Georgia’s Democratic US senators set to meet with Donald Trump’s nominees

Today’s newsletter highlights:

Republicans gather to cast Georgia’s electoral votes.
State senator wants to bring back a pregnancy protection bill.
Bad news for U.S. Rep. David Scott.

Several of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees for Cabinet-level jobs will be sitting down with Georgia’s two Democratic U.S. senators this week in an effort to win bipartisan support.

That includes a potentially awkward meeting set for this week between former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, Trump’s pick to lead the Veterans Affairs Department, and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, who defeated Collins in a 2020 special Senate election.

Jon Ossoff, Georgia’s other Democratic U.S. Senator, will also meet with Collins, in addition to two nominees being vetted by the Intelligence Committee on which he serves: former Hawaii U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, chosen to serve as director of national intelligence; and former Texas U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe, Trump’s pick to head the CIA.

Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Warnock will also meet with several of Trump’s picks for top posts: former Wisconsin U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy for transportation secretary; former New York U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik for ambassador to the United Nations; and former White House aide Brooke Rollins for secretary of agriculture. Warnock is a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, which will be vetting Rollins.

While Ossoff and Warnock are no fans of Trump, both said they plan to give every nominee a fair shake. A Warnock spokesperson said he is keeping an open mind but “won’t abandon the values that are important to Georgians.”

“As he’s said before, Senator Reverend Warnock takes seriously the Senate’s constitutional role of ‘advise and consent’, and he believes meeting with the president-elect’s cabinet nominees is an essential part of evaluating their qualifications and fitness for the roles they seek — roles that will directly impact countless families and communities across our state and country,” the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, former Georgia U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler will be meeting with about a dozen GOP senators as a part of her nomination as head of the Small Business Administration.

Along with members of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee who will vote on her nomination, Loeffler will also meet with members of the Senate GOP leadership. No meetings with Democratic senators are scheduled yet.

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Credit: Evan Vucci/AP

GOOD MORNING! We’re 27 days away from the start of Georgia’s legislative session. Here are three things to know for today:

President-elect Donald Trump said he will consider pardoning New York Mayor Eric Adams during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club.
Tik Tok has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a federal law that would ban the social media platform in the U.S. unless its China-based parent company agrees to sell it.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., is asking the federal government to ban medical debt from people’s credit reports, the AJC’s Ariel Hart reports.

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Credit: Alex Brandon/AP

BELL RINGING. We spotted former Georgia U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler at the New York Stock Exchange last week as President-elect Donald Trump rang the opening bell on Wall Street on the same day he was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

Since the NYSE is owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and Loeffler’s husband Jeff Sprecher owns ICE, it was widely assumed that Loeffler was the one who pulled the strings to give Trump the honor.

In fact, we’re told the bell-ringing was arranged by Time magazine. Time’s owner, billionaire Marc Benioff, is a Trump booster, too.

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Credit: Ben Gray/AP

TIME TO VOTE. Georgia Republicans will gather today to cast their electoral ballots for President-elect Donald Trump, just like they did four years ago. Only this time, they are celebrating a victory.

Trump, of course, lost Georgia in 2020 to Democratic President Joe Biden. But Trump and his supporters refused to accept defeat and instead falsely claimed the election was stolen. While Democrats met in the state Senate chamber to cast ballots for Biden in 2020, a who’s who of Republicans gathered on the second floor at the urging of a Trump campaign official who instructed the GOP electors to act with “complete secrecy.”

Several of those sham electors would go on to be indicted, including activist Cathy Latham, then-state GOP Chair David Shafer and Shawn Still, who later was elected to the state Senate. All have pleaded not guilty.

You can expect today’s vote to be more humdrum, according to AJC’s Greg Bluestein. He reports that the electors are mostly longtime party activists and local GOP insiders. And he points out that the efforts from four years ago are still reverberating throughout Georgia politics.

Georgia’s 16 GOP electors will choose a presiding officer for secretary for the meeting and then use paper ballots to cast their votes — once for Trump and then again for Vance. The roughly one-hour process will include several roll calls, a few speeches and, ultimately, a slate of electors casting Georgia’s votes for the 2024 GOP ticket.

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Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC

PREGNANCY PROTECTIONS. Georgia is one of the few states that doesn’t outlaw pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. State Sen. Brian Strickland — a potential candidate for attorney general in 2026 — says he’ll try again to change that in the upcoming legislative session.

The Republican from McDonough introduced the Pregnancy Protection Act last year. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee — where, coincidentally, Strickland is the chair — but it didn’t get any further than that.

But this time, Strickland will be armed with a recommendation from a special study committee that just completed its work last week. Guess what? Strickland led that committee, too.

The proposal would protect women from losing their job or getting demoted because they’re pregnant. It would also require employers to provide reasonable accommodations, like a private space for pumping.

The federal government already has protections like this on the books. But Strickland said Georgia needs its own law to give women access to the state courts — although that’s not something he thinks will happen much.

“The idea is not to create new litigation. My hope is to see no suits filed,” he said. “This is making sure that we’re codifying the good practices we see out there now from our business community, to make sure we have those standards in place.”

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Credit: Courtesy photo

SOAKING IT UP. Mekyah McQueen wasn’t looking to run for office. She had recently returned to the United States after seven years of teaching overseas. Both of her parents had died. She was in “survival mode.”

But things changed when she was nominated for a candidate training program through Emerge Georgia. Now, she’s one of 22 new members of the Georgia Legislature after winning a seat in House District 61.

“I realized that I’m not just a teacher,” McQueen, a Democrat, said. “Because sometimes we put ourselves in that box unknowingly.”

McQueen spent her early life in New Jersey, moving to Georgia when she was 9 after her father opened an auto repair shop in Atlanta. She was student government president of her middle school (“An upset. I was not the favorite,” she says) and an all-state clarinet player in high school.

“It was either go the professional route or put it down altogether, and I was tired of practicing,” she said.

McQueen has some big goals for her first few years in the Legislature, including looking at the school funding formula and looking for ways to improve transportation. But much of her first session will be learning how to do the job.

“This is definitely a learning year for me,” she said. “I feel like a sponge in front of a fire hydrant.”

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Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

LISTEN UP. Today on “Politically Georgia,” the hosts are live at the state Capitol as Republican electors cast their ballots for President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Insurance Commissioner John King will also join the show.

Be sure to download the AJC’s Politically Georgia podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are uploaded by noon each day, just in time to have lunch with us. You can also listen live at 10 a.m. EDT on 90.1 FM WABE. Have a question for the show? Give us a call at 770-810-5297.

On Monday’s show, Caylee Noggle, president and CEO of the Georgia Hospital Association talked about Medicaid and health care. And congressional journalist Michael Jones discussed U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta, and government funding.

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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

DAVID SCOTT RETREATS. Democratic U.S. Rep. David Scott has told colleagues he will withdraw his name from the race to be the party’s top leader on the House Agriculture Committee when the new Congress begins work in January.

The decision came after Scott finished in third place during Monday’s vote of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which recommends where members should serve on various committees.

Scott had faced concerns about his age and abilities, and after the Steering Committee met it appeared unlikely he would earn the majority vote needed from his Democratic colleagues today to keep the job.

The 79-year-old Atlanta Democrat delivered a five-minute speech and answered questions from steering committee members for another 10 minutes before the vote. But he ultimately landed in third place with five votes, as first reported by Politico.

The steering committee voted to recommend Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota to become the ranking member on the committee after she received 34 votes. Another challenger, Rep. Jim Costa of California, finished second with 22 votes. Democratic lawmakers will decide today who gets the spot.

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Credit: Alex Brandon/AP

TODAY IN WASHINGTON:

President Joe Biden has no public events on his schedule.
The House has floor votes scheduled this afternoon.
The Senate may vote on the House-passed National Defense Authorization Act.

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Credit: Tia Mitchell/AJC

SEEKING THE MIDDLE. No Labels, the centrist organization that considered backing former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan on a third-party presidential ticket this year, recently held a gathering in Washington as the group considers its path forward as President-elect Donald Trump returns to power.

That campaign never materialized, but the attention prompted support and criticism for a group that has been pushing for bipartisan solutions in Washington since 2010. Chief strategist Ryan Clancy said he sees two roles for No Labels, the first of which is simply encouraging Republicans and Democrats to talk more to each other and find ways they can work together.

The second is providing resources to lawmakers such as former Georgia Democratic U.S. Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux. She caught heat for bucking the party line, and it cost her in the 2022 primary against U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta.

“It’s very hard to get people to do bipartisan things if there’s no political support network,” he said.

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Credit: Courtesy photo

SHOUTOUTS. Sending kudos today to:

Niles Francis, who graduates today from Georgia Southern University with a degree in political science and journalism. Francis is the author of the Peach State Politics newsletter.

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

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AS ALWAYS, send your best scoops, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.

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