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Tag: Georgia
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Millions vote early in high-stakes Georgia races
Millions vote early in high-stakes Georgia races – CBS News
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Comic Gets Trump Supporter To Give A Head-Spinning Defense Of Herschel Walker
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A Georgia voter decked out in a Donald Trump hat got lost in some twisted logic in a new video from the prankster duo known as The Good Liars.
Comic Jason Selvig asked the voter to justify his support in light of the accusations, and… well… just check out what happened:
The Good Liars are known for their viral moments, including one where they trolled National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre during the organization’s convention.
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11/2: Red and Blue
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11/2: Red and Blue – CBS News
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Black men say they feel ignored by politicians. A historic Senate face-off between two Black men isn’t helping | CNN Politics
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Atlanta
CNN
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Aaron Bethea says he has voted election after election for US presidents, governors and senators – and yet those lawmakers have done little to nothing to improve life for him, his family or his community.
Bethea said he believes the issues he cares about, financial freedom and equal investment in predominately Black schools, have largely been ignored.
“Where we are from, nobody really cares about what Black men think,” said Bethea, an Atlanta father of six who owns a wholesale company that sells televisions. “They don’t do anything for us.”
Bethea, 40, said he still plans to vote Democratic in Georgia’s hotly contested gubernatorial and US senate races. But he’s not voting with enthusiasm. He said he is hoping that one day someone will prioritize the needs of Black men.
Bethea is not alone. Political analysts, researchers and Black male leaders say politicians are failing to reach some Black men with messaging that resonates with them and visibility in their communities. Those shortcomings could particularly hurt Democrats in the upcoming midterms given Black men are the second most loyal voting bloc for the party next to Black women, experts say.
And while Black men have increasingly supported Republicans in recent years, some say the GOP is still missing the mark. Many Black men say they are concerned that Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker does not represent them in a positive light given his many public gaffes, history of domestic violence and being an absentee father.
Political analysts worry that the lack of effective messaging could result in Black men sitting home on Nov. 8 and Democrats like Stacey Abrams – who has made a late attempt to reach Black men with a series of events – losing their races.
“If some of them feel unmotivated because they don’t feel spoken to then you’ve really got a problem,” said Jason Nichols, a professor of African American studies at the University of Maryland College Park. “A lot of these campaigns don’t hire Black male advisers. They don’t hire Black men to actually tell them how to reach Black men.”
So far, 39% of Black voters have been men, and 61% have been women, according to Catalist, a company that provides data and other services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit issue-advocacy organizations and gives insights into who is voting before November. Those breakdowns were the same at this point in the early voting period in 2020.
Some polls have suggested that Black men were gradually leaving the Democratic party to vote for Republicans. In 2020, 12% of Black men voted for former President Donald Trump.
Ted Johnson, a senior director at the Brennan Center for Justice, said some Black men find Republicans more attractive because they promote individualism and the idea that hard work, not government dependence, leads to financial success. In 2016, Johnson wrote in the Atlantic that a Black person who supported Trump was likely a “working-class or lower-middle-class Black man, over the age of 35, and interested in alternative approaches to addressing what ails Black America.”
Still, Johnson said Black men are not naive and will vote against a Republican candidate who they feel is unfit. And for some Black men, that is the case with Walker who is running against incumbent US Sen. Raphael Warnock.
The match-up between Walker and Warnock is one of the closest and most critical Senate races in the country, as Republicans seek to win back control of the body, which is currently split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote.
Walker has been criticized by his opponents for being violent toward his ex-wife and the claim that he paid for the mother of one of his children to get an abortion. Walker told Axios last year that he was “accountable” for his past violent behavior, and that people shouldn’t be “ashamed” for confronting mental health issues.
In an interview with NBC News, Walker acknowledged that he sent a $700 check to a woman who alleges the money was provided to reimburse her for an abortion, but denied the check was for that purpose. Walker has been vocal about his anti-abortion views but has gone back and forth about whether he supports exceptions.
Walker is currently polling at 11% with Black men compared to 74% for Warnock.
“(Walker) is just not an attractive, viable candidate for most Black folks,” Johnson said. “I think there are Black men who won’t vote for Stacey Abrams but will vote for Raphael Warnock.”
Recent polls show Republican Gov. Brian Kemp with support from 16% of Black men compared to 77% for Abrams. Johnson said he believes Kemp has more support from Black men because some men still refuse to vote a woman into office.
“There is a strain of conservatism in Black men that comes with a strain of sexism,” Johnson said, noting that in 2016 some Black men sat home because they didn’t like Trump but also didn’t want to see Hillary Clinton as the first female president.
In recent years, Republicans have faced criticism for being sexist, misogynistic and rejecting women’s rights.
Walker’s candidacy was the topic of discussion for several Black men who gathered at Anytime Cutz barbershop in Atlanta on a recent Monday afternoon. The chat was part of a series hosted by the Urban League of Greater Atlanta’s Black Male Voter Project and Black Men Decide offering Black men a chance to discuss voting and the issues that matter to them.
Some of the Black men present said they found it offensive that the GOP would pit Walker – a former NFL running back with no political experience and a troubled past – against Warnock, a beloved figure in Atlanta’s Black community who pastored the church once led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“The guy is looking like a fool,” said Antwaun Hawkins, a 46-year-old barber. “That’s who we want to put in place to speak for us? Because he’s a Black man? No. To me, he looks like an idiot.”
Bethea said after the barbershop event that Walker’s candidacy feels like a “sick joke.”
“I think he’s embarrassing himself,” Bethea said. “I don’t play the field in a position that I don’t know how to play. Someone talked him out of staying in his lane.”
Bethea said he plans to vote for Warnock because he’s a more qualified candidate and pillar in the community.
Moyo Akinade, a 29-year-old soccer coach from Atlanta, said he too will vote for Warnock because he’s a positive role model. Walker, meanwhile, perpetuates negative stereotypes about Black men, Akinade said.
Those stereotypes are “that we are aggressive, we aren’t intelligent and we are abusive,” Akinade said. “It portrays Black men as being violent. And that’s still inaccurate.”
But one barber said he doesn’t think voters should judge Walker by his past.
“Everybody has a past, everybody has done something wrong, everybody has lied before, everybody has done something that they shouldn’t have done,” said Charles Scott who manages Anytime Cutz. “But at one point, people can change. Just like they are bashing Herschel Walker. How do you know he’s not a changed man?”
Black men interviewed by CNN said they look for more than just character and experience in politicians, but also the issues they address.
A report released by the NAACP in September found that Black men believed racism/discrimination, inflation/cost of living and criminal justice reform/police brutality were the most important issues facing the Black community. The survey also concluded that 41% of Black men disapproved of the job President Joe Biden is doing to address the needs of the Black community.
The group at Anytime Cutz named financial security, student loan forgiveness, police reform, healthcare reform and improving jail conditions as their top concerns.
Most said they vote in elections but rarely see lawmakers making decisions that help them personally or their communities.
“Do something about policing,” Hawkins said. “Do something for the people that can’t really help themselves. I don’t think people choose to be homeless and hungry.”
Hawkins and Bethea said they have given up waiting for policies that will close the wealth gap and give Black Americans a fair shot at success. They are focused on providing for their families.
“We can’t sit around and wait for legislation to change because the kids are at home hungry,” Hawkins said.
Some of those same sentiments are felt by Black men nearly 900 miles away in New York.
Mysonne Linen, a popular activist and rapper from the Bronx, said he can’t remember the last time a political candidate spoke directly to Black men during their campaign and delivered on those promises after winning. Linen said Black men are tired of “pandering.” Linen wants politicians who genuinely care about Black men living in marginalized communities and will follow through on addressing police reform, livable wage jobs and investment in mental health resources.
“They have to do a better job with having tangible results,” Linen said. “Tell us how you to plan to invest in the communities to change those realities. Get into office and actually fight to do those things.”
In the last few months, Abrams has hosted a series of events that targeted Black men in Georgia and released a “Black Men’s Agenda” that details her plans to invest in Black-owned small businesses, expand Medicaid, increase funding to schools and opportunities for job training and hold police accountable.
But Linen and Nichols both agreed that Abrams’ efforts may have come too late. Nichols said he fears that some Black men are already planning to sit home on Election Day or vote for Kemp.
“I think she didn’t necessarily get the right advice at the right time and now it feels like she’s pandering,” Nichols said. “I think she really is concerned but I think it comes across to some like ‘we’ve been ignored all this time.’”
Nichols said he urges 2024 election candidates to do more outreach to Black men and Black families. The organization Black Men Vote has already launched a national campaign to register one million Black male voters by November 2024.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson said those seeking public office must prioritize the needs of Black men if they want to win.
“It is incumbent upon both political parties and all candidates to understand that the votes of African American men are not guaranteed,” Johnson said. “It’s an important voting bloc and candidates must speak to them so they can see how their vote really can support democracy and their quality of life.”
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Democrats aim to energize Black voters in Georgia
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Democrats aim to energize Black voters in Georgia – CBS News
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Obama, campaigning in Georgia, warns of threats to democracy
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COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (AP) — Former President Barack Obama returned to the campaign trail Friday in Georgia, using his first stop on a multi-state tour to frame the 2022 midterm elections as a referendum on democracy and to urge voters not to see Republicans as an answer to their economic woes.
It was a delicate balance, as the former president acknowledged the pain of inflation and tried to explain why President Joe Biden and Democrats shouldn’t take all the blame as they face the prospects of losing narrow majorities in the House and Senate when votes are tallied Nov. 8. But Obama argued that Republicans who are intent on making it harder for people to vote and — like former President Donald Trump — are willing to ignore the results, can’t be trusted to care about Americans’ wallets either.
“That basic foundation of our democracy is being called into question right now,” Obama told more than 5,000 voters gathered outside Atlanta. “Democrats aren’t perfect. I’m the first one to admit it. … But right now, with a few notable exceptions, most of the GOP and a whole bunch of these candidates are not even pretending that the rules apply to them.”
With Biden’s approval ratings in the low 40s, Democrats hope Obama’s emergence in the closing weeks of the campaign boosts the party’s slate in a tough national environment. He shared the stage Friday with Sen. Raphael Warnock, who faces a tough reelection fight from Republican Herschel Walker, and Stacey Abrams, who is trying to unseat Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who defeated her narrowly four years ago.
Obama will travel Saturday to Michigan and Wisconsin, followed by stops next week in Nevada and Pennsylvania.
For Obama personally, the campaign blitz is an opportunity to do something he was unable to do in two midterms during his presidency: help Democrats succeed in national midterms when they already hold the White House. For his party, it’s an opportunity to leverage Obama’s rebound in popularity since his last midterm defeats in 2014. Their hope is that the former president can sell arguments that Biden, his former vice president, has struggled to land.
Biden was in Pennsylvania on Friday with Vice President Kamala Harris and plans to be in Georgia next week, potentially in a joint rally with Obama and statewide Democratic candidates. But he has not been welcomed as a surrogate for many Democratic candidates across the country, including Warnock.
“Obama occupies a rare place in our politics today,” said David Axelrod, who helped shape Obama’s campaigns from his days in the Illinois state Senate through two presidential elections. “He obviously has great appeal to Democrats. But he’s also well-liked by independent voters.”
Obama tried to show off that reach Friday. The first Black president drew a hero’s welcome from a majority Black audience, and he offered plenty of applause lines for Democrats. But he saved plenty of his argument, especially on the economy, for moderates, independents and casual voters, including a defense of Biden, who Obama said is “fighting for you every day.”
He called inflation “a legacy of the pandemic,” the resulting supply chain disruption and the Ukraine war’s effects on global oil markets — a sweeping retort to Republican attempts to cast sole blame on Democrats’ spending bills.
“What is their answer? … They want to give the rich tax cuts,” Obama said of the GOP. “That’s their answer to everything. When inflation is low, let’s cut taxes. When unemployment is high, let’s cut taxes. If there was an asteroid heading toward Earth, they would all get in a room and say, you know what we need? We need tax cuts for the wealthy. How’s that going to help you?”
Biden has sought to make similar arguments, and was buoyed this week with news of 2.6% economic growth in the third quarter after two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Yet Lis Smith, a Democratic strategist, said Obama is better positioned to convince voters who haven’t decided whom to vote for or whether to vote at all.
“If it’s just a straight-up referendum on Democrats and the economy, then we’re screwed,” Smith said. “But you have to make the election a choice between the two parties, crystallize the differences.”
Obama, she said, did that in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections “by winning over a lot of working-class white voters and others we don’t always think about as part of the ‘Obama coalition.’”
Obama left office in January 2017 with a 59% approval rating, and Gallup measured his post-presidential approval at 63% the following year, the last time the organization surveyed former presidents. That’s considerably higher than his ratings in 2010, when Democrats lost control of the House in a midterm election that Obama called a “shellacking.” In his second midterm election four years later, the GOP regained control of the Senate.
Still, Bakari Sellers, a prominent Democratic commentator, said Obama’s broader popularity shouldn’t obscure how much his “special connection” with Black voters and other non-white voters can help Democrats.
The Atlanta rally brought Obama together with Warnock, the first Black U.S. senator in Georgia history, and Abrams, who’s vying to become the first Black female governor in American history.
In Michigan, Obama will campaign in Detroit with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is being challenged by Republican Tudor Dixon, and in Wisconsin he’ll be in Milwaukee with Senate candidate Mandela Barnes, who is trying to oust Republican Sen. Ron Johnson. Each city is where the state’s Black population is most concentrated. Obama’s Pennsylvania swing will include Philadelphia, another city where Democrats must get a strong turnout from Black voters to win competitive races for Senate and governor.
With the Senate now split 50-50 between the two major parties and Vice President Kamala Harris giving Democrats the deciding vote, any Senate contest could end up deciding which party controls the chamber for the next two years. Among the tightest Senate battlegrounds, Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania are three where Black turnout could be most critical to Democratic fortunes.
Axelrod said Obama’s turnabout from his own midterm floggings to being Democrats’ leading surrogate is, in part, a rite of passage for any former president. “Most of them — maybe not President Trump, but most of them — are viewed more favorably after they leave office,” Axelrod said.
Notably, during Obama’s presidency, former President Bill Clinton was the in-demand heavyweight surrogate, especially for moderates trying to survive Republican surges in 2010 and 2014.
Axelrod said Obama and Clinton have a similar approach.
“What Clinton and Obama share is a kind of unique ability to colloquialize complicated political arguments of the time, just talk in common-sense terms,” Axelrod said. “They’re storytellers.”
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Learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections. And follow the AP’s election coverage of the elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.
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This story has been corrected to show Abrams, not Kemp, is trying to unseat the governor.
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Vince Dooley, longtime Georgia football coach, dies at 90
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ATLANTA — Vince Dooley, the coach who carried himself like a professor and guided Georgia for a quarter-century of success that included the 1980 national championship, died Friday. He was 90.
The school announced that Dooley died peacefully at his Athens home in the presence of his wife, Barbara, and their four children. No cause of death was given.
Dooley was hospitalized this month for what was described as a mild case of COVID-19, but he pronounced himself fully recovered and ready to attend his regular book-signing session at the campus bookstore before an Oct. 15 game against Vanderbilt.
Dooley had a career record of 201-77-10 while coaching the Bulldogs from 1964 to 1988, a stretch that included six Southeastern Conference titles, 20 bowl games and just one losing season.
He is the fourth-winningest coach in SEC history, trailing only Bear Bryant, Steve Spurrier and Nick Saban.
After retiring from coaching, Dooley continued as the school’s athletic director, a job he held from 1979 until 2004. He built a program that achieved success over a wide range of both men’s and women’s sports.
The field at Sanford Stadium was dedicated in his honor during the 2019 season.
“It was a great experience and a moving day,” Dooley said after the ceremony, which he shared with his wife. “I’m thankful for all the people that were a part of making it happen, and all the people that shared in this, which is the greatest thrill. The players, family, cheerleaders, the band, the managers, the trainers, some very special people of the Bulldog nation.”
Dooley was the second prominent member of Georgia’s storied football history to die in the past two weeks.
Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Charlie Trippi died on Oct. 19 at the age of 100.
Dooley’s death came just one day before Georgia, the defending national champion and ranked No. 1 in the nation, faces one of its biggest rivals, the Florida Gators, in the annual “Cocktail Party” game at Jacksonville, Florida.
Dooley dominated that series during his coaching career, going 17-7-1 against the Gators. The most famous victory came in 1980, when Lindsay Scott hauled in a 93-yard touchdown pass from Buck Belue in the closing minutes.
The improbable 26-21 triumph propelled the Bulldogs to a perfect season and their first consensus national title.
Dooley lived long enough to see another. Georgia won it all last season, beating Alabama in the national title game.
Dooley withstood the pressure of winning at a football-mad SEC school during an era when Bryant ran a powerhouse program at Alabama. Dooley won over skeptics early on, using a trick play to upset the defending national champion Crimson Tide 18-17 in the 1965 season opener.
The following year, Georgia won the first of his SEC titles. By the time Dooley stepped down from coaching at age 56, he was one of only 10 NCAA Division I-A coaches to win 200 games.
Stoic in his demeanor and elegant with words delivered in a Southern drawl, a renaissance man who dabbled in horticulture, studied Civil War history and wrote numerous books, Dooley had his greatest run of success after landing a running back from tiny Wrightsville, Georgia.
Hershel Walker.
During Walker’s three years between the hedges, the Bulldogs went 33-3, won three straight SEC titles, captured their only undisputed national title and nearly won another in 1982.
Dooley was a graduate of Auburn, one of Georgia’s most hated rivals, and had no head coaching experience when he was hired by the Bulldogs at the age of 32.
It was not a popular hire, as Dooley often noted through the years.
“My qualifications were such there’s no way I would’ve hired myself,” Dooley conceded in a 2014 interview with the school newspaper, The Red & Black.
No one was complaining by the end of his reign.
Dooley once described coaching as a “series of crises,” adding that he could draw upon plenty of experiences on and off the field.
There were low moments, to be sure.
Near the end of his reign as athletic director, the men’s basketball program was caught up in a scandal that led to the resignation of coach Jim Harrick and resulted in the Bulldogs removing themselves from the SEC and NCAA tournaments.
Dooley’s four-decade stay ended unceremoniously. He was forced into retirement after a nasty spat with then-university President Michael Adams in 2004.
Dooley never left Athens and remained a fixture around the football program, often sitting in on news conferences conducted by the last coach he hired, Mark Richt, and the current coach, Kirby Smart.
Coaching ran in the Dooley blood, for sure.
Vince’s younger brother, Bill, was the head coach at North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest. Son Derek held the top jobs at both Louisiana Tech and SEC rival Tennessee.
When Derek returned to Athens as the Volunteers’ coach in 2010, Vince knew he couldn’t pull against his son, but he didn’t want to be seen rooting against the Bulldogs in their own stadium.
So he stayed at home, watching the game on television as Georgia romped to a 41-14 victory.
“In a perfect world, I’d rather him be farther away and not in the same conference,” Vince said. “But it is what it is. We’ll make the make the best of it. I am very proud of him.”
At Georgia, Dooley coached a plethora of standout players — from Bill Stanfill to Scott Woerner to Rodney Hampton. But his most famous recruit was undoubtedly Walker, a running back who possessed an almost supernatural combination of bruising power and sprinter’s speed.
Walker made his mark in his very first college game, running right over Tennessee defensive back Bill Bates for a touchdown that helped the Bulldogs rally for a 16-15 victory.
“My god, a freshman!” longtime Georgia radio announcer Larry Munson screamed over the air.
Walker rushed for 1,616 yards and 15 touchdowns that season, but the Bulldogs’ national title hopes appeared doomed when they trailed Florida 21-20.
Then Belue and Scott hooked up on perhaps the most famous play in school history. Thanks to another memorable call by Munson, the game would forever be known as “Run, Lindsay, Run.”
Georgia capped its 12-0 season with a 17-10 win over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl to clinch the national championship.
That season would be the pinnacle of Dooley’s career, though the Bulldogs nearly won another national title two years later. Walker won the Heisman Trophy and Georgia was ranked No. 1 heading into the Sugar Bowl after an undefeated regular season.
But No. 2 Penn State captured the championship with a 27-23 victory in what turned out to be Walker’s final college game. He bolted for the upstart U.S. Football League after his junior season.
Walker is now running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican. Locked in a tight battle with incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, Walker received the endorsement of his former coach in a recent ad.
While Georgia’s run of three straight SEC championships ended in 1983, the Bulldogs capped a 10-1-1 season with a 10-9 upset of Texas — a game that Dooley would still look back on with pride years later.
Best known for his coaching accomplishments, Dooley took pride in running an athletic program that was among the nation’s best in a wide range of sports.
“The greatest satisfaction from being director of athletics comes from working toward the goal of putting a program together in which all the sports have an opportunity to compete at the highest level,” he said.
From tennis to swimming, gymnastics to baseball, the Bulldogs won 19 national championships under Dooley. He was inducted into the National College Football Hall of Fame in 1998.
Dooley was born into an athletic family in Mobile, Alabama, on Sept. 4, 1932. After graduating from McGill High School, he went to Auburn on a football scholarship and played basketball.
Dooley was an outstanding defensive back and captain of the 1953 team, a year in which he also played in the College All-Star Game. He graduated from Auburn in 1954 with a degree in business management before serving in the Marine Corps for two years.
In 1956, Dooley became an assistant coach at Auburn and was freshman coach at the school for three seasons before being named head coach of Georgia shortly after the end of the 1963 season, taking over a program in disarray after three straight losing years under Johnny Griffith.
Twenty-five years later, Dooley was carried off the field after his final game, a 34-27 victory over Michigan State in the Gator Bowl.
Survivors include his wife and their children: Deanna, Daniel, Denise and Derek.
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Retired AP Sports Writer Tom Saladino contributed to this report.
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Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at https://twitter.com/pnewberry1963 and find his work at https://apnews.com
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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap—top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://bit.ly/3pqZVaF
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Georgia DA Asks Supreme Court To Let Lindsey Graham Testify In Election Probe
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The Georgia prosecutor investigating possible illegal election interference in the 2020 election said Thursday that the Supreme Court should not stand in the way of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s testimony to a grand jury.
In a filing with the high court, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said the justices should reject Graham’s plea that they block his testimony while he continues to appeal the order to appear before a special grand jury.
The panel is investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in the state.
Justice Clarence Thomas issued a temporary stay of the testimony while the court more fully considers the issue. Thomas acted on his own as the justice who handles emergency appeals from Georgia. But the entire court is expected to weigh in.
Graham has argued he is shielded from the questioning by a constitutional provision, the speech and debate clause.
Willis said lower courts already have modified the subpoena issued to Graham to foreclose questioning about protected legislative activity, including questioning on any topics related to individual investigation by the Senator into election wrongdoing in Georgia, while allowing questioning only on topics outside the boundaries of legislative activity.
Graham’s testimony, originally sought for late August, has been rescheduled to Nov. 17, according to a new subpoena that was attached to his Supreme Court filing.
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Second woman comes forward accusing Herschel Walker of encouraging her to get an abortion
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Second woman comes forward accusing Herschel Walker of encouraging her to get an abortion – CBS News
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CBS Evening News, October 26, 2022
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CBS Evening News, October 26, 2022 – CBS News
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Second woman claims Walker paid for her abortion
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Second woman claims Walker paid for her abortion – CBS News
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Mark Meadows Ordered To Testify In George Election Probe
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ATLANTA (AP) — A judge on Wednesday ordered former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to testify before a special grand jury that’s investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to influence the state’s 2020 election.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the investigation early last year into actions taken by Trump and others to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Meadows is one of a number of high-profile associates and advisers of the Republican former president whose testimony Willis has sought.
Because Meadows doesn’t live in Georgia, Willis, a Democrat, had to use a process that involves getting a judge where he lives in South Carolina to order him to appear. She filed a petition in August seeking to compel his testimony. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury, signed off on the petition, certifying that Meadows is a “necessary and material witness” for the investigation.
Circuit Court Judge Edward Miller in Pickens County, South Carolina, honored McBurney’s finding and ordered Meadows to testify, Willis spokesman Jeff DiSantis confirmed. Meadows attorney James Bannister could not immediately be reached for comment.
In the petition seeking Meadows’ testimony, Willis wrote that Meadows attended a Dec. 21, 2020, meeting at the White House with Trump and others “to discuss allegations of voter fraud and certification of electoral college votes from Georgia and other states.” The next day, Willis wrote, Meadows made a “surprise visit” to Cobb County, just outside Atlanta, where an audit of signatures on absentee ballot envelopes was being conducted. He asked to observe the audit but wasn’t allowed to because it wasn’t open to the public, the petition says.
Meadows also sent emails to Justice Department officials after the election alleging voter fraud in Georgia and elsewhere and requesting investigations, Willis wrote. And he participated in a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, during which Trump suggested the state’s top elections official, also a Republican, could “find” enough votes to overturn his narrow election loss in the state.
In a court filing this week, Bannister argued that executive privilege and other rights shield his client from testifying.
Bannister asserted in the filing that Meadows has been instructed by Trump “to preserve certain privileges and immunities attaching to his former office as White House Chief of Staff.” Willis’ petition calls for him “to divulge the contents of executive privileged communications with the President,” Bannister wrote.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows speaks with reporters outside the White House, Oct. 26, 2020, in Washington. A judge has ordered former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to travel to Atlanta to testify before a special grand jury that’s investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies illegally tried to influence the state’s 2020 election. Patrick Semansky via Associated Press
Meadows previously invoked that privilege in a fight against subpoenas issued by the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The House held Meadows in contempt of Congress for defying the subpoena, but the Justice Department declined to prosecute.
Special grand juries in Georgia cannot issue indictments. Instead, they can gather evidence and compel testimony and then can recommend further action, including criminal charges, in a final report. But it is ultimately up to the district attorney to decide whether to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury.
Bannister argued that the special grand jury proceedings do not qualify as a criminal proceeding under the South Carolina law that governs out-of-state subpoena requests and that Meadows cannot be compelled to testify in a civil inquiry. Because he has no testimony to offer, he cannot be considered a “material witness,” the filing argues.
Grand jury secrecy is “paramount” in South Carolina, Bannister wrote. Because the special grand jury is expected to ultimately issue a public report and the paperwork seeking Meadows’ testimony was publicly filed, it is contrary to South Carolina grand jury secrecy provisions and that would violate his state right to privacy, Bannister argued.
McBurney, the Fulton County Superior Court judge, has made clear in ruling on other attempts by potential witnesses to avoid or delay testimony that he considers the special grand jury’s investigation to be a criminal proceeding. He has also stressed the need for the secrecy of the panel’s workings.
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Julie and Savannah Chrisley get emotional about family’s struggle amid legal drama | CNN
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CNN
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Savannah Chrisley believes her mother Julie is handling her current legal issues better than she is.
The pair sat down for an episode of the podcast “Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley” that came out Tuesday and their conversation was emotional.
Todd and Julie Chrisley, Savannah’s parents, were convicted in June of conspiracy to defraud banks out of of more than $30 million in loans.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the reality stars who found fame on the series “Chrisley Knows Best,” are set to be sentenced on November 21. They are facing up to 30 years in prison.
Their daughter said during the podcast that she’s angry because “my whole life could change” as her parents are her support system.
She pointed out that her parents have dived deeper into their Christian faith in this time and tearfully asked her mother about that.
“Everyone has it hard,” Julie Chrisley said. “But the one thing God has said is ‘I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.’ He didn’t promise us it was always going to be rainbows and sunshine. But he always promised that the rain would eventually stop.”
She said that they were no better than anyone else to go through hard times, but believes that people go through challenge to propel them into their destiny.
“I believe you don’t have a testimony without a test,” Julie Chrisley said tearfully.
Savannah Chrisley urged people to “do the research” when it comes to her parents’ legal issues and said the whole legal experience has “broken” her father.
Julie Chrisley said she has a great deal of fear.
“It’s fear for my parents. It’s fear for my mother-in-law because I’m the caregiver,” she said. “I’m the person who takes care of everyone.”
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Michigan man arrested in Georgia shooting that injured 4
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CORDELE, Ga. — A Michigan man shot four people at a Georgia restaurant on Saturday night, police told news outlets.
Bryant Lamar Collins, 42, opened fire at the 16 East Bar and Grill around 10:30 p.m., according to Cordele Police. Of the four victims taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds, one person has been released.
The Cordele Police Department said the uncooperative shooter had to be identified by his fingerprints, and that authorities are “still working to find a motive to this senseless act of violence.”
Crisp County Deputies and the Georgia State Patrol also responded to the shooting.
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Mystery robocall thanks Democrats in competitive Georgia races for supporting abortion rights of ‘birthing persons’ | CNN Politics
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CNN
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A political robocall made to tens of thousands of Georgians thanked a vulnerable congressional Democrat and the Democratic nominee for governor for protecting the rights of “birthing persons” to “have an abortion up until the date of birth” – targeting abortion rights tension in the competitive races.
The calls, which used polarizing language popular with Democratic activists, are made to sound like they are in support of Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop and gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams – but Democrats involved in the races allege that the call, uncovered by CNN’s KFile, is the work of Republicans.
The call says it is done by a group called American Values – groups operating under that name or similar ones have said they are not behind the call.
Bishop, who has served in Congress for 30 years, faces Republican Chris West in the race for Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District, one of the only competitive House races in the state.
The Abrams campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which supports Bishop’s race, said they did not pay for the robocall. Bishop’s campaign declined to comment on the record.
The robocall is narrated by a woman who gives her name as Jill and her pronouns as she/her and continues to say people who identify as women are under attack in the state.
“This is Jill, and my pronouns are she/her,” she says. “I’m sure you’ll agree with me that people that identify as women are under attack, not just in Georgia, but throughout our country. Georgia is lucky to have Stacey Abrams and Sanford Bishop fighting for our abortion rights.”
The call goes on to say Bishop and Abrams support abortion until the moment of birth. Abrams has campaigned that she does not believe in any government restrictions on abortion, calling it a medical decision not beholden to “arbitrary” timelines. Bishop has voted in the past to ban late-term abortion procedures, indicating some support for restriction, and has said that abortion should be rare, legal and safe and available in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life or health of a woman.
“While some elected officials are trying to limit abortion rights to six months or even five months after conception, we are so lucky to have Stacey Abrams and Sanford Bishop fighting to protect our right to have an abortion up until the date of birth,” the narrator of the call says. “Would you please take a moment to call Stacey Abrams or Sanford Bishop and thank them for standing up for women’s right to abort their babies up to the point of birth.”
“Government needs to stay out of the reproductive rights of birthing persons,” says the narrator, Jill.
The robocall ends by saying it was “paid for by American Values and not authorized with any candidate or candidate’s committee” – but several groups who operate under that name or similar names denied to CNN they were behind the call. And there is no political action committee registered by that name in Georgia.
The call reached approximately 43,000 phones from Friday October 14 through Sunday October 16, according to data from the anti-robocall app Nomorobo.
The message fails to identify who paid for the call in the introduction and give a call back number, which violates rules from the Federal Communications Commission for autodialed or prerecorded voice political campaign calls.
The October robocall also invites listeners to press one and two to leave a message for Abrams and Bishop, respectively. If a user presses two, they are redirected to Bishop’s Albany district office. But when a user presses one, the call redirects to the private number of the chair for the local Democratic committee, Sandra Sallee. Sallee called the ploy a “dirty” trick in a phone interview and said she was subjected to harassing phone calls.
CNN’s KFile reached out to nearly a dozen active federal PACs with “American Values” in their name. Several PACs told CNN they have never used robocalls for messaging and have no plans to; others did not respond to CNN’s comment request.
“Robocalls are kind of a funny political tactic in so far as they have an almost perfect record of never working,” said Donald Green, a professor of political science at Columbia University.
Green said the “fairly unanimous conclusion” is that they don’t seem to affect voter turnout or vote choice but are often used because they are very inexpensive. He suggested that the tactic could have been used to generate media attention to the race.
“It’s pretty unusual to have something that is kind of, you know, wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing-type tactic,” said Green. “It’s not unheard of in American politics because nothing is unheard of, but it’s rare.”
On Thursday, another mysterious robocall littered with falsehoods was made to Georgia voters with a similar modus operandi, but this time it solely targets Bishop.
“Congressman Bishop is the only candidate with 100% rating with Planned Parenthood and will defend the right to an abortion up to nine months. Do not let Republican Chris West win,” a female narrator says.
According to data from Nomorobo, this robocall reached 41,000 phones and there is some overlap between the recipients of this call and the one targeting Abrams and Bishop.
The call failed to disclose who was behind it at the beginning and end of the call. When CNN tried to call the number, an automated message said that “this number is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”
In a statement to CNN, Abrams’ campaign spokesperson Alex Floyd said, “This disgusting and false attack is a new low for the right wing — and comes as misrepresentations and outright lies that have become a feature of the Kemp campaign. Stacey Abrams has been clear about her support for limitations on abortion in line with Roe and Casey. Now it’s time for Brian Kemp to clearly condemn this false robocall and start answering Georgians’ questions about his extreme anti-choice record.”
Abrams, who once opposed abortion rights, said last month that abortion is “a decision that should be made between a woman and her doctor. That viability is the metric. And that if a woman’s health or life is in danger, then viability extends until the time of birth, but women do not make this choice lightly.”
Abrams added that no one believes there should not be a limit, but that “the limit should not be made by politicians who don’t believe in basic biology or, apparently, basic morality.”
A spokesperson from the Kemp campaign, Tate Mitchell, said they were not responsible for the robocalls.
The Bishop campaign declined to comment to CNN.
The DCCC said through spokesperson Monica Robinson, “This misleading robocall – paid for by a shady outside interest group – is what desperation smells like. Resorting to lies to win an election is proof that Chris West can’t win honestly or on his own merits. If West has any integrity at all, he’ll denounce these robocalls and call on his special interest backers to stop lying to Georgians.”
Bishop, a 15-term moderate Democrat, has in the past advocated and voted for some late-term abortion restrictions, and recently reiterated his support for abortion rights. “These personal health care choices should ultimately rest with a woman, her God and her doctor—not with politicians in 50 different state legislatures,” Bishop said in a statement after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
West’s campaign did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
This is not the first time a robocall spouting specious claims has occurred in Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District in this election cycle.
In June, the local newspaper the Ledger-Enquirer reported that robocalls were being sent to households in the district that appeared to be affiliated with Republican candidate Jeremy Hunt’s campaign, but the underlying message was meant to drive support away from Hunt, a Black former Army captain.
One June robocall noted it was time to “celebrate Black independence” and “modernize” the Republican party by supporting Hunt. “We can leave the old ways of the Republican Party in the past and build our party back better,” the narrator said, a nod to Biden’s “Build Back Better” slogan. “No more attacks on our capital, no more divisive language from a former President.”
That robocall also did not identify who paid for it, and both Hunt and West accused the other’s campaign and the super PACs supporting them of sending the call.
One PAC that supported Hunt in that primary is called “American Values First,” a name partially invoked in the October robocall targeting Bishop and Abrams.
American Values First is one of the PACs CNN reached out for comment to ask if they are responsible for the October robocall. The treasurer and spokesperson for the PAC, Joel Riter, said that the PAC had nothing to do with the robocalls and has not spent any money in the race for the general election.
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Appeals court rules Lindsey Graham must testify in Georgia election probe
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U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before a special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia, a federal appeals court said Thursday.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals paves the way for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to bring Graham in for questioning. She wants to ask the South Carolina Republican about phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the weeks after the election.
Raffensperger said Graham asked whether he had the power to reject certain absentee ballots, something Raffensperger took as a suggestion to toss out legally cast votes. Graham has dismissed that interpretation as “ridiculous.”
Graham could appeal the ruling to the full appellate court. An attorney for Graham deferred comment Thursday to a spokesperson for the senator’s office, which did not immediately comment on the ruling.
Graham had challenged his subpoena, saying his position as a U.S. senator protected him from having to testify in the state investigation. He has also denied wrongdoing. In a six-page order, the judges wrote that Graham “has failed to demonstrate that this approach will violate his rights under the Speech and Debate Clause.”
Willis opened the investigation early last year, shortly after a recording of a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Raffensperger was made public. In that call, Trump suggested Raffensperger could “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Willis requested a special grand jury, saying the panel’s subpoena power would allow the questioning of people who otherwise wouldn’t cooperate with the investigation. She has since filed several rounds of paperwork with the court seeking to compel the testimony of close Trump advisers and associates.
Some of those associates include former White House counsel Pat Cipollone, who has testified before the special grand jury, according to a person familiar with Cipollone’s testimony who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss a private appearance. Cipollone’s appearance was first reported by CNN.
Cipollone vigorously resisted efforts to undo the election and has said he did not believe there was sufficient fraud to have affected the outcome of the race won by Biden.
Graham was in the first group of people close to Trump whose testimony Willis sought to compel in a batch of petitions filed with the court in early July. He challenged his subpoena in federal court, but U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May refused to toss out his subpoena. Graham then appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Graham’s lawyers argued that the U.S. Constitution’s speech or debate clause, which protects members of Congress from having to answer questions about legislative activity, shields him from having to testify. He contends that the call he made to Raffensperger fare was protected because he was asking questions to inform his decisions on voting to certify the 2020 election and future legislation.
Lawyers on Willis’ team argued that comments Graham made in news interviews at the time, as well as statements by Raffensperger, show that the senator was motivated by politics rather than by legislative factfinding.
They also argued that the scope of the special grand jury’s investigation includes a variety of other topics that have nothing to do with the Raffensperger call. They also want to ask Graham about his briefings by the Trump campaign, including whether he was briefed on the Trump-Raffensperger call, and whether he communicated or coordinated with Trump and his campaign about efforts to overturn the election results in Georgia and elsewhere.
Graham’s lawyers also argued that the principle of “sovereign immunity” protects a U.S. senator from being summoned by a state prosecutor.
Even if the speech or debate clause or sovereign immunity didn’t apply, Graham’s lawyers argued, his status as a “high-ranking official” protects him from having to testify. That’s because Willis has failed to show that his testimony is essential and that the information he would provide cannot be obtained from someone else, they argued.
In their ruling Thursday, the appellate judges ruled that Willis “can ask about non-investigatory conduct that falls within the subpoena’s scope” but “may not ask about any investigatory conduct,” noting that Graham could note any issues over specific areas at the time of his questioning.
Others have already made their appearances before the special grand jury. Former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who’s been told he could face criminal charges in the probe, testified in August. Attorneys John Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro have also appeared before the panel.
Paperwork has been filed seeking testimony from others, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Associated Press writers Kate Brumback in Atlanta and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
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Police search Georgia landfill for missing toddler’s remains
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SAVANNAH, Ga. — The search for a missing Georgia toddler presumed dead by police shifted Tuesday to a landfill outside Savannah where investigators planned to start sifting through trash for the child’s remains.
Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley said investigators had evidence that prompted the landfill search for the body of 20-month-old Quinton Simon, but he declined to say what it was.
“We believe that he was placed in a specific dumpster at a specific location and it was brought here by regular means of disposal,” Hadley said during a news conference. “I have every belief that we will find his remains here at the landfill.”
Police began searching for Quinton on Oct. 5 when his mother called 911 and said the boy had gone missing from his playpen. After more than a week spent searching the house and surrounding neighborhood, Hadley announced Thursday that police believe the child is dead.
He also named the boy’s mother, Leilani Simon, as the a suspect in her son’s death and disappearance. Nearly a week later, she has not been arrested or charged.
Hadley said his department and the FBI spent days planning and getting personnel and equipment in place to search the landfill.
“We want justice for Quinton just like everybody else,” the police chief said, “and we want to find his remains so we can give him a proper resting place.”
Dozens of FBI agents were on hand to assist police officers, said Will Clarke, supervisory agent for the bureau’s satellite office in Savannah.
Clarke said investigators were focusing their search on a specific area of the landfill, where debris would be deposited on a designated search deck for authorities to comb through one pile at a time.
“This will not be quick, it will not be easy and the outcome is uncertain,” Clarke said.
Leilani Simon had no listed phone number and it wasn’t known Tuesday if she had a lawyer who could speak on her behalf. Court records showed she represented herself in two civil cases filed since March involving her custody of her children and child support.
Police reports and court documents show there was turmoil in recent weeks between the child’s mother and grandmother, Billie Jo Howell, who had legal custody of him and an older sibling. Quinton, his mother and his mother’s boyfriend lived with Howell.
Simon called police on Sept. 7 following an argument with her mother over laundry in which she said Howell had shoved her against a wall, according to a police report. No one was charged and an officer found no injuries other than Simon’s reddened elbow.
The following day, Quinton’s grandmother filed papers in Chatham County Magistrate Court to have Simon and her boyfriend evicted from her home, WTOC-TV reported.
A few weeks later, on Sept. 28, a Superior Court judge ordered Leilani Simon to pay $150 per month in child support.
Quinton’s mother reported him missing a week later.
“We’re not ready to charge anyone yet,” Hadley said Tuesday when asked why no arrests had been made. “We still have work to do. We still have an investigation to do. We’re not going to do anything preemptively that would harm a future prosecution.”
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At Georgia debate, Abrams and Kemp clash on abortion, crime
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ATLANTA (AP) — Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams painted different visions for the future of Georgia, clashing on the economy, crime, voting and education as they debated Monday night after more than 100,000 Georgians swarmed to the polls of the first day of early voting.
Kemp issued perhaps his clearest commitment yet that he won’t pursue any new restrictions on abortion or birth control, clarifying his position on an issue he’s sometimes avoided as he seeks a second term.
Abrams, pushing uphill to unseat the incumbent four years after she narrowly lost to Kemp, told voters his record of accomplishments was scant.
“This is a governor who for the last four years has beat his chest but delivered very little for most Georgians,” she said. “He’s weakened gun laws and flooded our streets. He’s weakened … women’s rights. He’s denied women the access to reproductive care. The most dangerous thing facing Georgia is four more years of Brian Kemp.”
Kemp, though, reminded voters that he had delivered billions in tax relief and rebates to millions of Georgians, crediting his decision to reopen Georgia’s economy amid the pandemic for the state’s financial strength and repeatedly blaming Democrats for economic difficulties.
“My desire is to continue to help them fight through 40-year-high inflation and high gas prices and other things that our Georgia families are facing right now financially because of bad policies in Washington, D.C., where President Biden and the Democrats have complete control,” he said.
Kemp said he “would not” go beyond the “heartbeat bill” he signed in 2019 to ban nearly all abortions at six weeks of pregnancy, a point that comes before many women know they’re pregnant. The law took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in June overturned a constitutional right to abortion services. The Georgia law includes exceptions in cases of rape, incest and health risks to pregnant women.
Abrams has criticized the Republican incumbent as an extremist on abortion, leaving him trapped between moderates who want more permissive abortion laws and activists who want the governor to completely ban abortion or restrict Plan B, an over-the-counter contraceptive that can prevent pregnancy even after an egg is fertilized.
The debate question came after Kemp was captured on tape by a voter pressing Kemp to commit to more restrictions. Kemp sought to quell concerns. “That’s not my desire” to push any new abortion or birth control legislation, he said.
Libertarian Shane Hazel, who was also on the debate stage, interrupted the other candidates several times to get his point across because he wasn’t asked as many questions.
Beyond abortion, Kemp and Abrams rekindled their long-standing feud over voting rights, with Abrams accusing Kemp as governor and previously as secretary of state of trying to make it harder for some Georgians to vote.
Abrams said, however, that she would accept the outcome of the November election after Republicans criticized her for acknowledging Kemp’s 2018 victory but refusing to use the word “concede.”
“I will always acknowledge the outcome of elections, but I will never deny access to every voter, because that is the responsibility of every American to defend the right to vote,” she said.
Kemp urged voters to remember that he was among the Republican governors who relaxed public restrictions early in the COVID-19 pandemic, including resisting widespread mask mandates and school closures during the nation’s worst public health crisis in a century.
“Our economy is incredible … we are the ones that’s been fighting for you when Ms. Abrams was not,” Kemp said.
Still, he found himself on the defensive from Hazel, who blasted Kemp for ever going along with any restrictions and for endorsing the government-distributed COVID-19 vaccine. Abrams defended her criticism of the reopening as showing prudent caution in a pandemic that killed tens of thousands of Georgians.
Abrams and other Democrats have steamed as Kemp has used the power of the governor’s office to spend heavily, noting much of the spending is underwritten by a Democratic COVID-19 relief bill that Kemp opposed. Abrams argues she has a better longer-term vision for Georgia’s economy, pledging a much larger teacher pay raise than the $5,000 Kemp delivered, an expanded Medicaid program, increased access to state contracts for small and minority-owned businesses and broader access to college aid paid for by gambling.
Perhaps the old rivals’ most personal clash came on crime and public safety. Kemp, as he has with his campaign ads, spent considerable effort painting Abrams as an enemy of law enforcement, arguing she has no support from Georgia sheriffs and police. She retorted that it’s possible to support “justice and safety” at the same time and said Kemp has made Georgia more dangerous by making it legal to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.
Earlier Monday, Kemp rolled out a fresh set of anti-crime proposals, including increasing mandatory prison sentences for recruiting juveniles into a gang to at least 10 years and making it harder for judges to release people who have been arrested without cash bail. “That’s what we’re doing, going after street gangs,” Kemp said.
Abrams recalled a 2021 gun massacre at Asian-owned massage parlors in metro Atlanta. “Street gangs did not shoot six Asian women, going into a gun store, getting a weapon and murdering six women,” she said. “Street gangs aren’t the reason people are getting shot in parking lots and grocery stores and in schools.”
Monday’s debate took place as Georgians began flooding the polls for 19 days of early in-person voting. Herb McCaulla, who owns a business selling pop culture memorabilia, praised Kemp on the economy.
“He’s doing a great job,” McCaulla said in Lilburn in suburban Atlanta. “He kept this state afloat during the COVID craziness.”
Democrats said they opposed Kemp over abortion restrictions and loosened gun laws.
“I want Kemp out,” Chalmers Stewart said.
More than 4 million people could vote in the state’s elections this year, and more than half are likely to cast ballots before Election Day. Gabriel Sterling, an official with the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said more than 100,000 people cast early votes Monday. Sterling said that surpassed a previous record of 72,000 for a midterm cycle.
More than 200,000 people have requested mail ballots already, with an Oct. 28 deadline to request them. Early in-person voting will run through Nov. 4.
Kemp and Abrams are scheduled to meet for a second debate on Oct. 30.
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Follow Jeff Amy at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.
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EXPLAINER: How Georgia’s midterm runoff elections work
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Two years ago, control of the U.S. Senate came down to Georgia, with two pivotal runoff election wins tipping the chamber’s favor into Democratic hands.
This fall, it’s possible the newly minted battleground state could again play a major role in how the Senate shakes out, with a marquee contest that, thanks to a third-party candidate, may not be decided until a runoff election a month after Nov. 8.
Here’s a look at the contenders and how the Georgia Senate race — and perhaps control of the chamber — may not be decided until December:
WHO ARE THE PLAYERS?
Most attention in Georgia’s contest has focused on incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican nominee Herschel Walker, whom polls suggest are headed to a tight contest.
Warnock has campaigned on Democrats’ legislative accomplishments like coronavirus relief and infrastructure reforms. Walker has been beleaguered by a variety of critical attention, including claims he exaggerated his business success, as well as successive reports alleging that he encouraged and paid for a woman’s 2009 abortion and later fathered a child with her.
There is, however, a third-party candidate who could affect either major-party contender’s ability to get a majority of votes on election night. Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver, seeking to become Georgia’s first LGBTQ candidate elected to Congress, lost a 2020 special election to replace the late Rep. John Lewis.
With an expected close race, it may not take a considerable share of the vote for Oliver, an Atlanta businessman, to force a runoff by keeping Warnock or Walker from getting a majority Nov. 8.
HOW DOES THE RUNOFF WORK?
Under Georgia law, if no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote Nov. 8, the Senate race will go to a runoff four weeks later — on Dec. 6 — between the top two vote-getters.
State and federal runoffs used to happen on different days, but a measure passed last year combines those into a single date. Before this year, runoffs for federal general elections were held nine weeks later.
HOW HAS THIS PLAYED OUT BEFORE?
In 2020, control of the U.S. Senate came down to the twin contests in Georgia, both of which were won by Democrats in runoffs that stretched into the next calendar year. In their 2021 runoff elections, Jon Ossoff and Warnock became the first Democrats to win a U.S. Senate election in Georgia since 2000.
Those victories put the chamber at its 50-50 party-control mark for the next two years, tilting in Democrats’ control thanks to the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Unlike in 2020, only one of those Georgia seats is up this year. In defeating Republican Sen. David Perdue, Ossoff was elected to a full six-year term and won’t be up for reelection until 2026.
The seat Warnock occupies went up for grabs in August 2019, when GOP Sen. Johnny Isakson announced he was resigning because of failing health. Georgia’s governor appointed Kelly Loeffler to temporarily fill the seat, but she had to run in the November 2020 general election to fill the remaining two years of Isakson’s term.
Having won that contest, Warnock is now seeking his first full, six-year term.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
With the Senate so closely divided, any of the 35 races on the ballot this fall could decide the 100-seat chamber’s control. The 2021 wins from Warnock and Ossoff gave President Joe Biden’s nascent administration a boost in Congress, where the Democratic Senate control, coupled with Harris’ tie-breaking votes, helped cement legislative victories on issues like COVID relief packages, the Inflation Reduction Act and a number of administrative appointments.
Now, whether Democrats can hold on to one of the two Senate seats they won two years ago may serve as a test of whether the longtime Republican stronghold continues a shift to swing state territory, thanks in part to demographic shifts, particularly in the economically vibrant area of metropolitan Atlanta.
In 2018, Democrat Stacey Abrams galvanized Black voters in her bid to become the country’s first African American woman to lead a state, a campaign she narrowly lost. She’s running again this year, in a rematch with GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
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Follow AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
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Georgia college student killed by plane propeller at airport
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STATESBORO, Ga. — A college student died after being struck by the propeller of a small plane as he disembarked at an airport in southeast Georgia, authorities said.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Board are investigating the death Sunday night at Statesboro-Bulloch County Airport, FAA spokesman Steve Kulm said.
Sani Aliyu, of Atlanta, and a young woman had flown on the single-engine Cessna to nearby Savannah and back on a date, Bulloch County Coroner Jake Futch told the Statesboro Herald. He said the plane landed safely on the return trip to Statesboro.
The woman “got off the plane and walked toward the back of the plane,” Futch said, “and he got off the airplane and walked toward the front of the plane, and when he did, the propeller hit him.”
Aliyu was a sophomore enrolled at Georgia Southern University, school spokeswoman Melanie Simon said.
A pilot and co-pilot had flown the couple, said Capt. Todd Hutchens of the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office. He said deputies were sharing information they gathered with the FAA and NTSB.
“Nobody is really at fault or anything,” Hutchens said. “It was an accident.”
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