ATLANTA (AP) — Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is accusing the estranged wife of a special prosecutor she hired of trying to obstruct her criminal election-interference case against former President Donald Trump and others by seeking to question her in the couple’s divorce proceedings.

A motion filed last week by a defense attorney in the election case alleges that Willis was involved in a romantic relationship with attorney Nathan Wade. A lawyer for Willis wrote in a filing Thursday that lawyers for Wade’s wife, Joycelyn Wade, served a subpoena to the district attorney last week.

The filing says that the subpoena is being sought “in an attempt to harass and damage” Willis’ professional reputation and accuses Joycelyn Wade of having “conspired with interested parties in the criminal Election Interference Case to use the civil discovery process to annoy, embarrass, and oppress” the district attorney.

The attempt to question Willis is “obstructing and interfering” with an ongoing criminal case, lawyer Cinque Axam wrote in the court filing Thursday seeking to quash the subpoena.

Andrea Hastings, a lawyer for Joycelyn Wade, said they want to help her “resolve her divorce fairly and privately” and that any response to Willis’ motion will come in a filing with the court.

Willis was served with the subpoena the same day that defense attorney Ashleigh Merchant, who represents former Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide Michael Roman, filed a motion alleging an inappropriate relationship between Willis and Nathan Wade. She asserted that their alleged actions created a conflict of interest and led to Willis profiting personally from the prosecution. The motion seeks to have the indictment thrown out and to have Willis and Wade removed from the case.

Willis’ office has said they will respond to Merchant’s motion in a court filing but have not provided a timeline for that. Her filing on Thursday in the divorce case does not address whether she and Wade have been romantically involved.

The district attorney’s lawyer wrote that Nathan and Joycelyn Wade have been separated for more than two years and are involved in “an uncontested no-fault divorce” and there is an “absence of any relevant basis” to question Willis.

Merchant has not provided any solid proof to support her allegations of an inappropriate relationship. She mentioned “sources close” to Willis and Wade without elaborating.

Merchant’s motion also mentions that filings in Wade’s pending divorce are sealed but that she has filed a motion to unseal them. A coalition of news organizations, including The Associated Press, filed a motion Tuesday to gain access to those filings.

“Ms. Willis alleges that her deposition is being sought in an attempt to harass and damage her professional reputation. Why would her truthful testimony risk damaging her reputation?” Merchant wrote in an email Thursday.

She accused Willis of trying “to create a conspiracy where none exists,” noting that she filed her motion on the deadline for pretrial motions in the election case.

“We believe her filing in Cobb County is just another attempt to avoid having to directly answer the important questions Mr. Roman has raised,” Merchant wrote.

Merchant wrote in her motion last week that Wade has been paid large sums and has used some of his earnings to take Willis on vacation to Napa Valley, Florida and the Caribbean. She said that amounts to the pair “profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers.”

Merchant said she can find no evidence that Wade — whose law firm website touts his experience in civil litigation, including car accident and family law cases — has ever prosecuted a felony case. She questioned his qualifications to try this case.

Willis defended her hiring of Wade and his qualifications during an address at a church in Atlanta on Sunday but has not commented publicly on the allegation of a romantic relationship. Among other things, she cited Wade’s 10 years of experience as a municipal court judge and 20 years in private practice.

“Because the parties agree that the marriage is irretrievably broken and the concept of fault is not at issue, there is no information that District Attorney Willis could provide that might prove relevant to granting or denying the divorce,” the filing says.

Also Thursday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set a Feb. 15 hearing on Merchant’s motion and ordered prosecutors to file their response by Feb. 2.

Trump and Roman were indicted by a Fulton County grand jury in August along with 17 others. They’re accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to try to illegally overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Four of those charged have already pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors. Trump, Roman and the others who remain have pleaded not guilty.

Roman was the director of Election Day operations for the Trump campaign and also had worked in the White House.

Prosecutors say he helped coordinate an effort to contact state lawmakers on Trump’s behalf to encourage them to “unlawfully appoint presidential electors.”

He is also alleged to have been involved in efforts to have Republicans in swing states that Trump lost, including Georgia, meet on Dec. 14, 2020, to sign certificates falsely saying Trump had won their states and that they were the electors for their states. He was in touch with local Republican officials in several states to set up those meetings.

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ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is referring the cases of 17 Georgians suspected of having voted twice in 2022 to district attorneys in nine counties where those voters live.

These voters are suspected of voting once in Georgia in the November 2022 general election and again in another state.

“One illegal vote cast is too many,” Raffensperger said Tuesday. “Georgians deserve to have their voice heard fully, not have it diluted by bad actors.”

The allegations came to light as a result of Georgia’s membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a network of 24 states and the District of Columbia that share data on voters.

The cases of double voting came from Barrow, Chatham, Cobb, Douglas, Fannin, Forsyth, Fulton, Morgan, and Tift counties.

Voter turnout in Georgia has been on the upswing in recent election cycles. Georgia saw the largest increase in turnout of any state in the 2018 midterm election, and set turnout records in 2020 and 2022.

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ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp is talking up Georgia to foreign business and political big wigs for the second January in a row.

Kemp is spending the week in Switzerland attending the World Economic Forum, meeting business executives and political leaders and taking part in discussion panels.

“We get a lot of value being able to see, talk to, and pitch a lot of people in one place,” Kemp told Capitol Beat Tuesday in an exclusive interview from Davos, Switzerland. “The exposure we get is really helpful selling the state.”

The trip includes meetings both with executives from companies with an existing presence in Georgia and those that might be interested in setting up shop in the Peach State.

On Tuesday, the governor met with officials from Korean automaker Hyundai, which is building a massive electric vehicle manufacturing plant west of Savannah, and multinational technology company Cisco, which has offices in Midtown Atlanta. Tomorrow, the state will host a luncheon reception for 25 companies.

Kemp also participated in a panel discussion on the EV industry, which has become a major player in Georgia with both the Hyundai plant and a manufacturing facility Rivian is building east of Atlanta along the Interstate 20 corridor.

The governor will lead Georgia’s delegation to meetings elsewhere in Switzerland later this week before heading back home on Saturday.

Kemp, a potential candidate for the U.S. Senate after his second term as governor expires in 2026, dismissed the notion that he’s out to burnish his own national and international profile by going to Davos.

“My No.-1 goal is selling our state,” he said. “That’s the reason I came to the forum.”

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Friday morning, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local Union 613, hosted their annual Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast at their Pulliam St. headquarters. Senators Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock were in attendance. They were joined by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond and Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman. Additionally, Ambassador Andrew Young and Wanda Cooper-Jones, the mother of Ahmaud Arbery, were in attendance. 

Dr. King was a supporter of labor unions. He traveled to Memphis against the advice of his closest advisors because he wanted to argue for the improvement of working conditions for sanitation workers. Echol Cole and Robert Walker were crushed by a faulty garbage truck compactor as they sought shelter from a rainstorm in the back of the truck on February 1, 1968. After that, 1,300 Black sanitation workers formed a union and went on strike.

“That is why Negroes support labor’s demands and fight laws which curb labor. That is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth,” King said in a speech in December 1961.

King ultimately led a march on Beale Street on March 28, 1968, that turned violent when police and protesters clashed. On April 3rd, 1968, he would deliver his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis which essentially foretold his death the following day at the Lorraine Motel.

Those historical facts were not lost on the minds of the attendees of Friday’s brunch. 

“Three years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and four years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, which integrated public accommodations, they were still forced to live in segregated settings,” said Senator Warnock. I think that’s important to underscore because we tell ourselves a simple story about the movement. We say that a long time ago there was segregation. Dr. King had a dream, everybody got it, and we lived happily ever after. But then workers in 1968 couldn’t get inside the truck. Their bodies were literally crushed. And this is why the labor movement is so important because poor people, working people are still often crushed by the machinery of power.”

The IBEW 613 is characterized as Georgia’s House of Labor. In 2023, members celebrated the contributions of Dr. King, and those who traveled with him: Andrew Young, John Lewis, Ralph David Abernathy and others. Each collectively made sacrifices to the principles of freedom, equality and justice for his life and his contributions.  

“Dr. King told laborers that work that serves humanity as dignity at work,” said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. “That is partly why we are working so hard to make sure that Atlanta is a city of opportunity for all and while we are working so hard to make sure our city lives up to its true promise and where our residents can not just survive, but that they can thrive.”

There were also celebrations inside Georgia’s House of Labor. For example, Teamsters unions ratified a new five-year contract on August 22nd. The deal raises pay, eliminates a two-tier wage system for drivers, provides another paid holiday and ends forced overtime. When the deal was announced, it calmed fears that a work stoppage could have skyrocketed shipping costs during the Christmas shopping season. 

Another example is the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the Teamsters, and Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) is in a strong position because they believe the movie and television studios cannot withstand another strike in 2024. Why? Each union showed solidarity with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) to pursue its strategy of shutting down productions early in its 148-day strike. Crew unions, the writers and actors unions all banded together around a common goal.

As a result, the 60,000 members represented by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, reached a tentative three-year deal in November with executives from top entertainment companies including Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and Universal.

Lastly, the United Auto Workers’ (UAW) new agreement with General Motors grants a 25% increase in base wage through April 2028 and will cumulatively raise the top wage by 33%, compounded with estimated cost-of-living adjustments to over $42 an hour. After the UAW ratified a new labor agreement with Stellantis (the company that manufactures Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram Trucks), labor  members will receive a 25% raise, the starting wage for new employees increased 67% and the top wages will increase 33% compared to their pre-strike levels.  

Which brings everyone back to Dr. King’s embrace of Organized Labor. Thurmond essentially said everyone cannot be 100% for him, even though he works with many people in the room.

“But we got to do more than celebrate,” said DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond. “We have to rededicate ourselves to finishing the unfinished work before us.  It’s a difference than being unified, as opposed to being unanimous. And see, when you’re out of power at the state level, we have to recognize that the only time we really need to be unified and you unanimous is when we are holding those who oppose us.”

Senator Ossoff echoed similar sentiments.

“Our purpose is to lift up those who build and make things, those who labor and each day those who have built this nation as we undertake historic efforts to rebuild America’s infrastructure,” said Ossoff. “We serve those who will benefit from that infrastructure and those who are building as we reinvigorate American industry and manufacturing.”

As the aroma of bacon, grits, potatoes and waffles filled the air at the IBEW 613, Senator Warnock left everyone with one distinct message.

“So as you remember Dr. King, let us remember the key words: He said that anybody can be great because everybody can serve,” said Senator Warnock. “You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love. So thank you organized labor.”

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Georgia State Representative Imani Barnes has made a quick and swift impact during her brief time as a legislator. The Democrat from Tucker has introduced legislation that would require the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) to establish a grant program for creating emergency psychiatric assessments, treatment and healing units in hospitals. This is House Bill 913, also known as the “EmPATH Georgia Act.”

“Maintaining accessible and affordable health care remains at the forefront of the General Assembly’s priorities, and with this legislation, it is my hope that we can continue to build on that foundation and establish available avenues for any and all Georgians struggling with mental health concerns and access to psychiatric care,” said Rep. Barnes. “I am eager to partner with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle as we work to create a therapeutic alliance and improved emergency department throughput in all hospitals throughout the state.”

The legislation has been co-signed by the Georgia House Minority Leader, James Beverly, State Representatives Mary Margaret Oliver, Gregg Kennard, Dr. Michelle Au, and Sam Park. 

According to the bill, it would provide intensive crisis treatment that shall include an evaluation by a psychiatrist within 24 hours of an individual’s admission a health care facility. Another provision in Barnes’s legislation provides services 24 hours a day, seven days a week to individuals on a voluntary and involuntary basis in a community based setting as an alternative to emergency department admission, inpatient hospitalization, and other higher levels of care. 

Last year, House Bill 520 would have recruited more mental health workers, helped people who bounce between hospitals, jails and homelessness, and studied other needs. It failed to cross the finish line on Day 40 of the 2023 legislative session. The Senate version of the measure removed language that would have barred insurers from withholding certain drugs and mandated a housing plan for certain mentally ill homeless people, regardless if an individual has a criminal record. 

Additionally, Barnes has introduced the “Safe Teens Act,” that would authorize local boards of education and other public school governing bodies to offer driver education as an elective course. This is formally known as House Bill 914. 

“Research indicates that motor vehicle accidents are one of the leading causes of death for young drivers aged 15 to 20,” said Rep. Barnes. “With this proposed legislation, it is my intent to ensure all young drivers in Georgia are given the opportunity to equip themselves with the necessary tools and resources to be properly educated on driver safety.”

Currently, drivers education classes are private courses in the State of Georgia ranging from $39.99 to $50. 

“Young drivers are often distracted or inexperienced, thus leading to increasing reports of reckless or impaired driving,” continued Rep. Barnes. “ As a member of the House Committee on Higher Education, I am passionate about giving Georgia’s students access to all forms of education and, in this case, driver safety. It is my hope that this legislation will make Georgia’s roads safe and open doors for young drivers across the state to learn how to be safer and smarter when operating a motor vehicle on Georgia’s roads and highways.”

Barnes introduced legislation in 2023 that would have provided free breakfast and lunch programs for all public school students in this state, who qualify for reduced price meals under federal and state guidelines. Currently, families at or below 130% of the federal poverty line can receive free lunch. Families between 130% and 185% of the federal poverty line can receive a reduced-price lunch. Within these guidelines, a family with three children must earn less than $32,318 in order to receive free lunches. 

This legislation was vetoed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. However, the state school board stepped in by approving $6.3 million in federal funds to support Rep. Barnes’s legislation. However, this is not law. Rep. Barnes plans to reintroduce the legislation during the 2024 session. 

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ATLANTA (AP) — The prospect — albeit still dim — that Georgia could fully expand Medicaid has prompted Democrats and patient advocates to turn up the pressure on Republicans in the state legislature to act.

But political experts, advocates and policy analysts say GOP lawmakers face significant headwinds to approving a plan they have long derided as wasteful, and that could ultimately doom the effort.

“There’s reason to be a little more optimistic than one year or two years ago, but there’s not a groundswell of support and willingness to change the status quo on the part of the Republican members of the legislature,” said Harry Heiman, a health policy professor at Georgia State University.

The biggest obstacle is Georgia Pathways, the state’s limited Medicaid expansion that includes the nation’s only work requirement for Medicaid recipients, said Laura Colbert, executive director of the advocacy group Georgians for a Healthy Future.

Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has championed the program, which launched in July. Though it is off to a rocky start, with just under 2,350 people enrolled as of mid-December, the Kemp administration has sought to extend it past its September 2025 expiration date.

“Governor Kemp has put a lot of political capital into Pathways,” Colbert said.

Colbert said she was optimistic that Georgia lawmakers would eventually approve a fuller expansion of coverage for low-income adults, but not necessarily this year.

Kyle Wingfield, president of the conservative Georgia Public Policy Foundation, said he, too, was skeptical Kemp would be willing to retreat from Pathways.

He also warned that Republican lawmakers could face backlash for any Medicaid deal from Republican primary voters.

Expanding Medicaid to low-income adults who make up to 138% of the federal poverty level, with the federal government picking up 90% of the cost, was a key part of the Affordable Care Act. Georgia is among 10 states that have not done it.

Wingfield said he thinks Republicans in Washington, and to a lesser extent in Georgia, have accepted that the Affordable Care Act is here to stay, but that acceptance may not be shared by rank-and-file GOP primary voters.

“When it comes to the voters in a Republican primary, I don’t think I’d want to be the one finding that out,” he said.

But Brian Robinson, a Republican political consultant who counts the Georgia Alliance of Community Hospitals and House GOP caucus among his clients, says he thinks Republicans face little risk from primary opponents if they vote for Medicaid.

“The political issue of the danger has faded over the time,” Robinson said. “We’ve had some mini-expansions in Georgia and there’s been no blowback on Republicans. In fact they’ve proudly touted it for groups like new mothers.”

Republicans in Georgia also risk alienating the conservative organization Americans for Prosperity with a vote to expand Medicaid coverage.

The group is opposed to expansion, even as part of a deal that would repeal permitting requirements for hospitals and health services, said Tony West, the group’s Georgia State Director. That sort of deal has emerged as a possible compromise between Republicans and Democrats.

West wants lawmakers to focus solely on repealing the permitting requirements and leave Medicaid expansion by the wayside.

“I think we’re taking our eye off the ball,” he said.

Conversely, Wingfield raised the possibility that some Democrats could balk at a deal, noting that Medicaid expansion has been a key political issue for the party in Georgia.

“What do they gain from taking one of their signature issues off the table and letting the Republicans claim a large share of the credit for it?” he asked.

At least for now, Democrats in the General Assembly don’t appear concerned about losing their ability to hammer the GOP on Medicaid. The Democratic caucus organized a lengthy hearing Wednesday focused on the economic and health benefits of expansion that featured health care providers, advocates and policy experts.

In opening remarks, Democratic state Rep. Michelle Au, a doctor, noted Georgia had one of the highest rates of uninsured residents in the country and some of its worst health outcomes.

”As we start this 2024 legislative session, it is my hope that all options are on the table,” she said.

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Governor Brian Kemp voiced his support for school vouchers, the completion of the Atlanta Police and Fire Training Center, pay raises for public school teachers and state employees, and a tepid support of healthcare expansions during his annual State of the State Address. 

Governor Kemp also made contrasts from his administration to President Biden’s administration and Blue States, in his biggest signal yet that he could become a player in national politics in years to come. 

“My commitment to the people of our state is very simple: an upfront promise to put hard working Georgians first,” Kemp said. “Our priorities like education, public safety, and health care, but also keep the government efficient, responsible and accountable. The federal government may have abandoned those principles. But here in Georgia, thanks to the partnership between my administration and the General Assembly, we deliver real results for the people of our state ahead of schedule and under budget. Thanks to a strong and calm and conservative fiscal management of state revenues.”

Those revenues have resulted in an $11 billion surplus, despite falling tax revenues. During his speech, Kemp proposed a 4% cost of living increase for public employees and a $2,500 raise for teachers.

In the midst of that, Kemp offered his support for school vouchers. During his address, Kemp said the free market drives competition and innovation that results in a better product for the consumer. He also believed the same principles hold true for education.

“I believe we have run out of ‘next years,’ ” Kemp said during his annual State of the State address to a joint session of the Georgia House and Senate. “I firmly believe we can take an all-of-the-above approach to education, whether it’s public, private, homeschooling, charter or otherwise.”

During last year’s legislative session, eighteen Republicans voted against a plan that would create $6,500 vouchers. At the time, Democrats hated the idea because the funding for the vouchers would come directly from the Georgia State Budget. They also made the argument the move would fundamentally destroy Georgia’s K-12 public education system. 

“He is using his political power to block Medicaid expansion and defund public schools,” said Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus.

Next, Governor Kemp applauded Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum for their efforts in fighting crime. Kemp used the moment to voice his support for the full completion of the Atlanta Police and Fire Training Center, to rapturous applause in the House Chamber. 

“While the mayor and I come from different political parties and don’t agree on everything, we do agree on the importance of reducing crime and keeping our citizens safe,” Kemp said. “Bipartisan majorities of both chambers, the mayor, and myself all agree on the critical need for the completion of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.”

On January 18, 2023, The Georgia Bureau of Investigation alleged environmental activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán fired the first gunshot from inside a tent after ignoring officers’ orders and refusing to come out, hitting Georgia State Trooper Jerry A. Parrish. Terán was subsequently shot and killed. Parrish was recognized during Kemp’s State of the State address after recovering from his injuries. Since then, sixty-one protesters of the site they dubbed as “Cop City” were charged by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr under the state’s RICO Statute and the trial is scheduled to begin this month. 

“As long as I’m your governor, there will be no gray area or political double talk: We support our law enforcement officers. We support our firefighters and first responders,” Kemp said.

The first phase of the Atlanta Police and Fire Training Center is set to open later this year.

“That is why last year, thanks to the work of the General Assembly, I was proud to sign a budget that included a $6,000 pay raise for state law enforcement officers,” Kemp said. “That pay raise was a recognition of the contributions these brave men and women make as they put their lives on the line, day in and day out.”

Regarding healthcare expansion, the Democrats said Georgia Republicans know they have policies that are indefensible. During the Georgia Chamber’s annual Eggs and Issues legislative breakfast, Georgia House Speaker, Jon Burns, said the House’s top priority would be increasing access, lowering cost and creating better outcomes for Georgia families will be a top priority. Moreover, during Eggs and Issues, Governor Kemp proposed $50 million that would help fund the creation of a medical school at the University of Georgia because he said the state has had trouble recruiting healthcare professionals. 

“With these new assets on the way we will further address the growing need for healthcare professionals in our state and ensure that we are doing everything that we can to address the challenges across the healthcare spectrum, from workforce to cost to access to quality,” said Kemp. 

Democrats seized on the fact rural healthcare in Georgia is largely non-existent. The current inability to access equitable and quality healthcare that is within minutes from residents in rural Georgia is woefully unacceptable. Additionally, the closures of the Atlanta Medical Center in 2022 and Wellstar’s closure of its care center in East Point on January 12th, also presents challenges to individuals in Fulton County needing care. 

“We need a people-centered legislative plan,” Mitchell said. “Instead the governor has kept his head in the sand. He is using his political power to block Medicaid expansion. Each year they block Medicaid expansion, it costs Georgians $3 billion. The people of Georgia are being misled. They’re flushing literally billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars down the drain.”

Georgia is one of ten states that has not agreed to expand the Medicaid program.

“This isn’t just a policy oversight, it is a moral failing,” said Georgia State Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes, a Democrat from Lawrenceville. Hundreds of thousands of our people are left without adequate health care. Consider this: a modest investment of less than 1% of this state budget would fully expand Medicaid and unlock new federal funding. This move would not just be a lifeline for those in need of health care. It would be a catalyst for economic growth, projected to generate over $65 billion in new economic activity in Georgia over a decade and support more than 56,000 new jobs across the state.”

While Kemp was completing his address, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget released a $37.5 billion mid-year budget request and a $36.1 billion spending proposal for fiscal 2025. The legislature’s budget writing committees will meet for three days next week to review the two budgets.

“In an election year, I don’t expect us all to agree on every issue,” Kemp said. “But in the middle of all that, I ask that we also remember Georgia is different for a reason. That our success is not an accident, but the result of resilient people who elected their leaders to keep state government efficient, responsive and accountable.” 

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ATLANTA – Cobb County Commissioner Jerica Richardson isn’t daunted by U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath’s decision to seek reelection in the newly redrawn 6th Congressional District.

Richardson announced Tuesday that she still plans to run for the seat, which will pit her against McBath, D-Marietta, in May’s Democratic primary.

Richardson first indicated she would run for Congress before legislative Republicans drew a new congressional map during the General Assembly’s recent redistricting session. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, who forced the special session by ruling in October that the 2021 congressional map violated the Voting Rights Act, upheld the new map late last month.

McBath, who has been representing the 7th Congressional District during the last two years, immediately responded to Jones’ ruling by declaring her intention to run in the 6th District this year. The redrawn 6th is much friendlier turf for a Democrat than the new 7th, which now extends north through heavily Republican Forsyth, Dawson, and Lumpkin counties as well as portions of Cherokee and Hall counties.

The new 6th District includes central and southern Fulton County, South Cobb, eastern Douglas County, and northern Fayette County.

“When asked previously about whether I would stay in this race if the maps forced any current members of the Democratic Congressional Caucus to join this race in the 6th, I answered honestly that my intention in entering this race was never about challenging a sitting Democrat,” Richardson said.

“I entered this race solely focused on delivering for the constituents of the 6th, many of whom are my current commission constituents. … I have decided that I’m going to keep surfacing the issues that voters care about, because our voters deserve to know we are listening.”

Richardson noted that Republicans in the General Assembly also have drawn her out of her commission district, the only county commissioner in Georgia to suffer that fate. Cobb County officials are vowing to appeal a ruling this week by Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris upholding the legislature’s authority to draw county commission maps.

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On Tuesday, Jan. 2, U.S. Congresswoman Nikema Williams told the Russell Center she’d be hosting a guest here in Atlanta and would like to visit the campus. Her guest would be the U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Two days later, Jeffries and Williams would visit the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs. They were joined by Georgia State Representative Inga Willis, a Democrat from Atlanta. Leading the tour was the President and CEO of the Russell Center, Jay Bailey. 

During the tour, Jeffries learned the Russell Center recently took their cadre of entrepreneurs based in their incubation center to Colombia to drive economic development in Afro-Caribbean communities. He also discovered the ways which RICE has been able to leverage partnerships with companies such as Mastercard, Wells Fargo, Wal-Mart and more in order to drive more than $600 million in investment directed towards Black entrepreneurs under their stewardship.

Jeffries came away impressed with the Russell Center’s high and comprehensive level of providing services and resources to Black-owned businesses and Black entrepreneurs in every stage of a business’s life cycle. But it’s nothing new to the City of Atlanta. 

With Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard Holbrook Jackson, Jr. and the trailblazing businessman, Herman J. Russell, is a through line over the last 50 years of Black leadership in the public and private sectors. Jeffries was asked if the federal government could take what is done here, and replicate this in cities like Chicago, Charlotte, Nashville, Memphis and elsewhere?

“There’s been a real commitment, led by President Biden and vice president Harris, to lean into the growth and development of Black entrepreneurship and economic opportunity,” Jeffries said. “And in many ways, the model and the example here at the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs, is one that should be capable of being emulated and replicated so that the growth and opportunity that we will continue to see here in Atlanta isn’t limited just to this part of the country, but can be built out in other parts of the country. 

One of the things I said to Jay, was that I’m looking forward to try to connect some of the leaders of New York City including Mayor [Eric] Adams, who has a vision of trying to conduct himself in a manner similar to former mayor Maynard Jackson and to experience what is being done here in Atlanta, through RICE, as a way of perhaps bringing Mayor Adams his vision to life in New York City.”

Jeffries also said during his speech to the assembled stakeholders at RICE when Black businesses succeed, America succeeds. According to a study conducted by Pew Research, majority Black American-owned businesses made up the greatest share of all classifiable firms in the District of Columbia, Georgia and Maryland. Additionally, Nearly six-in-ten Black adults (58%) say supporting Black businesses, or “buying Black,” is an extremely or very effective strategy for moving Black people toward equality in the United States. 

Additionally, There were an estimated 161,031 Black or African American-owned businesses with $183.3 billion in annual receipts, 1.4 million employees, and about $53.6 billion in annual payroll, according to the 2022 Annual Business Survey (ABS), which referenced data collected in 2021. 

Congresswoman Williams added it’s part of her responsibility to help continue the legacy established by Maynard Jackson and H.J. Russell: uplifting what the Russell Center is doing so that it’s not just held here in Atlanta or in the southeast. She characterized it as a national vision that can be exported around the world. 

“Mr. Russell opened up so many doors for so many people and so I have an obligation to continue to open those doors for businesses,” Williams said. “We brought the Department of Commerce here, the Secretary of Commerce, to present grants that we’re for local businesses. We’re not just [attracting] Black businesses [to present those grants]. But this has been on a national scale, what Jay has been able to do here. And I’m just looking forward to what’s next, how we continue to partner with my work in Congress, but the work that RICE is doing right here on the ground. So any opportunity that I have to show off your leadership, the leadership of the entrepreneurs who depend on what we’re doing here, every day. You can always count on me.”

Recently, Rep. Williams introduced legislation that would create a grant program with the Small Business Administration for entrepreneurs at minority-serving institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Minority Entrepreneurship Grant Program Act, aims to meet the needs of this moment in which we find Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives get demonized by those on the right. 

“When Leader Jeffries took over, he said, from day one, that we will work with Republicans. This is bipartisan legislation, we will work with anyone who is ready and willing to do the work for the people. And that’s what we’re doing with this legislation. I’m a third generation HBCU alum, shoutout to Talladega College. And so doing it at minority serving institutions and HBCUs was important to me, but it’s about serving the people. And we are willing to do that with anyone, any party, who is willing to step up and lead.”

As Congress gavels back in this week, Jeffries came away from his visit to the Russell Center overwhelmingly assured that RICE has every available resource presented to these entrepreneurs, who if given the opportunity, and the access, can develop thriving businesses. However, he said it’s not the case across the nation. Jeffries reiterated the work at the Russell Center can be replicated nationwide. 

“At the end of the day, when that occurs, you’ll see magic from a business standpoint, Blossom all across the country,” Jeffries exclaimed. “One of the things that, to me, is magical about the Russell Innovation Center for entrepreneurs is the commitment to community transformation, which is a very powerful model that should be replicated all across the country.”

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ATLANTA (AP) — A judge rejected a lawsuit Friday that sought to disqualify Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones from holding office because of the Republican’s participation as an elector for Donald Trump in 2020.

Butts County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson ruled that the four voters who sued couldn’t use the kind of legal action they filed to attack actions Jones took in 2020 while he was a state senator.

The suit echoed other efforts elsewhere to keep Trump and some of his supporters off ballots and to prosecute people who falsely claimed to be valid Trump electors in states Joe Biden won.

Richard Rose, a civil rights activist who is one of the plaintiffs, said Friday that he had expected Wilson to rule against him and that he anticipates an appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Jones “violated his oath of office, because he lied and said he was a duly qualified elector from state of Georgia, which is not true,” Rose said.

Jones says the suit is an illegitimate effort by Democrats to unseat him.

“Democrat activists in Georgia are trying to use the legal system to overrule the will of the voters, just like liberal activists in places like Colorado and Maine are trying to do to President Trump,” Jones said in a statement. “I’m glad to see the court throw out this ridiculous political attack.”

The lawsuit came as a decision remains in limbo on whether to prosecute Jones on state charges, due to a lack of a special prosecutor willing to take the case.

The plaintiffs asked a judge in December to declare Jones ineligible to hold office in Georgia, alleging that he violated his oath of office as a state senator by signing his name as a Trump elector. Biden was certified as winning Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in 2020’s election.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear Trump’s appeal of a Colorado court ruling keeping him off the 2024 presidential ballot because of his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The court will be considering for the first time the meaning and reach of a provision of the post-Civil War 14th Amendment barring some people who “engaged in insurrection” from holding public office.

In Georgia, challengers argued the same clause prohibits Jones from holding office and called him “an insurrectionist against the Constitution of the United States of America.”

Jones’ lawyer argued the challenge lacked evidence to prove insurrection, a position the judge agreed with.

Jones was one of 16 Republicans who gathered on Dec. 14, 2020, at Georgia’s Capitol, claiming to be legitimate electors. The meeting is critical to the prosecution of Trump and 18 others who were indicted by a Georgia grand jury in August for efforts to overturn Biden’s narrow win.

Of those in Georgia indicted in August, only three acted as Trump electors, and all were indicted for crimes beyond that.

Michigan and Nevada have also criminally charged Trump electors. In Wisconsin, 10 Republicans settled a civil lawsuit last month and admitted their actions sought to overturn Biden’s victory.

An earlier special Georgia grand jury recommended Jones face felony charges. But Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was barred from indicting Jones. A judge ruled Willis, an elected Democrat, had a conflict of interest because she hosted a fundraiser for the Democrat who lost to Jones in 2022’s election for lieutenant governor.

The state Prosecuting Attorneys Council is supposed to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate whether Jones’ actions were criminal, but hasn’t yet acted.

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