It’s not unexpected to see Georgia Republican officials travel to the United States’ border with Mexico for photo ops, tours and speeches to highlight the country’s struggle to control migrant border crossings from Central and South America. Gov. Brian Kemp has been to the border multiple times, as have several GOP members of the state’s U.S. House delegation, including U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome, Buddy Carter of St. Simons Island and Austin Scott of Tifton.
But on Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff became the rare Democrat to do the same, with stops in Texas, New Mexico and Juarez, Mexico. He toured detention facilities, the Paso del Norte port of entry, and met with U.S. and Mexican law enforcement and national security officials.
The Atlantan sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee and has been warning for months that federal officials’ inability to limit and then track incoming migrants is creating a dangerous domestic terror threat that isn’t getting enough attention.
He renewed that warning Wednesday from the border.
“The threat of terrorism associated with unlawful entry to the United States is real. It is urgent. Congress must act, and the Biden Administration must use its executive authorities to the greatest extent possible to protect the nation,” Ossoff said.
The politics of immigration pose their own kind of electoral threat for Democrats, including Ossoff, who is up for reelection in 2026. Among the Republicans reportedly looking at a challenge to Ossoff — Kemp, Greene and Carter.
Illegal immigration is consistently among voters’ top issues, with President Joe Biden getting much of the blame. Part of Ossoff’s message for months has been to shift that criticism to Republicans.
GOP senators tanked a bipartisan immigration bill in February that would have sent billions in additional resources to the border. The Senate defeat followed instructions from Trump via social media not to pass “a great gift to DEMOCRAT.”
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GREENE MACHINE. The email’s subject line seemed a typo: “BBBBBB.” But it didn’t take a sleuth to figure out what the six consecutive letters sent by President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign meant.
“Bleach Blonde Bad Built Butch Body” is now a presidential fundraising pitch.
That insult, of course, was hurled by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas at Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene last week at a routine House Oversight Committee meeting that went quickly off the rails.
Credit: New York Times
Credit: New York Times
Crockett said she’s since been inundated, privately, by Republicans who praised her for picking a fight with the Georgia firebrand. She’s also trademarked the “B6″ phrase and announced a new line of merchandise to raise cash for vulnerable House Democrats. She calls it the “Crockett Clapback Collection.”
It continues a trend that began even before Greene, R-Rome, won her northwest Georgia congressional seat in 2020: Democrats have tried to make her one of the faces of the GOP, using her far-right messages and pro-Donald Trump conspiracies to raise heaps of cash.
Consider this: Democrat Marcus Flowers used Greene as a punching bag to raise more than $16 million in a failed 2022 effort to defeat her. In this cycle, he couldn’t raise enough to run a visible primary campaign against Democratic Rep. David Scott of Atlanta.
As for Greene, we noted earlier this week she posted a photo of herself in an exotic locale posing in a bikini. And she told us she’s reached the stage in her life “where you just don’t give a (expletive) about stuff like that.”
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
GOV. McBATH? U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath could be looking at a run for higher office in 2026, specifically the Georgia governor’s office, after her 80%-plus rout of opponents in the 6th Congressional District Democratic primary.
The Marietta congresswoman has become a nationally known face of the gun safety movement in Washington, but she told the AJC’s “Politically Georgia” podcast Wednesday she’s open to returning home to Georgia to lead the state.
Asked if she’s looking at a run for the governor’s mansion, she said, “I am really trying to stay focused on this campaign in November. But I do believe that Georgia residents deserve to have leadership that is centered and focused directly on their needs.” She added, “Wherever God leads me, I will go.”
Georgia has drastically reduced gun restrictions under Republican leadership. But even Georgia lawmakers did not go along with a recent proposal from Lt. Gov. Burt Jones to pay Georgia teachers a $10,000 per year stipend to carry guns in school as a makeshift security force. McBath calls Jones’ proposal “ludicrous.”
“I can tell you every teacher I’ve spoken with, every family member — in particular every mother that I’ve spoken with — they are scared to death and think that is the most atrocious idea ever,” she said. “There are other ways to keep our children safe in schools.”
The lieutenant governor is among the many state Republicans considering a run for governor, a move that could eventually lead to a faceoff against a Democrat like McBath, should she run.
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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
GEORGIA 2ND. The third-place finisher in the GOP race to take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop endorsed Wayne Johnson in next month’s runoff.
Michael Nixon said he’s backing Johnson over Chuck Hand in the June 18 race for a series of reasons, including Hand’s criminal background and his “unethical” proposals to coordinate their campaigns during the first phase of the race.
Hand was sentenced to 20 days in federal prison and a six-month probation term after pleading guilty to participating in the violent mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Credit: Screenshot
Credit: Screenshot
Hand told the Ledger-Enquirer that Nixon has stained his reputation by going on the attack after finishing third in the four-candidate field.
“I don’t expect anything less coming from ruling class country club elites,” Hand said.
Whoever wins the GOP runoff faces an uphill climb against Bishop, the Albany Democrat who easily won in 2022 against a well-funded Republican opponent.
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Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
SENATOR IN COURT. State Sen. Shawn Still’s attorney argued Wednesday that his client should not have been criminally charged in the Fulton County election interference case.
Still, R-Norcross, was among 16 Republican electors who voted to certify then-President Donald Trump as the 2020 election winner weeks after Joe Biden had won the state.
In a motion hearing Wednesday, defense attorney Tom Bever told Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee that Still was following legal advice when he cast an electoral college vote for Donald Trump in 2020 and walked away thinking he had done the right thing.
Still was not a senator at the time of the meeting.
The AJC’s Bill Rankin has the full report from the hearing.
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
LISTEN UP. Today’s “Politically Georgia” episode features a discussion on the 2024 presidential contest with Errin Haines, editor at large of The 19th, a news organization focused on the rights of women, the LGBTQ community and other minorities.
Donnell Suggs from the Atlanta Voice will also join the show to discuss the role of the Black press and how publications like his are covering Black voters this election year.
Listen live at 10 a.m. on WABE 90.1 or follow “Politically Georgia” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
In case you missed it, Wednesday’s show featured U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, who talked about how her son’s murder led her to Congress and why she is not closing the door on running for governor in 2026.
Also, University of Georgia professor Audrey Haynes weighed in on the latest political news.
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Credit: Evan Vucci/AP
Credit: Evan Vucci/AP
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden has no public events on his schedule.
- The House and Senate are on recess until June 3.
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TORTURED TIMELINE. With Gov. Brian Kemp set to attend the Republican National Convention in July, insider Greg Bluestein offers a refresher on the dynamic between Kemp and the man at the center of the gathering, GOP presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump.
Kemp and Trump have an on-again, off-again relationship that dates back to 2015, when Kemp was Georgia’s secretary of state and Trump was mounting his first run for the White House.
In the years that followed, Trump endorsed Kemp in his first run for governor, backed a challenger to Kemp four years later, disagreed with Kemp for appointing Kelly Loeffler to a U.S. Senate seat, criticized the governor’s decision to reopen the state’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic and much — much — more, as Bluestein lays out.
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AS ALWAYS, Politically Georgia readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.
