3 million Sunday with his Super Bowl ad, but the spot alienated several members of his own family.
The ad mimicked a 1960 campaign message produced for his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and featured photographs of the president along with his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Shriver’s sons, Bobby and Mark Shriver, voiced their displeasure with the spot on social media, saying their mother “would be appalled by” Kennedy Jr.’s views on health care.
Kennedy Jr. is an anti-vaccine champion.
Kennedy Jr. issued an apology Monday. He blamed the political action committee responsible for the ad, American Values 2024, for the content and noted that election laws prohibit him from consulting with PACs on marketing materials.
American Values 2024 spent $7 million for the ad placement.
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Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
USHER BOWL. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens joined the post-Super Bowl edition of the popular Travis Mills Show podcast to talk about the city’s thriving music and arts scene.
He was asked how Atlanta has cultivated the roster of stars who call the city home, such as Super Bowl halftime show entertainer Usher.
“We have a lot of Black talent. And we got the TV and music and film and entertainment down. It’s a cultural epicenter. People are able to be free in Atlanta. We create good memories in Atlanta,” he said.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. With so much in the news about election protection, it’s important to remember we’re all in this together, even the dogs.
Meet Novio and Chica Waits, the basset hound mixes who call Lauren Waits of Morningside their person.
Along with practicing their yoga skills and working on Spanish commands, a reliable source tells us these two also keep Lauren company as she recruits voter protection volunteers for the Fulton County Democratic Party.
It takes a village, Novio and Chica. And you are this village’s Dogs of the Day!
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.
