The Jolt: Warnock to bring in Dave Matthews for swing voter two-step
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s campaign has aired plenty of ads to convince the Georgians who voted earlier this month for him and Gov. Brian Kemp to stay with Warnock the second time around for the runoff election, too.
But what would you say if we told you that one of Warnock’s biggest overtures to swing voters will come next week, when Dave Matthews headlines a concert for his campaign?
The event is aimed at now-grown up suburban moderates, who have been squeamish about Herschel Walker throughout the campaign. And it’s planned for the same venue where Kemp held his election night victory party.
It won’t be Matthews’ first venture into politics this cycle. He also headlined events for Democratic Senate candidates John Fetterman in Pennsylvania and Tim Ryan in Ohio ahead of the midterm elections.
His history of backing other high-profile Democrats goes back to concerts for presidential nominee John Kerry during his failed bid against President George W. Bush in 2004. The Dave Matthews Band first made a name for itself in the 1990′s playing at University of Virginia fraternity parties.
Republican operatives spent the day Sunday mocking Matthews’ planned appearance, using his song titles to swipe at Warnock.
“Haven’t Georgia voters suffered enough?” asked Chris Hartline of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who also slammed Warnock’s link to a troubled apartment tower.
“Also not a lot of ‘Space Between’ Warnock and Biden. They agree 96% of the time,” wrote Erik Iverson.
The concert news came alongside another Warnock campaign overture to middle-of-the-road suburbanites: the return of Alvin the beagle, the dog deployed during the 2020 campaign to counter attacks that Warnock was a “radical socialist.”
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UNITED. The Warnock campaign isn’t the only one going after those Kemp-Warnock voters. Herschel Walker held a Saturday rally featuring the best spokesman around to make the pitch — Gov. Brian Kemp himself.
It was the Republicans’ first joint campaign event for the 2022 cycle. Although Kemp had offered to join forces ahead of Election Day, Walker’s camp said they’d already booked venues for their own events.
But with hundreds of thousands of GOP-leaning voters picking only Kemp on the ballot this month, a Kemp appearance for the former footballer was required.
Speaking to a crowd in Cobb County, Kemp called Walker “my friend” and told voters: “We cannot rest on our laurels, everyone. We’ve got more wood to chop.”
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SPLIT THE TICKET. While we’re on the topic of split-ticket voters, here’s how you know the Democratic Party of Georgia is no longer under Stacey Abrams’ control.
The party held a news conference ahead of Gov. Brian Kemp’s campaign rally with Herschel Walker Saturday featuring voters who praised U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, of course, but also complimented Kemp.
“Our governor and Sen. Warnock are good men who I can trust to represent GA and lead our state well. But I can’t say the same about Herschel Walker,” one said.
The party is appealing to the roughly 200,000 voters who supported Kemp in the general election but didn’t back Herschel Walker.
But even Warnock allies were stunned that the party featured a handful of voters saying nice things about Kemp after years of branding him an extremist. Republicans, meanwhile, delighted in the scene.
Garrison Douglas of the Republican National Committee said it was “surreal that the Democratic Party is so ready to run away from the disaster that was Stacey Abrams” that they held a news conference to amplify Kemp supporters.
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RALSTON MEMORIALS. Plans to memorialize the late Georgia House Speaker David Ralston this week have been announced.
Ralston will lie in state at the Georgia state Capitol from 11 a.m. Tuesday until 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Visitations will follow in Blue Ridge on Friday and Saturday, with a memorial service planned for 1 p.m. on Sunday at the Fannin County High School Performing Arts Center.
One of many remembrances of the Speaker came in Sunday’s edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where Delta Air Lines placed a full-page ad. “Honoring an exceptional Georgia leader.”
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HOMETOWN FLEX. When Herschel Walker announced ahead of the general election that he would debate U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock in Savannah, Walker frequently made the point that the debate would take place in Warnock’s hometown.
Today, Warnock returns the favor with a rally planned for the little town of Wrightsville, where Herschel Walker grew up.
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TRANS AD. The mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs Saturday night, which left five people dead and dozens more injured, doesn’t appear to have changed Republican Herschel Walker’s strategy of slamming transgender policies.
He has continued to mock transgender children and vow to ban transgender students from competing in girls’ sports. A TV ad amplifying that pledge ran last night in the Atlanta media market during “Sunday Night Football.”
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SATURDAY VOTING. DeKalb, Fulton, Muscogee and Chatham counties have all announced they will offer early Saturday voting ahead of the Senate runoff election following a judge’s decision to allow it.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox decided Friday in favor of the Democratic Party and Sen. Raphael Warnock’s campaign, which sued the state of Georgia over an earlier announcement that holidays ahead of the runoff would prevent voting on Saturday.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said it will appeal the ruling, but with courts having limited availability during the holiday week it is unclear if an appeal can be carried out in time to prevent the counties from moving forward.
Some Republicans have also expressed concern that it could hurt their candidate in the runoff, Herschel Walker, if populous Democratic-leaning counties are offering weekend early voting, but rural and Republican-leaning counties are not.
Even without the judge’s ruling, counties had the option of offering early Sunday voting. When elections official Gabriel Sterling tweeted out a list of those that were doing so, they were all Democratic-leaning counties: Clarke, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Muscogee, Newton and Rockdale. Chatham County wasn’t on his list but it is offering Sunday voting, too.
Republican strategist Brian Robinson was among those sounding alarms over this.
“Let me say what @GabrielSterling can’t,” he wrote in response. “These are all big-vote, Democratic counties. Republicans need to demand weekend voting in red counties too to even the playing field a little more.”
Over the weekend, a coalition of more than 30 Georgia voting rights groups sent a letter to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger asking him to follow the judge’s ruling.
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TODAY ON THE TRAIL:
- Herschel Walker holds a rally in Milton. He’ll be joined by former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace from South Carolina, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
- U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock holds a rally in Walker’s hometown of Wrightsville.
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STEPPING UP. Georgia congresswoman Nikema Williams is looking to break into the inner circle of U.S. House Democrats by campaigning to lead the committee that determines the caucus’ messaging.
Williams is among seven candidates vying to become one of four co-chairs of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. The election is set for next week.
In a letter to colleagues asking for their support, Williams referenced her work as chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia and the party’s recent successes in the 2020 election and 2021 Senate runoffs.
“Think how different the last two years would have been without this work,” she wrote, listing the major legislation Democrats passed under President Joe Biden and a Democratic Senate. “Messaging paves the way for policy wins, and the work never stops.”
Following Democrats’ statewide trouncing in Georgia this year, Williams also said her first priority would be looking at the party’s message in 2022 to see what did and didn’t work with voters.
Leading the DPCC is considered a stepping stone to leadership for ambitious lawmakers. New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the favorite to succeed Speaker Nancy Pelosi as Democratic leader in the House, is a former co-chair.
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ON THE TEAM: Gov. Brian Kemp has been named to the executive committee of the Republican Governors Association. The RGA backed Kemp during his primary challenge from Trump-backed former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, even when the Georgia Republican Party would not.
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TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- The House and Senate are in recess for the Thanksgiving holiday week.
- President Joe Biden will continue the tradition of pardoning the national Thanksgiving turkeys. This year’s turkeys are named “Chocolate” and “Chip.” After a luxurious stay at Washington’s Willard InterContinental hotel, the two lucky birds will move to the campus of Virginia Tech, where they’ll live permanently, without fear of prosecution or roasting.
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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.
About the Authors
Patricia Murphy is the AJC's senior political columnist. She was previously a nationally syndicated columnist for CQ Roll Call, national political reporter for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily, and wrote for The Washington Post and Garden & Gun. She graduated from Vanderbilt and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
Tia Mitchell is the AJC’s Washington Bureau Chief and a co-host of the "Politically Georgia" podcast. She writes about Georgia’s congressional delegation, campaigns, elections and the impact that decisions made in D.C. have on residents of the Peach State.
