ATLANTA ( Associated Press) — John Gordon’s Republican primary challenge to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr provides an exceptionally clear contrast in the 2020 election. Gordon, who spent most of his career in business, returned to the legal world to prove that Donald Trump was duped by a victory in Georgia. Carr, the incumbent, explicitly says that the problem with the 2020 election was not that Democrats stole it, but that Republicans lost.
“As a Republican, I didn’t want our team to lose in 2020,” Carr said. “I didn’t want any of our senators to lose. I didn’t want the state to go to Joe Biden. But the world I live in is based on facts, evidence and law.”
Trump has backed Gordon, furthering the former president’s passion for spreading lies about the Georgia election. Gordon has promised to launch an investigation into Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
“We will expose the fraud and we will prosecute those responsible for not doing 2020 again – that ship has sailed,” Gordon said. “But we will expose it so that this never happens again in our country.”
The winner of the May 24 Republican primary will face one of two Democrats running in her party’s primaries — Atlanta attorney Christian Weiss Smith and Sandy Springs state Senator Jane Jordan.
Carr, appointed by Nathan Deal in 2016, was previously US Sen. Johnny Isaacson and chief of staff to the state economic development commissioner. He counts his top achievements as prosecuting human trafficking, securing a $636 million opioid settlement, and defending the 2021 Georgia voting law.
Carr repeatedly sued President Biden’s administration and became involved in an earlier lawsuit that unsuccessfully tried to scuttle former President Barack Obama’s healthcare changes.
“If the federal government goes ahead and either oversteps its authority, or acts inconsistently with federal law, then someone needs to push back,” Carr said.
Carr resigned as president of the Republican Attorney General’s Association in 2021 after the association’s political arm sponsored a robocall urging Trump supporters to march on the US Capitol on January 6 to “stop the theft” . The call raised questions about the group’s culpability for the ensuing riot. Carr says neither he nor any other attorney general in the group authorized the call. Months later, over Carr’s objections, the other Republican attorney general chose the person who had authorized the call to run the association.
“I was furious. I thought it was one of the darkest days in American history, as the Capitol was attacked,” Carr said, explaining why he resigned.
If re-elected for another term, Carr said, he wants to nurture a gang prosecution unit authorized by the General Assembly this year.
Gordon, however, says that Carr is unresponsive. He blamed Carr for a compromise agreement to standardize signature verification on absentee ballots, to allow ballot drop boxes, and to let Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger mail absentee ballot applications.
Carr and others question whether Gordon has been an active member of the state bar for seven years, as required by the state constitution to serve as attorney general.
Gordon became a lawyer in 1979 and says he has 15 to 20 years of active membership. However, he declined to provide documents, and the State Bar only has 2000 records.
“I don’t need you to provide the documents,” said Gordon.
Gordon is sued by people who rented the Atlanta mansion where Gordon is registered to vote, saying that Gordon took the rent and kicked them out without returning the money. Gordon dismissed the dispute as grapes sourced from bad tenants.
On the Democratic side, Jordan said she is running because she thinks Carr is “not prioritizing the people of the state.” He said his challenge to the health care legislation could “cause serious and significant harm to the people he was elected to represent.”
Jordan, citing companies suing his work for mistreating consumers, said part of the attorney general’s job should be “going after the bad guys who are really ripping off people who live in the state.”
“People need to vote for the guy they think can beat Chris Carr, and I think I’m the only one who can do that,” Jordan said.
Wise Smith is a former Assistant District Attorney for Fulton County. He founded the National Social Justice Coalition, which works with prosecutors to end police brutality. In 2020, he finished third in the Democratic primary for Fulton County District Attorney.
Wise Smith said he would use the attorney general’s office to work with district attorneys and law enforcement to convert more low-level nonviolent offenders to treatment and rehabilitation, while focusing on prosecuting more serious crimes. want.
“I am running to change the face of justice in the state of Georgia, to make our justice system one that truly strives for justice for all,” Wise Smith said.
