Rodeo fundraiser offers revealing glimpse of Georgia GOP’s future

Today’s newsletter highlights:

Jon Ossoff opens a new front against Mike Collins.
Ted Cruz endorses candidates snubbed by Donald Trump.
Georgia’s special session still has plenty of drama.

Their first rodeo

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

There was barrel racing, bronco bucking, bull riding, world class horsemanship and calf roping. There was also a revealing glimpse of where the Georgia GOP is headed.

For years, the state party’s marquee fundraisers amounted to buttoned-up affairs in Buckhead ballrooms. This year, party leaders tried something different: a rodeo at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry.

The first-of-its-kind event reflected a party eager to experiment and broaden its appeal beyond the traditional political crowd. Hundreds attended. But in the cavernous arena, rows of empty seats showed the limits of the effort.

The rodeo was designed as a showcase for the party’s statewide ticket. Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins roamed the crowd along with other statewide candidates. U.S. Reps. Rich McCormick and Austin Scott held court, and former Gov. Sonny Perdue worked the crowd.

But some of the party’s most prominent figures were missing. Newly minted GOP nominee for governor Rick Jackson cited a scheduling conflict. Also absent were two of Jackson’s closest allies, Attorney General Chris Carr and Insurance Commissioner John King.

The no-shows highlighted a familiar tension within the party. Gov. Brian Kemp famously boycotted state party events for years, helping spur his support for a 2021 law creating leadership committees that allowed candidates to build political operations outside the party structure.

Some of Jackson’s allies have voiced similar concerns, privately arguing the state party has been too closely aligned with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, his vanquished rival. And unlike many candidates, Jackson’s vast fortune means he won’t need the party’s fundraising machinery.

From the rodeo stage, Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon had a different message.

“Tonight we turn the page,” he said. “This is one team, one mission, one Republican ticket. So tonight we are not just introducing a ticket. We are launching a movement into November. We are leaving this arena united, we are leaving this arena energized, and we are leaving this arena ready to win.”

Things to know

Credit: John Spink

Good morning! Here are three things to know for today:

Collins and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff kicked off Georgia’s U.S. Senate race with attack ads as they try to define each other ahead of the Nov. 3 election, Tia Mitchell reports.
Democrats feared they could lose a state Senate seat in a special election last week that favored Republican turnout. Instead, they won by 2 percentage points, giving them confidence heading into the midterms, Sophia Eppley reports.
A Cobb County senior judge threw out a case against three people accused of trying to set fire to the office of a contractor working on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. The judge ruled the case brought by Carr’s office appeared to be political, Shaddi Abusaid reports.

A new front

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Ossoff opened a new front against Collins on Sunday from the pulpit of Beulah Missionary Baptist Church.

The Democratic incumbent cast his Republican challenger as a throwback to Georgia’s darker political past, accusing Collins of promoting bigotry and excusing efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“The hatred that Mike Collins promotes is a relic of the bad old days,” Ossoff said. “Georgia’s spirit of tolerance will overwhelm and defeat bigotry, and our defense of voting rights will be so fierce that no plot against the franchise will foil the will of the people.”

Ossoff also invoked the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and GOP efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 defeat, telling the congregation that Collins “makes excuses for those who carried out an attack to throw out your votes and install a defeated president.”

“But he forgets your power,” Ossoff said.

Collins went on Fox News to make his own contrast with an opponent he labeled an “out of touch liberal, far-left liberal.” He said the race is about “comparing resumes.”

“The choice in this race really couldn’t be more crystal clear than the fact that I’m a private businessman that has not only delivered in the private sector but in Washington to make folks’ lives more affordable, more safe, more prosperous,” Collins added.

Endorsement duel

Credit: AP Photo/Bill Barrow

President Donald Trump is still the Republican Party’s most coveted endorsement. But one of the president’s most prominent frenemies seems to be gaining traction.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas chose Jackson over the Trump-endorsed Jones in the Georgia GOP primary for governor. Jackson won, handing Trump a high-profile loss this election cycle.

Now, Cruz is trying to do the same thing in South Carolina. He backed Attorney General Alan Wilson in that state’s GOP primary, while Trump chose Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette. Cruz is scheduled to campaign with Wilson on Monday before South Carolina’s runoff Tuesday.

But Trump appears to be wise to Cruz and his strategy. On Friday, Trump also endorsed Wilson. But he did not withdraw his endorsement of Evette, meaning he can claim victory no matter what happens Tuesday.

“It’s a Wealth of Riches — With either one you can’t go wrong,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Gold Dome drama

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

When Republican leaders nixed a plan to redraw Georgia’s political districts, many under the Gold Dome predicted the decision would tame a special session that started Wednesday. But Saturday showed there’s still plenty of drama to go around.

Georgia Democrats blocked dozens of Republican-backed bills that would have let voters raise sales taxes in exchange for lowering their property tax bills. Republicans were quick to blame Democrats for thwarting much-needed relief for homeowners. Democrats countered they were simply protecting low-income Georgians from a tax increase.

Meanwhile, the state Senate passed a bill that would delay a deadline for Georgia to stop using QR codes to count ballots. But Republicans added a provision that would require full hand recounts of the top two races on the ticket, which reporter Caleb Groves notes is a “time-consuming and error prone process.”

That proposal now heads to the House, where lawmakers could remove the hand-count provision, setting up a clash with the Senate ahead of the July 1 deadline.

Listen up

Credit: Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Con

Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast we answer listener questions, including whether last week’s runoff results are a temporary setback for Kemp or a sign of a deeper shift within the state Republican Party.

You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.

Faith and politics

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Vice President JD Vance are both out promoting new books that outline how their faith informs their politics.

Warnock made it clear during an event in Washington on Friday, which coincided with Juneteenth, that Vance is another Republican whom he believes is failing to live up to the tenants of Christianity. Warnock, during a talk about his book “The Crooked Places Made Straight,” called out Vance for not publicly acknowledging or apologizing for comments a UFC fighter made about former first lady Michelle Obama during an event at the White House.

“I just want to know what kind of faith does JD Vance have when the human dignity of Michelle Obama can be so assaulted in such a vicious way, and he say nothing about it,” Warnock said.

Vance is just the latest Republican elected official to draw this type of scrutiny from Warnock, who is also senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. His criticism of House Speaker Mike Johnson went viral earlier this month and led Johnson to ask for a meeting with Warnock.

Under the Gold Dome

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

It’s Day 4 of Georgia’s special legislative session. Some happenings:

10 a.m.: House Governmental Affairs Committee meets to discuss Senate Bill 3EX, which would move the deadline for Georgia to stop using QR codes to count ballots to 2028.
11 a.m.: Senate Finance Committee meets to discuss House Resolution 3EX, which would codify Kemp’s decision to extend a gas tax suspension or two weeks earlier this year.
1 p.m.: Senate convenes.
2 p.m. House convenes.

A runoff romance

Ossoff’s 2020 Senate run helped Democrats win control of the U.S. Senate. It also apparently helped spark at least one marriage.

A New York Times wedding item over the weekend featured Atlanta-area author Alison Rose Greenberg and Barry Alan Loudis. The couple connected on Bumble in December 2020 as Greenberg was using dating apps to canvass for the Democrat during Georgia’s Senate runoff.

Her Bumble prompt read: “Ask me about politics.”

Then came Loudis, whose profile stood out partly because, Greenberg told the Times, he wasn’t holding “a giant fish.” The two exchanged numbers within a week, talked daily by FaceTime and got married earlier this month.

Add it to the long list of ways Georgia’s 2020 runoffs changed lives.

Today in Washington

Trump has no public events on his schedule.
The House returns Tuesday.
The Senate will vote on a bill intended to boost affordable housing.

Shoutouts

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com

Today’s birthday:

State Rep. Bill Yearta, R-Sylvester.

Special delivery:

Kemp aide Carter Chapman and his wife, Campbell, welcomed baby Georgia over the weekend. Chapman will take six weeks of paternity leave. In the meantime, expect to see Annalise Morning’s name more. She will handle chief spokesperson duties for the governor.

Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.

Before you go

Credit: GoFundMe

An Atlanta man who spent the last 21 years in prison was released last week after new DNA evidence proved his innocence. His release comes one year after Georgia enacted a new system to compensate the wrongfully convicted.

That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider information to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.

About the Authors

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