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
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
keep chugging. the latest fox news poll has governor kemp leading donald trump s hand-picked candidate, david perdue, by32 points. the average of polls has kemp up over 20 points. trump dismissed the polls, saying he expects a surprise. they tried to put out some fake news about me sort of losing faith in david. and i ll tell you what, if you know david, you don t lose faith in him. i think a big, big surprise is going to be tomorrow. i think david perdue i hear it s like record, record turnout. they ve never seen anything like it. the big news is, though, that poll and i hear another one came out is much closer than the fake news wants you to believe. they had me way down a couple times now, in two elections, way down in certain areas. i ended up winning them by a lot. it s called suppression polling. i railly think that maybe is
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
loyalty. david perdue based his entire campaign on the big lie. his opening statement at the debate the other night was about the big lie and nothing else. now, of course, he s delving into racist remarks, and he is getting crushed. not only did he get a low energy endorsement from trump on the phone call yesterday, trump couldn t be bothered to show up to actually rally for him. then low energy, isn t he? we ll set aside the wisdom of what mo brooks did, but mo brooks literally spoke at the rally on january 6th, 2021, before the the hours before the capitol riot. he said it was time to kick ass while he was there. mo brooks is under investigation for what he said there, supporting donald trump s big lie. trump withdrew his endorsement because he was losing in the polls. if you really need another lesson in trumpism and why you don t want to take that backing, because it ll get ripped away whenever you least expect it. here are the comments made by democratic gubernatorial