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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2022

👋 Happy new year! Better yet, happy election year!

As I write this newsletter, like many of you, I’m still celebrating the Georgia Bulldogs' spectacular win in the national championship game. The victory over Alabama puts Georgia in the center of the college football universe, just as the eyes of political observers everywhere will be on Georgia as our elections unfold.

  • By the time the final minutes of 2022 drain through the hourglass, we’ll know whether Georgia has truly become the battleground state that elected Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock and Joe Biden in the last election cycle — or whether Republicans will exert their dominance once again.
That’s why I’m excited about bringing you this weekly newsletter featuring the top political headlines and some stories you may have overlooked. Please share with a friend!
— Bill Nigut
★ Biden visits 'belly of the beast'
President Joe Biden delivers remarks urging for voting rights legislation during a speech in Atlanta on Jan. 11, 2021. (Riley Bunch/GPB News)

If you still need proof of how important Georgia has become to the national political debate, look no further than President Joe Biden's and Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Atlanta on Tuesday.
  • The president chose Georgia to make his strongest push yet for the Senate to pass two long-stalled election reform bills that Democrats say will correct the measures passed in Georgia and other Republican states that they believe were designed to suppress minority votes.
“I believe the threat to our democracy is so grave that we must find a way to pass these voting rights bills,” Biden said.
  • The White House called Georgia “the belly of the beast” and “ground zero” for GOP election suppression efforts.
Biden announced he is now in favor of a temporary suspension of filibuster rules that have allowed Republicans to block debate on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, which have already passed the House.
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★ Stacey Abrams reapplies for the job

Stacey Abrams speaks at a Joe Biden campaign event in Decatur on Oct. 12, 2020. (Riley Bunch)

In the premiere race on the ballot, we’ll be watching to see whether voters will hand the keys of the governor’s mansion to Democratic hopeful Stacey Abrams on her second try for the job.

Abrams narrowly lost to Gov. Brian Kemp by about 55,000 votes in 2018 and would become the nation's first Black woman elected as governor if she wins.

But who will be her opponent? We won’t know until the GOP primary is over. It's as intriguing is the overall race, pitting conservative incumbent Kemp — who has a booming economy to run on — against his former friend and ally David Perdue, the former senator who was egged on by Donald Trump to enter the race.
★ GOP election square dance: Swing your partner to the right

Gov. Brian Kemp speaks at Adventure Outdoors, a gun shop in Smyrna, on Jan. 5, 2022, expressing support for so-called "constitutional carry" gun legislation in 2022. (Stephen Fowler / GPB News)

As the general assembly convened this week, we saw that Kemp is looking to burnish his conservative credentials by supporting base-pleasing measures such as a so-called “constitutional carry” bill, which would allow Georgians to carry guns almost everywhere without a permit.

  • Democrats say the proposal flies in the face of efforts to rein in gun violence in Georgia cities. Learn more about the governor's plan by clicking here. 

Meanwhile, Republican legislators are introducing a flurry of bills to please the base, too:

  • A measure to ban “obscene” materials from school.
  • A bill to eliminate ballot drop boxes — extensively used in the last election, mostly by Democratic absentee voters .
  • A proposal to block the teaching of critical race theory.
Go deeper with coverage from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 
 
 ★ Today's talker: Trump hangs up on NPR

President Donald Trump speaks at an October 2020 campaign rally. (Madeleine Cook/Columbus Ledger-Enquirer)

In case you missed it: Former President Donald Trump finally spoke with NPR, in an interview that aired on Wednesday.

  • The interview was six years in the making. Trump and his team had repeatedly declined interviews with NPR until Tuesday, when he called in from his home in Florida. It was scheduled for 15 minutes, but lasted just over 9.

After being pressed about his repeated lies about the 2020 presidential election, Trump abruptly ended the interview.
On the Jan. 11 Political Rewind show, panelist Dr. Amy Steigerwalt explains why we haven't seen a successful filibuster in decades — and how what we call "the filibuster" today isn't really one at all. Hear more on that and how it relates to Biden's push for voting rights during his trip to Atlanta.
 ★ Mark your calendar
  • Primary election voter registration deadline — April 25
  • General primary election — May 24
  • Primary election runoffs — June 21
  • General election registration deadline — Oct. 11
  • General election — Nov. 8
  • General election runoffs — Dec. 6
The political newsletter is written by Bill Nigut
and edited by Wayne Drash and Khari Sampson.
Thank you for sharing your time with us. Feel free to send us feedback at GAtoday@gpb.org.

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