Walker, Warnock make final appeals to voters ahead of Georgia runoff

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Good evening. It's good to be with you. We start tonight in Georgia. We're early voting ended yesterday and that state senate runoff election. That contest is between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker, neither won a majority of votes last month which forced a runoff. Georgian swarm to the polls ahead of Tuesday's vote, setting a new record for single day early in-person turnout.

  Our Laura Barron-Lopez is on the ground in Atlanta forest. Laura, it's good to see you.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Good to see you.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And give us a sense of how Warnock and Walker have shifted their messages, if at all in this stage of the race to reach potentially new voters?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Walker is really focused right now on trying to win over those 81,000 voters that voted for the third-party Libertarian candidate in the general election. And he's been talking about that on the stump. He's also really just though been focused on not really a more moderate message. He's talking a lot about Culture Wars stuff. He is equating voting this election campaign to whether or not Georgians want to go to heaven or hell. He talks a lot on the stump about gender identity and about transgender people being allowed to play in, in different sports.

  And so that's what his, some speech is really focused on, which doesn't sound as though it's trying to reach those moderate voters or even went over those voters that voted for Republican Governor Brian Kemp, who has been recently trying to boost him in the runoff election, a change from the general election.

  As for Warnock, Senator Warnock has really been focused on health care. He's also been making a democracy pitch to voters telling them that Republicans were trying to prevent voters from voting on weekend early voting and that his campaign along with other organizations sued and ultimately won that. And Warnock's campaign is feeling very bullish ahead of the Tuesday runoff.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Well, on the early voting, there has been record breaking turnout, as we've said. The Democrats see that as a good sign for the Warnock campaign. And what are officials they're saying about the long lines that have greeted early voters across the state of Georgia?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Democrats do view that as a good sign for them heading into the runoff. They feel as though the more people that are voting, the more likely Warnock could potentially prevail. They also feel as though enthusiasm is not lacking on their side at all. Officials in Georgia, State officials are saying — the Secretary of State's office has said that those long lines were always going to occur and that they are assigned that there isn't voter suppression. But black led organizations, voter that are focused on mobilizing voters that I've spoken to while I've been out here disagree. They say that those long lines ultimately make it harder for voters to vote. Some voters have been waiting in line longer than an hour and a half to two hours to try to cast their ballot in early voting and they also say that that shortened timeframe that was caused by the restrictive voting rights law — voting law that was passed last year, that instead of having a month to register new voters for the runoff, they weren't able to register any new voters ahead of this runoff versus two years ago. They also say that that shortened timeframe, it went from having three weeks of early voting, roughly three weeks to now a basically one week of early voting, and that all of that makes it harder for voters to cast their ballot.

• Geoff Bennett:

  On a separate note, Laura, as you will know, this past week, the DNC, the Democratic National Committee voted to adopt President Biden's recommendation to overhaul the 2024 presidential primary calendar. So, with that, does it slingshot South Carolina into the leadoff position, followed later by New Hampshire, Nevada, Georgia and Michigan, drawing on your experience covering national politics in the White House. Give us a sense of the rationale behind that decision and how it's being received by Democratic officials?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  I was in Iowa in — during the 2020 Primary, Democratic presidential primary, and it was chaotic. And it was a madhouse, and that really pushed a lot of Democrats to vocally call for Iowa to no longer be the first state. The first caucus for the Democratic presidential primary, also pushing that is the fact that a lot of Democrats want a state that is more reflective of what they say is their voting base, more diverse, that has black and brown voters that are more populous in those states.

  And so that's why they appear to be right now going with South Carolina as the first state. But ultimately, we won't know the final decision. The final vote won't occur by the DNC until early 2023. And here in Georgia, speaking to some local organizers, they of course, would love for Georgia to go earlier on in the calendar. But there could be complications there because of the fact that the DNC is going to have to find a way to work with the GOP state legislature in Georgia, as well as the Republican governor in Georgia and get to move Georgia up in that primary calendar. And there could be complications there as well as the fact that New Hampshire is deciding that is saying vocally that they ultimately are going to still try to be the first primary in the calendar because their state law gives them the power to do that.

• Geoff Bennett:

  That's a good point. Laura Barron-Lopez in Atlanta for us tonight, ahead of Georgia's runoff election on Tuesday. Laura, thank you.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Thank you.