It didn’t take long for the leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade to become a new Republican divide in the race for Georgia governor.
The yet-to-be-issued ruling prompted former U.S. Sen. David Perdue and several Republican legislators to publicly endorse a special legislative session to push a total abortion ban.
“I’m elated with the decision if in fact it comes down,” he told supporters at a campaign stop in Rutledge. “If I were governor when that ruling comes down, I would call the General Assembly back in and ask them to eliminate all of abortion in the state of Georgia.”
Gov. Brian Kemp has yet to comment on the possibility, but his allies and leading legislators say it’s not likely to happen. Instead, if the court overturns the landmark Roe case, expect the restrictions adopted in 2019 to become law.
That legislation, blocked by a federal appeals court, would ban abortions after a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity — typically about six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.
It also gives personhood rights to embryos for the purposes of alimony, child support, tax deductions, and other legal matters.
A faction of Republicans wants to go even further. At the Atlanta Press Club’s Senate GOP debate on Tuesday, four of the five contenders on stage said they’d back legislation that forbids all abortions, even in the case of rape or incest.
And though frontrunner Herschel Walker was a no-show, he’s taken a similar position. At a campaign stop early Tuesday, the former football star promised to “protect the unborn with my life … because I believe from the womb to the tomb.”
But marshaling a state legislative vote to bar all abortions, even with solid GOP majorities in both chambers, would take a tremendous amount of political capital. The 2019 legislation only passed with one vote to spare in the Georgia House, and about a dozen GOP legislators either skipped the vote or sided against the proposal.
And it could be a dicey proposition with voters. An AJC poll in January showed 68% of Georgia voters wanted Roe v. Wade, which establishes a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, to remain in place. That included 73% of women, 43% of Republicans and 77% of Independents.
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Ahead of her speech at the Emily’s List annual dinner last night, Stacey Abrams elaborated on the leaked Supreme Court abortion ruling and how it could impact her run for governor.
“This campaign will absolutely lean into and lead on that issue,” she told the AJC. “Because if I want to be the governor of one Georgia, that means I’ve got to govern for the women of Georgia. And the women of Georgia by and large agree that their right to choose should not be stripped away from them.”
We asked Abrams whether she would support any limits on abortions. She said any decisions on how and when to terminate a pregnancy should be left up to women, their doctors and, if warranted, their families.
Elected officials, she said, should stay out of it.
“My support of abortion is grounded in the belief that this is not the role of our government, it is not the role of lawmakers,” she said. “It is the responsibility of women and their doctors, women and their families, women and whomever they choose to bring into the conversation, but it is not the conversation for government to be having.”
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The Supreme Court leak and its political fallout in Georgia are the topic of today’s midweek edition of the Politically Georgia podcast, featuring two of your three Jolters.
Listen below, and be sure to subscribe on or on Apple, Spotify, Google, or your favorite podcast platform.
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In the meantime U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock is filling the airwaves with new ads, with the latest a 30-second spot that features his mother, Verlene, as he promotes his push to cap the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.
Another message that might be coming to a Warnock ad near you: He was named the 18th most bipartisan senator by the Lugar Center for his work in 2021.
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Look for Brian Kemp’s campaign to pivot to an economic message Wednesday, with a hit on Stacey Abrams for apparently not getting on board with the new across-the-board income tax cut Kemp supported this year.
The basis for the attack is a new Forbes column that claims Abrams “won’t tell Georgians whether she would repeal it.”
It seems, however, that Abrams wouldn’t tell the Forbes columnist if she would repeal it, since her campaign did not give Patrick Gleason, the author, a response for his piece. Gleason is also the vice president of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative tax advocacy group in Washington.
It does raise the topic however, and Abrams will no doubt be asked about Republicans’ tax cut and a host of other economic issues as the GOP primary comes and goes and Abrams faces a one-on-one battle for the governor’s mansion.
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Georgia isn’t the only place where Donald Trump’s kingmaker status is being tested. And J.D. Vance’s come-from-behind victory in the GOP Senate race in Ohio Tuesday proves that the former president still has staying power.
Vance easily prevailed over a field of other pro-Trump candidates vying for the nomination after he received the former president’s support.
That’s despite Vance’s comments in 2016 to state Rep. Josh McLaurin - his former law school roommate - that Trump could become “America’s Hitler.”
While Vance is a win for the former president, Ohio also underscores an area where Trump has struggled: Governor’s races. Also on Tuesday, Gov. Mike DeWine fended off far-right challengers who were upset over his strict coronavirus policies and falling-out with Trump to win the GOP nod.
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Tuesday was also Election Day for the special election to replace outgoing state Rep. Matt Dollar, the Republican from East Cobb who resigned his seat earlier this year.
Republicans held onto the suburban seat in House District 45, when Mitchell Kaye finished with 57%, ahead of Democrat James Dustin McCormick, who won 44% of the vote.
But Kaye can’t sit back and enjoy his victory for long, since he only won the last 7 months of Dollar’s term. The primary for the redrawn 45th is on May 24.
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The GOP contest for lieutenant governor pits two conservative Republican state senators, Butch Miller and Burt Jones, against each other.
Miller, a Gainesville car dealer, will go up on statewide broadcast and cable Wednesday with a mid-six figure ad buy for a spot focused on one of Republicans’ latest causes: Keeping transgender women out of girls’ sports.
“It’s called girls sports for a reason … It’s for girls.” Miller ends with “I will always protect parents and kids from the Woke Mob.”
In the meantime, Jones, a Jackson executive, is ahead by double digits in a new statewide poll of likely Republican voters by ARW Strategies. It pegs Jones at 31%, Miller at 15%, and everyone’s favorite, Undecided, at 46%. Jeanne Seaver and Mac McGregor each finished with about 4%.
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In endorsement news, Jake Evans has picked up the all-important endorsement from CPAC, one of the biggest conservative political action committees in the country.
CPAC’s Matt Schlapp said in a Tweet, “We need strong conservatives fighting against the socialist democrats in Congress. @JakeEvansGA will stand up for true American values, individual liberty and the right to life.”
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POSTED: A consultant for Paul Broun’s congressional campaign in Georgia’s 10th Congressional District has been charged with rape and aggravated indecent assault, according to the Pennsylvania newspaper that covers the city where the alleged assault happened in 2013.
But Broun, a Watkinsville Republican, in a statement to the AJC said he chose not to cut off the strategist Cliff Maloney Jr.’s company.
“These allegations are very disturbing,” the statement reads. “That said, I believe in the judicial process, and I trust that truth and justice will prevail, and I will be praying for everyone involved.”
Broun is now the third candidate in the GOP contest in the 10th District whose consultants have had serious run-ins with the law.
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Today in Washington:
- U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock will chair a meeting of the Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection where the topic will be overdraft fees. Warnock and other senators are pushing the nation’s largest banks to stop charging customers when their accounts go into the red, although several banks say they’ve already made those changes.
- The U.S. Senate will take a series of votes to advance a measure that aims to increase the production of semiconductors needed for car plants like the one Kia operates in West Point.
- The U.S. House is away all week, returning next Tuesday.
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The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that directs the White House to repeal a rule mandating masks for children age 2 to 5 while attending federal Head Start Programs.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff was among seven Democrats who voted with Republicans in favor of the measure. The final vote was 55-41, with Sen. Raphael Warnock joining most Democrats in giving the joint resolution a thumbs-down.
The bill now moves to the House, where enough Democrats could be willing to vote with Republicans to pass the measure. The White House says President Joe Biden would veto it, C-SPAN reports.
Ossoff’s office sent us this statement about the vote:
“At this stage of the pandemic, Sen. Ossoff believes decisions about masks for young children in schools should be made at the local level.”
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As always, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.
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