Georgia’s primaries watched by nation

Kemp, Walker favored in GOP

Stacey Abrams attends the Gwinnett County Democratic Party fundraiser on Saturday, May 21, 2022, in Norcross, Ga. (AP Photo/Akili-Casundria Ramsess)
Stacey Abrams attends the Gwinnett County Democratic Party fundraiser on Saturday, May 21, 2022, in Norcross, Ga. (AP Photo/Akili-Casundria Ramsess)

WATKINSVILLE, Ga. -- Two Republican front-runners were hoping to clinch primary majorities as candidates made their final pitches to Georgia voters on Saturday ahead of Tuesday's election.

Gov. Brian Kemp and former football star Herschel Walker hoped to win GOP majorities and clinch nominations for governor and U.S. senator on Tuesday without runoffs, with polls showing both men backed by more than 50% of voters. Kemp met voters at a rally in Watkinsville, near his home in Athens, with Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts showing up to support him.

Walker spoke to Republicans in Columbus, focusing on his life story and general attacks on Democratic policies.

"It is time that we get back to where we started," Walker said, arguing that Democrats have strayed from American values. "And we have a long ways to go. When we go together, we go as one, we're going as one and the way it starts is May 24. Go on to the poll. Vote."

Other candidates are making final pitches as well. Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue, Kemp's top rival for the Republican nomination, met with Republicans in Union County, in far north Georgia. Walker's rivals, including state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black and Navy veteran and former banker Latham Saddler, were meeting with supporters in suburban Atlanta.

Many Democrats attended a party function Saturday night in Gwinnett County, where Democratic congressional incumbents Lucy McBath and Carolyn Bourdeaux are squaring off in Tuesday's primary race for a newly drawn district.

Kemp's stump speech, as it has been in recent days, was focused on the threat of Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is unopposed in her party's primary on Tuesday.

ALABAMA SENATE PRIMARY

Elswhere, Alabama's Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby has become an attack-filled high-dollar contest with the three strongest contenders jockeying for the nomination.

The leading candidates are U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, who won -- and then lost -- former President Donald Trump's backing in the race; Katie Boyd Britt, the former leader of Business Council of Alabama and Shelby's former chief of staff; and Mike Durant, an aerospace company owner best known as the helicopter pilot whose capture during a U.S. military mission in Somalia was chronicled in the "Black Hawk Down" book and subsequent movie.

Lillie Boddie, Karla M. Dupriest and Jake Schafer are also seeking the GOP nomination.

Observers say it's hard to predict whether the nomination will be settled in Tuesday's primary. The fractured field increases the chances that the race will go to a June 21 runoff, which is required unless one candidate captures more than 50% of Tuesday's vote. David Mowery, an Alabama-based political consultant, said the race has an up-for-grabs feel.

"It's anybody guess as to who's in first and who's in second in the runoff," he said.

Outside groups have pumped more than $20 million into the race to either support or oppose one of the front-runners.

The Super PACS have been responsible for many of the attack ads in the race. Alabama Patriots PAC spent $4 million to support Durant after receiving money from America's Project, a Virginia-based PAC associated with Jacob Harriman, a Marine Corps veteran who operates the organization More Perfect Union. Alabama's Future, a PAC opposing Brooks, has received $2 million from a Mitch McConnell-aligned PAC.

The Rev. Will Boyd, former Brighton mayor Brandaun Dean and retired Army veteran Lanny Jackson are vying for the Democratic nomination.

TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL PRIMARY

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on Thursday blasted one of his party's top leaders back home, calling the mounting pile of accusations and legal woes Attorney General Ken Paxton faces an "embarrassment" just days before a primary runoff election.

Paxton, who is within reach of winning the GOP nomination to seek a third term Tuesday, has been under state felony indictment since 2015 on securities fraud charges and is separately being investigated by the FBI after his top deputies accused him of corruption.

He faces Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who forced a runoff in March but finished 20 percentage points behind Paxton in a four-way primary.

"This is the chief law enforcement officer of the state of Texas and it's a source of embarrassment to me that that has been unresolved," Cornyn told reporters. "As a former attorney general myself, I'm embarrassed by what we're having to deal with."

Paxton responded that Cornyn "represents the Bush wing of the GOP" and that he was "not shocked" by the senator's comments. "I'll never relate to Senator Cornyn's ability to compromise with radical Senate Democrats in DC," Paxton wrote on Twitter.

Cornyn's comments come as the Texas bar association considers whether to punish Paxton over his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The bar earlier this month brought a disciplinary proceeding against Paxton's second-in-command, and the attorney general has said he expects the regulator to sue him over his effort to overturn Joe Biden's presidential victory.

Paxton has pleaded not guilty to the securities fraud charges and has broadly denied accusations by his former staff that he used his office to help a wealthy donor.

MINNESOTA SPECIAL PRIMARY

In another part of the country, voters in southern Minnesota will choose candidates in a special primary this week, in the first step in a process for filling the seat of Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died of cancer in February.

The GOP candidates Tuesday for the 1st District seat include Hagedorn's widow, Jennifer Carnahan, who has leveled a series of attacks in the final days of the campaign against two of her main rivals in the primary, state Rep. Jeremy Munson and former state Rep. Brad Finstad. She has labeled both of them as captives of "Establishment Republicans and the Washington Swamp." And she has claimed that her husband made it clear before he died that he did not want Munson to replace him.

Munson, of Lake Crystal, is a founder of a hard-right faction that broke from the main Minnesota House GOP Caucus. He has been touting his string of endorsements from nationally prominent congressional hardliners, including Sens. Ted Cruz, of Texas, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky; Reps. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania, and Thomas Massie, of Kentucky; and former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota. His website includes a photo of him at a Trump rally with Trump in the background.

Munson won 55% of the vote when 1st District Republicans met last month to try to endorse a candidate for the general election in November, but he fell short of the required 60%. Due to the accelerated calendar, the party hasn't endorsed a candidate for the special primary nor the special general election Aug. 9 that will decide who gets to fill out the rest of Hagedorn's term.

Finstad, of New Ulm, has the backing of several Minnesota GOP officeholders, including U.S. Reps. Michelle Fischbach and Pete Stauber of Minnesota, as well as the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. And he's been quick to remind voters that he was Trump's state director for USDA Rural Development in Minnesota.

Other Republicans on the ballot include agricultural attorney Matt Benda, of Albert Lea, and state Rep. Nels Pierson, of Rochester.

On the Democratic side, the endorsed candidate is former Hormel Foods CEO Jeffrey Ettinger, of Austin, who now chairs the Hormel Foundation.

His opponents include University of Minnesota law professor Richard Painter, of Mendota Heights, a former White House ethics lawyer in President George W. Bush's administration.

Tuesday's special primary and the Aug. 9 special general election are being held within the district's existing borders. But Aug. 9 is also when Minnesota will hold regular primaries statewide.

The winner of the special general election, who will fill out the rest of Hagedorn's term into January, presumably will also win the district's regular primary that same day.

Both the regular primary and the general election will be held within the district's new court-adjusted borders. Redistricting this year didn't change the political balance of the district much, so it still leans Republican.

Information for this article was contributed by Jeff Amy, Kim Chandler, Steve Karnowski and staff members of The Associated Press.

  photo  Stacey Abrams, center, poses for a photo with the Gwinnett County Democratic Party officers at a fundraiser on Saturday, May 21, 2022, in Norcross, Ga. From left to right are Curt Johnson, Clara Puerta, Abrams, Brenda Lopez and Stephany Sheriff. (AP Photo/Akili-Casundria Ramsess)
 
 
  photo  Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp addresses a get-out-the-vote rally on Saturday, May 21, 2022, in Watkinsville, Ga. The Republican Kemp is seeking to beat former U.S. Sen David Perdue and others in a Republican primary for governor on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
 
 
  photo  Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks at Muscogee County GOP headquarters on Saturday, May 21, 2022, in Columbus, Ga. Walker defended his work for Patriot Support, a mental health outreach program for military members (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
 
 
  photo  Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks at Muscogee County GOP headquarters on Saturday, May 21, 2022, in Columbus, Ga. Walker defended his work for Patriot Support, a mental health outreach program for military members. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
 
 
  photo  Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp embraces his wife, Marty Kemp, before giving a speech on Saturday, May 21, 2022, in Watkinsville, Ga. Kemp is seeking to beat former U.S. Sen David Perdue and others in a Republican primary for governor on Tuesday, May 24. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
 
 
  photo  Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks at a get-out-the-vote rally on Saturday, May 21, 2022, in Watkinsville, Ga. Kemp is seeking to beat former U.S. Sen David Perdue and others in a Republican primary for governor on Tuesday, May 24. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
 
 
  photo  Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, right, signs a soda bottle commemorating the 1980 football championship he won with the University of Georgia for Peter Bagarella of Ellerslie, Ga., after a speech at Muscogee County GOP headquarters in Columbus, Ga., Saturday, May 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
 
 
  photo  Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp makes notes before giving a speech on Saturday, May 21, 2022, in Watkinsville, Ga. The Republican Kemp is seeking to beat former U.S. Sen David Perdue and others in a Republican primary for governor on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
 
 


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