“The more things change, the more they will stay the same- unless we want change badly enough”
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | Several years ago, my nephew (Anthony Bernard) and I wrote a column for the UGA newspaper, The Red and Black, which was entitled “Rep. Jody Hice has a poor record on women’s issues.” Even though ex-Congressman Hice was obviously anti-women’s rights, he represented liberal Athens, including the University of Georgia
Hice was a pastor and right-wing radio show host before his entrance into politics. Because of Republican legislative gerrymandering, right-wing radical Rep. Hice won a seat in Congress. He subsequently left the House and became former President Trump’s choice to run for Georgia Secretary of State in the GOP 2022 primary. He lost to current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a traditional conservative, who had the guts to stand up to Trump and refused to simply “find” 11,000 more votes to enable Trump to throw the election.
In any case, parts of Clark and Gwinnett are now represented by conservative Rep. Mike Collins (R). The 10th District of Georgia is still weirdly configured, running all the way to Johnson County in the south (Hershel Walker’s birthplace), including Jasper County where I was a county commissioner once. The district is bounded in the north to Athens. It is still structured (gerrymandered) to help elect a right-wing Republican.
But one thing has changed: the Supreme Court did what Hice wanted back in 2019. It overturned Roe v. Wade, reversing decades of positive movement toward women’s rights.
The question now becomes: will younger voters and especially women, motivated by women’s rights, change the outcome of the 2024 election in District 10 and possibly the presidential election?
In 2020, Collins got 65 percent of the District 10 vote, a total of 90,000 more than the Democrat, Tabitha Johnson-Green. She only won Clark (split, gerrymandered), Henry (split, gerrymandered), Taliaferro and Hancock counties.
Can the 2024 Democrat get 50-percent-plus vote, about another 50,000 votes? Frankly, it will be tough in District 10. The only way it can happen is if younger voters and women are motivated enough by the anti-women’s rights policies of the GOP to kick out the incumbent.
However, the story will be much different on the state level. In 2020, Biden only won Georgia by around 11,000 votes, even though he won recently blue Gwinnett by about 55,000. But, because of inflation and the economy, Biden is not a popular president. Remember, it is considered that Georgia will be one of a handful of states that will determine who wins the presidential election in 2024.
To win, the abortion issue must be emphasized to a greater extent by the Democrats. Overall, 29 percent of women (and 34 percent of women under 50) indicate that the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade will be the biggest issue in 2024.
Among Democrats, that figure is 37 percent…but it is still only 22 percent among independents. However, as abortion has been in various ways on the ballot in many GOP strongholds, it has had a surprising positive response.
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