The Jolt: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lands in ‘battleground Georgia’

News and analysis from the politics team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi headed to Georgia on Thursday to promote federal initiatives to reconnect communities divided by segregation policies.

But as House Democrats’ top recruiter and seat saver, she also gave a boost to U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, whose 2nd Congressional District was redrawn to be more competitive for Republicans in 2022.

“His race is very important to us. It’s of the highest priority, and it would make a big difference to the people that he represents,” Pelosi said of the 30-year veteran of the House. “He has his vision and he has his goals. And he knows how to work with members to get the job done.”

Bishop is locked in a tight race against Republican Chris West in a southwest Georgia district that was redrawn by GOP legislators to make it slightly harder for the Democrat to hold.

In a joint interview with U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, Pelosi expressed confidence that Democrats would maintain control of the chamber despite a tough political climate for the party in power.

“We’ve been preparing since December 2020. We have been mobilizing at the grassroots level to own the ground to get out that vote, because that’s the most important thing,” she said. “We’ve been raising the money that’s necessary to do so.”

“When the Dobbs decision came down, people said, ‘Oh, you got lucky,’” Pelosi said of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned the constitutional right to abortion. “But no, we made our own luck. We have been ready for this.”

That’s when Williams chimed in: “I don’t believe in the luck game. I’ve said for a couple of cycles we were battleground Georgia.”

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, center left, listens as U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-GA, speaks to members of the media as they tour the Sweet Auburn District at Big Bethel AME Church on Thursday, September 1, 2022, in Atlanta. (Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com)

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

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Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

HOME COOKED ADVICE. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Rep. Nikema Williams also offered some sage counsel to her colleagues.

“The members know — when she speaks, they listen,” Pelosi said of Williams. “You know some of the best advice she gave, when we were making calls for candidates? Don’t fake a southern accent.”

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Atlanta Medical Center Downtown to shut down by November, officials confirm. (File photo)

Credit: File photo

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Credit: File photo

HOSPITAL POLITICS. The impending closure of the Atlanta Medical Center is looming large in the races for governor and U.S. Senate.

Stacey Abrams, the Democrats’ gubernatorial nominee, will go to the downtown Atlanta hospital this morning to rally with health care providers infuriated by Gov. Brian Kemp’s opposition to Medicaid expansion, which she says would have prevented the closure.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff as well as U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson, Lucy McBath and Nikema Williams also penned a letter to Wellstar’s chief executive demanding a briefing and urging the healthcare system to “rethink this decision and reverse course.”

“At minimum, you must delay this decision until there is a plan in place, in consultation with the City of Atlanta and neighboring hospitals, to absorb these patients,” they wrote.

And Williams, whose Atlanta-based district includes the hospital, said there’s only one person to blame for the hospital’s closure.

“Georgia, unfortunately, is still one of the 12 states in the country that has refused to expand Medicaid purely for political reasons. This decision lies squarely at the feet of Brian Kemp.”

Kemp has long opposed a full expansion of the program here as too costly and inflexible for Georgia patients, but he’s backed a more limited program tied to work and academic requirements.

Wellstar Health System, which owns the doomed hospital, said in a statement that Medicaid expansion alone wouldn’t have prevented the facility’s closure.

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LISTEN UP. In the Friday edition of the Politically Georgia podcast, we look at the political fallout from the hospital closure announcement, along with the latest from the campaign trail with Democrats Stacey Abrams and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock. We also open up the Politically Georgia listener mail bag.

Listen and subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.

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NEWT ON NOTICE. The U.S. House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol wants to hear from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The committee announced Thursday that it has asked Gingrich to appear to answer questions about his contact with then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle in the aftermath of the 2020 general election.

A letter from Chairman Bennie Thompson to Gingrich cites emails between Gingrich and Trump advisers, with Gingrich suggesting the Trump campaign run national ads about the “suitcase scandal,” namely Rudy Giuliani’s false allegations of fraud at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena.

In a separate email to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 6, Gingrich continued to press the White House about decertifying electors, hours after the Capitol riot.

The AJC’s Tamar Hallerman notes that the committee’s suggestion that Gingrich could be connected to the “fake electors” scheme could also raise interest from the special grand jury in Fulton County, and creates the possibility of a subpoena from that panel, too.

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AD WARS. This week brought a new round of aggressive ads in the U.S. Senate contest, with a Democratic Super PAC and Herschel Walker’s campaign each resurfacing abuse allegations from the former wives of Herschel Walker and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.

The first ad, which we told you about earlier this week, includes police reports of multiple incidents and and footage of Walker’s ex-wife describing him holding a gun to her head.

It’s paid for by U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s political operation, whose goal is to keep a Democratic Senate majority.

On Thursday, the Walker campaign fired back with a digital ad of its own, which includes clips from a police cam video following a 2020 dispute between Warnock and his ex-wife.

Hours of the full video footage reviewed by the AJC in 2020 includes three Atlanta investigators saying they found no evidence that Warnock did anything wrong in the incident.

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DRUG CAP ROLLBACK. It’s no secret that Republicans disagree with President Joe Biden and Democrats on much of their policy agenda.

But U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter raised eyebrows Thursday when he said he wants to undo provisions in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act that cap prescription drug costs for Medicare patients.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-GA, speaks at the Georgia GOP State Convention in Jekyll Island, Georgia on June 5th, 2021. Nathan Posner for the Atlanta-Journal-Constitution

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

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Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

Speaking on Fox Business network, Carter said that he is already talking to his colleagues about what can be done if Republicans take control of the House after the midterms.

“I’ve been asking my colleagues, ‘How are we going to undo that when we get into the majority?’” said the Pooler Republican, who is also a pharmacist. “Because that is going to destroy research and development. Those kinds of questions are what we’re going to be faced with. When we get back into the majority next session, how do we undo some of this damage that has been done by this administration with their out-of-control spending?”

Carter’s opponent in November, Democrat Wade Herring, was among those who pounced.

“My opponent, Republican Buddy Carter just said that Republicans will RAISE prescription prices for Americans if he and the GOP take back Congress,” he wrote on Twitter. “This is simply unacceptable.”

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U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene campaigns in Rome on Monday, May 2, 2022. A group challenging her eligibility to run for another term in office has lost its final appeal. (Arvin Temkar / arvin.temkar@ajc.com)

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

CASE CLOSED. The group challenging U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s eligibility to run for another term in office has lost its final appeal.

After the Georgia Supreme Court denied the appeal effort on Thursday, the group behind the challenge, Free Speech For People, said it has exhausted all attempts to get Greene kicked off the ballot. They had initially argued that Greene should be disqualified from running based on an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that bars people who participated in or encouraged an insurrection from office.

An administrative law judge in May ruled that the group attempting to have Greene, R-Rome, removed from the ballot had not proven their case.

A Superior Court judge who reviewed the case upheld the administrative judge’s recommendation, which Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger followed in allowing Greene to seek a second term in the U.S. House.

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KEEP THE CHANGE. Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday that he’ll extend the suspension of the state gas tax through Oct. 12.

The move prompted criticism from Democrats, who have hammered him for the month-by-month announcements he’s made since first suspending the 31 cents-per-gallon fee last spring.

But state law prevents the governor from pausing the tax for longer than a month at a time. We’re staying tuned for the next announcement, which could extend the moratorium through Election Day.

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Former Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley bangs a gavel during the NYSE market close ceremony on Thursday. (Screen capture from NYSE Closing Bell video)

Credit: Special

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Credit: Special

RING THE BELL. A delegation from Georgia, including the Georgia Tech and UGA mascots, helped close the New York Stock Exchange trading session Thursday.

Attendees also included former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, who is now chancellor of the University System of Georgia, former Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley, UGA President Jere Morehead and Dan T. Cathy, chairman of Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A.

The ceremonial event was intended to help publicize the two-game Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic at Mercedes Benz Stadium. The Georgia Bulldogs play the Oregon Ducks on Saturday, and Tech will play Clemson on Monday.

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SEE YOU THERE. Join us on Tuesday, Sept. 6th for an evening with the AJC at the Georgia Aquarium.

Panels of AJC journalists will talk food, sports, and of course politics, with Reserve your tickets at live.ajc.com/ajcstateofourstate

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AS ALWAYS, Jolt readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com and greg.bluestein@ajc.com.