analyst. and the host of way too early, jonathan lemire. white house bureau chief of my politico. and host of the circus, john heilemann. good to have you all. polls open in less than an hour in georgia, where one of the most consequential primaries of the midterms is taking place. there are several state and congressional races on the ballot, but the ones we re closely watching are the republican primaries for governor, secretary of state, and senate. the new york times describes the background of today s races like this. quote, georgia s got everything. disputed elections, rapid demographic change, celebrity democrats, a restrictive new voting law, an open criminal investigation into donald trump s meddling in the 2020 election, a deep rural-urban divide and unending drama between the trump wing of the republican party and the local gop establishment. that s a lot. former senator david perdue, whose loss in the state two years ago helped give democrats control of
that why? just, what was the point? so he s just going to say these racist dog whistles, and that s what his legacy is going to be, and not a senator from georgia? it is really embarrassing. the racism is shocking. the guy is going to finish his career this way. just blatantly racist statements. you know, one thing, john heilemann, just for our viewers that have never ventured into the deep south, it s important for them to realize because sometimes people look at the south as being one big state, one big area. they are not. georgia, actually, as elise and i were joking before, about how georgians and we found out, i think, elise, a guy tweeted at us, it was the agriculture commissioner responsible for the name the empire state of the south. that s what georgia used to be
where trump s influence over what the party looks like, what animates it, are not the kinds of things that mike pence was, ideally, if there was ever any chance he could become the nominee, kind of lined up to try to exploit. i think he is going to have a very hard road ahead of him, i think, in trying to take on donald trump. the fact he was trump s vice president is not going to make him a natural successor to donald trump, but it is indicative, the fact that he is being so aggressive about going out and taking trump on, it may be suggestive and may open the door to a lot of other republicans who are a little afraid to take on trump this directly. they may say, if mike pence can do it, i can, too. we may see it in the months ahead. you issued the conspiracy theories, the pizza gate lies, donald trump and others around trump supported, that pence is uncomfortable with. also, it is fascinating, you know, people in the suburbs of atlanta, former republicans, maybe moderate republicans
america, one of the most ethically diverse? i think it is a contentious proposition. that ll be one of the legacies trump left for this party, is how to grapple with the fact that a lot of the things he s made people, as you said earlier, elections are voters and what they think of their future. donald trump turned the republican party into one that s focus on the past and him specifically. call it backward looking. that is not a good equation to win elections in america, especially in the battleground states where change is the main constant. republican party is going to be having problems for a long time to come, especially in those places. john heilemann, i know you have to run. take care of your doggy. thank you very much for being on this morning. joining us now, from the atlanta journal of institution. white house correspondent for politico, senior contributor eugene daniels. the polls are officially open in
and best way to find a candidate that is going to win. i will say, something that s also really important for people to keep in mind is it s not just, you know, the pence wing of the party verse the trump wing of the party. it is also election deiers versus people who accepted the 2020 election and are working to move on. that is the most fascinating aspect of this. perhaps some clues can be found in elise jordan s focus groups. that i been so unbelievably revealing over the past week or so we ve been watching these. you have some with georgia voters on election integrity. i m excited about these installments because i think the topic is the most important topic we can address today in our democracy. yeah. and we re going to listen to democrats, then we re going to hear from republicans. i just want to point out, these are focus groups. i m not going to be disagreeing in real time, necessarily. we re letting people talk and