Mentions here if he runs for Congress that he would go for the redrawn (and open) 6th or the 10th (with Jody Hice leaving to run for Sec of State). The 6th already has strong declared candidates and the 10th is already jam-packed with candidates (Hice has endorsed State Rep. Tim Barr and solid Conservative ex-Rep. Paul Broun is running, too)
The 2nd against Bishop would be too far to go, opening him up to charges of carpetbagging. 2 Black Republicans are already running (with one White, which might split the vote). Jeremy Hunt, one of the two, has the endorsement of Sens. Hawley & Cotton (though no GA pols have apparently openly endorsed yet).
Thanks, DJ.
I agree that the GA-06 and GA-10, neither of which include Vernon Jones’s home area (although they are at least partly in the Atlanta media market) already have quite a few prominent conservatives in the race and that it would be difficult for Jones to slip in there.
I also agree that Jones running in the GA-02 would be a more obvious case of carpetbagging, but I fear that we do need a more high-profile candidate in that district, so it may be worthwhile to run Jones there. Currently, there are five Republican candidates in GA-02 with campaign websites (which denotes a bare minimum of seriousness; I’m not paying attention to the nobody with no website and no cash who also filed to run), three black and two white. The two white candidates, Wayne Johnson and Chris West, have raised $139,000 and $105,000, respectively, through December 31. The three black candidates, Vivian Childs, Tracy Taylor and Jeremy Hunt, have raised a bit over $6,000, less than $2,000, and $0, respectively. Jeremy Hunt sounds good on paper, but unless he can achieve some serious fundraising he won’t even make the primary run-off, much less be able to take down Bishop in the general.
It would be extremely difficult to beat Sanford Bishop in the GA-02, even as redrawn to make it a bit less Democrat (but still strongly leaning that way), without eating into his margins among black voters. Among the current GOP candidates, only Hunt seems like a possibility to defeat Bishop, and he literally had raised no money as of a little more than a month ago. Unless Hunt kicked butt in his fundraising in January, I would rather cut bait and have Vernon Jones move to Columbus or Macon or elsewhere in the GA-02 and run there.