Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was in Chicago Thursday speaking to national political reporters at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. Georgia’s top election official discussed overseeing the 2020 Georgia elections, the lessons he learned and some of the fallout from the chaos.
Asked by journalist John Harwood about the “weakest link in the chain” for American democracy today, Raffensperger said it isn’t voting machines or election officials, which former President Donald Trump wrongly blamed for “election fraud.” Instead, Raffensperger pointed to disinformation from candidates and bad actors.
“It’s the candidates and their consultants, who don’t want to admit their candidate lost because that means, ‘I’m a bad consultant,’” Raffensperger said. “Well, you should have run a better campaign for your candidate or your candidate shouldn’t have said some of the dumb things that he did. But those are the consequences, because the voters are smart.”
Asked if elections officials like him should be elected as candidates, Raffensperger said yes.
“When it comes to your priceless franchise to vote, I think that person should be elected, because then you can decide if you want to reaffirm them. … When you have a state election board, you kind of wonder who’s in charge and who you can get mad at.”
Raffensperger made international headlines after the 2020 elections, when he repeatedly rejected Trump’s false election claims.
He was reelected in 2022 with the largest margin of any statewide official in November, defeating former Democratic state Rep. Bee Nguyen by 9 percentage points.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez for the AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez for the AJC
LISTEN UP. We’ve got a special edition of the Politically Georgia podcast today, when past and present AJC editors-in-chief — Kevin Riley and Leroy Chapman — join us to talk about their roles leading the AJC.
We also talk about the media landscape ahead and the role the AJC will have covering the politics of the South in the future.
Listen and subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.
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Credit: Jenni Girtman for the AJC
Credit: Jenni Girtman for the AJC
LOEFFLER’S LIST. The top Republicans in the Capitol may have finished this year’s session tension in the air. But they all turned out Thursday night for former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s Greater Georgia awards ceremony in Atlanta.
Gov. Brian Kemp, House Speaker Jon Burns, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, Senate President Pro Tem John F. Kennedy and about 200 more packed the tented event, which backed up traffic in Buckhead as Republican candidates past and present crowded in.
“It does not go unnoticed to me that it is 2023, not 2024. We are not waiting to do this. Kelly and Greater Georgia are not waiting to do this in the election year of 2024,” Kemp told the audience.
“We have four seasons in the state … but for elections there is one season, it’s all year long and it doesn’t change. That’s what the Democrats have been doing and that’s exactly what we’ve got to go.”
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BUCKLE UP. Georgia is consistently landing on the shortest of the short lists of battleground states to watch in 2024.
The New York Times on Wednesday called Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin the only states truly up for grabs in 2024. Political correspondent Jonathan Weisman told the Daily podcast that Democrats believe they need to win one of the three states to capture the White House, while Republicans need to win all three to get enough electoral votes for the win.
On Thursday, GOP super-attorney Ben Ginsberg, who represented the George W. Bush campaign during the Florida recount in 2000, called Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin the states he’ll be most focused on for 2024.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
BLACK TIE. Speaking Secretary of State Raffensperger, he’ll be one of several Georgians on hand Saturday night for the glitzy White House Correspondents’ dinner in Washington.
He’ll be a guest of Scripps News for the annual black tie event. Also expected are U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, and Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens.
Dickens will attend with Bloomberg News. The City of Atlanta has a longstanding partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, including the development of the Center for Diversion and Services.
The Jolt will on hand for all the action and will return Monday with a full report.
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HITTING THE AIRWAVES. The first ad of President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is now airing in Georgia and other swing states.
Titled “Flag,” the 90-second spot features a narrator saying democracy and American values are “under attack by an extreme movement that seeks to overturn elections, ban books, and eliminate a woman’s right to choose.”
The campaign said it is spending seven figures to run the ad for the next two weeks in major markets in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
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BIG PLANS. Georgia got a shout out from South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol during his joint address to Congress Thursday morning.
The comments came as Yoon highlighted specific manufacturing projects in America with Korean connections.
“Take Bryan County, Georgia,” Yoon said with a nod of the head to U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. “A Hyundai EV and battery plant is expected to be operational by late 2024. It will produce 300,000 electric vehicles every year. It will employ thousands of Americans.”
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Members of Congress stood to applaud, and Ossoff later highlighted his relationship with Yoon.
The two first met in Seoul in November 2021 when Yoon was running for office, and met again earlier this month when Ossoff joined an economic delegation trip to Korea.
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden will host the U.S. Air Force Academy football team at the White House to present them with the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. The mighty Falcons defeated both West Point and the Naval Academies during the 2022 season to win the honor.
- The House has one final vote scheduled before departing for a weeklong recess.
- The Senate is done for the week.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has made a fortune fundraising off of her opposition to “the Squad,” the Democratic women among the most liberal members of the House.
But Greene found herself on the same side as U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, and Rashida Talib, D-Michigan, on a House vote Thursday to remove all U.S. Forces and personnel from Somalia, except for those protecting the U.S. Embassy.
The bill, House Resolution 30, failed by a vote of 102 to 321.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
UNLIKELY DUO. Another unlikely combo on the Hill Thursday was heiress and influencer Paris Hilton and U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who teamed up to promote legislation intended to protect teenagers in institutional care.
Carter, R-Pooler, is a cosponsor of a bill that has bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. The Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act creates new oversight and data transparency requirements for youth treatment programs in hopes of preventing abuse.
Carter and Hilton jointly appeared on Fox News Thursday to promote the legislation and then headed to a news conference. Hilton has discussed her own abuse as a child after being sent to a facility for “troubled teens.”
“This is still happening today at these places, and 200,000 children are being sent away to these places every single year,” Hilton said on Fox and Friends.
Carter thanked Hilton for speaking out and helping shape the legislation.
“What this bill is going to do is enhance the collection of data and information so that we can see what the practices and the ethics of some of these group homes and facilities are so parents and children can make informed decisions on whether they want to participate or not,” he said.
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Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
Credit: Bob Andres/AJC
BACK FOR MORE. Former state Rep. Derrick Jackson, a Tyrone Democrat, has won the endorsements of U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock for his comeback bid.
Jackson is running in the special election in House District 68, which became vacant after the untimely passing of State Rep. Letitia “Tish” Naghise, D-Fayetteville, earlier this year.
Jackson represented the same district until 2022, when he decided to run for lieutenant governor instead.
Other candidates in the special election include Taiwo Idowu, Mark Baker, Jane Williams and John Culberth. Election Day is May 16, with early voting set to begin April 24.
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Credit: Dustin Chambers/The New York Times
Credit: Dustin Chambers/The New York Times
ELECTION REPORT. While several Georgians won praise for defending the state’s election results, the nonprofit research group Informing Democracy released a report this week identifying more than 200 state and local election officials in six states who “exhibited anti-democratic tendencies or actions” ahead of the 2022 vote.
The list includes 19 officials in Georgia from 12 counties.
For context, Informing Democracy is led by several former Democratic campaign staffers.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
DOG OF THE DAY. Speaking of black tie events, every day is a blue tie event for Kirby Camuso, the little three-year-old Maltipoo rescue who calls CSX lobbyist Craig Camuso his person.
Kirby spends his days barking at the golfers and horsing around with golden retrievers. And yes, he’s named after a UGA football coach Kirby Smart. Coach Smart may be a national champion but Kirby, you’re our Dog of the Day.
Send us your pups of any political persuasion — and cats on a cat-by-cat basis, to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us on Twitter @MurphyAJC.
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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.
