Here’s some Republicans in disarray news out of Georgia to kick off your week courtesy of Rolling Stone:
In the lead-up to the contest between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Trump-endorsed challenger Herschel Walker, several GOP figures and Trump allies have already implored him not to hold a Georgia rally ahead of the runoff, according to two people familiar with the matter and another person briefed on the situation. Trump — who helped recruit Walker to run — and his advisers have discussed the possibility of heading to Georgia, though Trump hadn’t made a commitment as of last week.
Trump has, however, suggested to those close to him that he’ll react poorly if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigns — a potential 2024 rival — in Georgia while the Republican Party holds its once undisputed leader at arm’s length, the first two sources say. People who’ve recently spoken to Trump fear that if DeSantis were to announce a Georgia event, it would guarantee that Trump would also head to the state.
Trump has also vehemently argued to aides and confidants that his presence in the runoff would be a net positive for Walker, and he has accused pundits and Republicans who say he shouldn’t go to Georgia are unintelligent Trump haters.
But two years ago, when control of the Senate came down to two Georgia run-offs, Republicans lost both, and some blame Trump. High-level party figures are publicly warning that Trump’s presence could lead to a similar result this time around, fearing that Trump’s poor favorability among independent voters and election denialism could do more harm than good.
Adviser Jason Miller told Newsmax that he had advised Trump to “hold off until after the Georgia race.” Trump 2016 campaign senior adviser Mike Biundo told Fox News that “Walker’s campaign needs to be the priority and focus for our party.” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a vocal critic of Trump, told Fox that the announcement was “a terrible idea” and that whoever was advising the president to plow forward with his campaign plans “should be fired.”
According to one of the people familiar with the matter, the ex-president has privately complained about a Nov. 9 Fox News clip, during which his own former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany declined to say whether or not Trump should travel to Georgia — even though she added that DeSantis should be “welcome to the state.” Trump saw the Fox segment, starring one of his own past senior administration officials, as a “slap in the face,” per the source’s characterization.
Meanwhile, over on Team Blue:
Former President Barack Obama is returning to Atlanta for the second time this campaign season, this time to hold a rally for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock ahead of the Dec. 6 runoff.
Obama will headline a Dec. 1 event for Warnock to boost turnout in the race against Republican hopeful Herschel Walker. The contest landed in a four-week runoff after neither captured a majority of the vote in the November election.
The former president starred in an Oct. 28 event for Warnock, Stacey Abrams and other statewide Democrats where he warned the party faithful that “democracy is at stake in this election.”
It was one of several stops he held in battleground states before the midterm, and Warnock’s campaign said it served as a more than a headline-grabbing pep rally. Attendees also signed up to complete hundreds of door-knocking shifts.
Democrats hope that Obama can help drive up Black voter turnout while serving as a rare national figure that Warnock can embrace. The two-term president left office with a nearly 60% approval rating, and his popularity has hardly waned in recent Gallup polls.
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.
Click here to sign up for the event.
By the way, Georgia Republicans are continuing to make it harder for people to vote:
Georgia is appealing a judge's ruling that allows counties to offer early voting this coming Saturday in the U.S. Senate runoff election between Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
Warnock's campaign, along with the Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, sued the state last week, arguing that early voting should be allowed that day. They were challenging guidance from Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that said state law doesn’t allow voting this Saturday because it's the day after a state holiday.
That day is the only possibility for Saturday voting before next month's Senate runoff election between Warnock and Walker. Thursday is Thanksgiving, and Friday is a state holiday.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox on Friday issued an order siding with the Warnock campaign and the Democratic groups. Lawyers for the state on Monday filed a notice of appeal to the Georgia Court of Appeals.
But it's all about boosting turnout:
The Jewish Democratic Council of America political action committee will release two digital ads on Monday highlighting incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock’s relationship with the Jewish community and hitting Republican Herschel Walker on democracy. It is part of a $125,000 investment in the Dec. 6 runoff directly targeting more than 100,000 Jewish voters in Georgia.
One of the 30-second ads, titled “Stand Together” and shared in advance within the Forward, features two women representing the Jewish and Black communities and citing their support of Warnock “for his faith, honesty and devotion to democracy.” The other ad is footage from a Warnock speech on the Senate floor.
Warnock, who leads Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, led Walker, a former University of Georgia football star with a Jewish name, by 36,000 votes — less than 1% — in the Nov. 8 contest. But Warnock failed to get above the 50% threshold needed to win under state law. Jews made up 2% of the electorate in Georgia, according to data from the AP VoteCast survey, and they comprised 2% of the electorate on Election Day. A 2021 Jewish Electoral Institute survey showed that 54% identify as Democrats or said they were independents who lean Democratic.
Halie Soifer, JDCA’s chief executive, said the get-out-the-vote effort effort will also include canvassing and phone and text banks. It will add to the $120,000 JDCA already spent in the state during the midterm elections. In September, the group ran digital ads that targeted Jewish independents, warning about the danger of “MAGA Republicans” threatening U.S. democracy. “The Jewish vote will help to determine the outcome of the Georgia Senate runoff and make the difference,” Soifer said.
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Boosting turnout in this runoff is important and we have to pull it off for the sake of having a Democratic Senate Majority to save Democracy. Click below to get involved with Warnock’s campaign and these grassroots organizations GOTV efforts:
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