The Jolt: Warnock, McBath pray with Republicans at National Prayer Breakfast

Georgia was well-represented at the National Prayer Breakfast, held Thursday morning after taking a year off due to the pandemic and scaled down from the traditional 3,500-plate event.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock delivered the opening prayer alongside Washington Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

“Teach us oh great God how to love one another, reminding us that justice is what love looks like in public,” Warnock prayed, before asking for blessings for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who were in the audience.

Georgia’s U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath gave the closing devotion with U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican.

A tearful McBath read from Philippians after Biden had singled her out during his own speech, which was built around the theme of unity. The president noted that Thursday was his late son, Beau’s, birthday, and spoke about the shared feeling of losing a child that bonds him and McBath.

“And just like I miss my son every single day, I know he’s always with me, for real, he’s always with me,” Biden said. “Congresswoman McBath, just like your precious son Jordan — he’s always going to be with you, for real. It becomes a piece of you.”

It wasn’t Warnock’s first White House Prayer Breakfast. Before he joined the Senate, Warnock delivered the sermon at the White’s House’s 2016 Easter Prayer Breakfast the invitation of President Barack Obama.

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We won’t presume to have any special insight on who President Joe Biden might select to fill an upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court.

But we’ve noticed Washington reporters have increasingly included a prominent Georgian on the short-list of candidates to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.

An Associated Press story this week listed the top contenders – including federal judges Ketanji Brown Jackson and Michelle Childs – before adding this line:

“According to people familiar with the discussions, another name in the mix is Leslie Abrams Gardner, a U.S. district judge for the Middle District of Georgia and the sister of Stacey Abrams.”

For a little background, Gardner graduated from Brown University and Yale Law School. She spent several years in private practice, including as an associate with Atlanta-based Kilpatrick Stockton. Before being appointed to the bench by then-President Barack Obama in 2014, she was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

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UNDER THE GOLD DOME, Friday, Feb. 4:

• The House and Senate stand adjourned until Monday, Feb. 7th, at 10:00 a.m..

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For those following the state Capitol action:

• The House passed new district lines for the Gwinnett County Commission Thursday. The map was submitted by Gwinnett GOP Rep. Bonnie Rich over the strong objections of Gwinnett Democrats in the chamber;
• GOP State Rep. Ed Setzler crashed a Democratic press conference, originally called to protest the Republican-drawn local maps for Cobb County. At the mic, Setzler declared the maps something Cobb citizens can be proud of (h/t Rahul Bali);

• StateAffairsGa snapped a pic of state Rep. Kasey Carpenter kicking off his new leadership of the House Creative Arts and Entertainment Committee with a wig worthy of a Real Housewife;

• A kerfuffle bubbled up Thursday morning after state Rep. David Clark tested positive for COVID, proceeded to the House floor, and was sent away from the floor because of said-positive COVID test. The resident rabble rouser was similarly ejected from the House floor last year for refusing to participate in required testing.

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If reading the Jolt five days a week still leaves you looking for more political scoop, be sure to listen to our Politically Georgia podcast every Wednesday and Friday on your favorite podcast platform or right here.

In today’s episode, David Perdue goes all-in for Trump, Democrats raise buckets of cash, and we look at what’s ahead for Herschel Walker’s GOP rivals.

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As Vernon Jones inches toward announcing a run for U.S. House, a new poll from the conservative Trafalgar Group shows he might have little room to maneuver.

The poll showed that Mike Collins, the son of former U.S. Rep. Mac Collins, is the clear frontrunner with several other contenders hovering around the 10-percent mark. Only about 15% were undecided.

An important caveat: The graphic that accompanies the poll reflects the outdated boundaries of the rural northeastern Georgia district, but the firm said the poll itself surveyed voters in the newly drawn 10th.

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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr reported raising about $825,000 for his reelection campaign for the last period of the year. That brings his total for the cycle to a robust $2,407,312. The campaign has $1,528,000 cash on hand.

This puts the Republican at about twice the amount he had on hand at this point in the 2018 cycle.

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Christian Wise Smith, an Atlanta attorney, is the newest candidate to enter the race for state attorney general on the Democratic side.

The AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu reports that Smith worked as an Atlanta city solicitor and then as a member of the Fulton County district attorney’s office. In 2020, he ran for Fulton County district attorney and finished third.

The Sandy Springs Democrat will face state Sen. Jen Jordan in the primary.

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A state Senate battle to watch: Fulton County Commissioner Liz Hausmann, a Republican, entered the race for an open suburban seat on Thursday. She’s likely to face Democratic state Rep. Josh McLaurin for control of one of the swing-iest districts in the Legislature.

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Tonight is Sen. Raphael Warnock’s first-ever in-person town hall meeting after a year in office. Seats will be first come, first served when doors open at 5 p.m. Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett will give opening remarks, and Warnock will be introduced by DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond.

If you aren’t able to make it to the Maloof Auditorium in Decatur, you can stream the meeting via Warnock’s official Senate Twitter account.

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Dr. Rich McCormick’s campaign has released internal polling showing him far ahead of other candidates in the 6th Congressional District primary and the only candidate with double-digit support. Importantly, the survey also shows nearly two-thirds of voters as undecided.

(Of course, remember to take candidates’ internal polling with a grain of salt.)

McCormick also leads the field in fundraising. He had over $350,000 during the final three months of 2021 and loaned his campaign another $400,000. He ended the year with $1.1 million in the bank.

Attorney Jake Evans raised just under $250,000 and has about $1 million in cash on hand. Former state Rep. Meagan Hanson collected $113,000 during the quarter and ended the year with $279,456 in the bank.

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Former state Rep. Beth Beskin, whose district included Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, is backing the creation of Buckhead City. She said Thursday that crime and zoning issues led her to support the secession.

Beskin, a Republican, lost her 2018 reelection campaign to state Rep. Betsy Holland, a Democrat who now opposes Buckhead City.

Beskin later ran for a seat on the state Supreme Court but was unsuccessful.

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Our apologies. We said in Thursday’s Jolt that U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux will host a grand opening for her Duluth headquarters on Saturday. But the event is actually on Sunday.

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Since it’s Friday, we always like to send you into the weekend with a little light reading, including:

• An exclusive interview with former Sen. Sam Nunn in Wednesday’s Political Insider column, about the dangers he sees in Ukraine and the United States’ next moves;
• Jamie Dupree’s Thursday column from Washington about the high-level effort in the Senate to change the 1887 law that nearly let Donald Trump overturn the election (Sen. Mitch McConnell’s on board); and
• Friday’s Political Insider column from the state Capitol, “What if gun laws and voting laws were the same in Georgia for once?”

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