Georgia Democratic Presidential Primary: Why the Speaker’s Name isn’t the One-two-Jackiw, but a Voting Democrat

ATLANTA — When a panel inside the Democratic National Committee voted two weeks ago to revamp the party’s presidential primary calendar, that was the easy part.

For starters, Iowa and New Hampshire — long the one-two punch that has kicked off presidential hopefuls’ journeys — might disregard the Democratic proposal and hold contests on their own terms. Democrats took control of the legislature in the mid-west and Michigan will have to change state law.

And in Georgia, which would go fourth in the lineup, the ultimate decider of the state’s primary date is a Republican who says for now his hands are tied.

“It’d be kinda cool to have the Election Day be sooner for Georgia for the primary, but this office will do nothing that will hurt the number of delegates or violate the rules of either one of the parties,” said Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer in the Georgia secretary of state’s office.

A Republican is the Secretary of State and he works with the legislature. He thinks his boss is keeping the status quo. He said it’s about following party rules and protecting election workers.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/15/1143050569/georgia-democratic-presidential-primary

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“We’re not going to have two different primaries because that’s a lot of stress and strain on poll workers and counties,” Sterling said. We will hold a March primary because we have one presidential preference day, but whichever party has the highest amount of rules, we will stick with that.

The changing of the nominating calendar has benefits for those who end up before the rest of the country, according to a political science professor.

He said that the shakeup was having “really big consequences”. It disturbs the order that both parties relied upon and it provides a set of incentives for the early states to get more media attention.

Fraga says Georgia becoming an earlier state would bring increased investment of political and financial capital in a state that’s no stranger to electoral attention, not to mention more press attention and heightened profiles for surrogates who live in the state and Democratic lawmakers.

“I like to say we’re the center of the political universe, and that is not going to change this cycle or next cycle,” said Georgia U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, chair of the state Democratic Party. “This is going to continue for years to come, and the fact that we’re being prioritized, that speaks volumes for both Democrats and Republicans.”

Two years ago, Georgia was won by Democrats for the first time in many years. Then this November, Republicans swept every statewide race except for the Senate, where Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock prevailed in a runoff last week.

And after the 2022 midterms saw Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp both win on the strength of split-ticket voters, its battleground status has been elevated to new heights ahead of 2024.

“If you look at the past couple of cycles in Georgia, we were elevated as a premier battleground state in this country, and battleground states worked in favor of both Democrats and Republicans because we have to make our case to the voters,” she said. “And that’s what this is about, it’s about centering the voices of Georgians and showing that we are important in the national story, the national conversation, and that we are worth investment from all sides.”

The Georgia Republicans might not see how a more prominent position in the primary would affect them, but there is a case to be made for them.

There’s still plenty of time for changes in rules and changes of heart in settling the primary pecking order, and in Georgia Raffensperger doesn’t have to set a date until next fall.

“We are absolutely here to stay,” says Rebecca DeHart, executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia. “How many more cycles do we have to win to prove it?”

Butler says she doesn’t gauge Georgia’s politics in shades of blue, red and purple. There were 1.6 million new voters in the last year, many of them voters of color.

Kemp is a Republican. Hall was a top staffer on Kemp’s campaign. This year, Kemp trounced his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams by an even wider margin than their first matchup in 2018. Meanwhile, in a cycle otherwise good for Georgia Republicans, Walker floundered.

Herschel Walker was such a unique candidate we need to be cautious about looking at behavior and trying to make sense of it.

The campaign is credited with exploiting that dynamic by courting centrist and independent Republican voters with a message of bipartisanship and competence.

Two years ago, Democrats eked out wins in another unique environment. Donald Trump was a factor in repelling swing voters who had false claims of election fraud.

“One of my friends used to say, ‘If ifs and buts were figs or nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas,” says Republican strategist Cody Hall, standing near the towering Christmas tree in the state capitol’s rotunda. “It doesn’t matter really if it’s a specific circumstance or not, they’ve been winning.”

Hall wants us to forget about 2010, when you could win by 9,10 points if you slap an R next to a candidate’s name. “If you nominate the wrong candidates, if you don’t have the right message and you don’t raise the money, you will lose.”

Years of organizing irregular and nonvoters helped catalyze that shift. The effort to reach more people in Georgia began withAbrams, the first major candidate in Georgia to focus on that outreach.

Helen is the leader of the nonpartisan Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, which has worked to register and engage voters since the 90’s.

There are people of color who registered to vote but didn’t show up to the polls. “So my interest is getting those people to make that next step.”