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- [00:01]
IBM AI Representative
The thing about AI for business, it may not automatically fit the way your business works. At IBM, we've seen this firsthand, but by embedding AI across hr, IT and procurement processes, we've reduced costs by millions, slash repetitive tasks, and freed thousands of hours for strategic work. Now we're helping companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business. IBM,
- [00:33]
Bloomberg Announcer
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio news. You're listening to the Bloomberg Balance of Power podcast. Catch us live weekdays at noon and 5pm Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business app. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube.
- [00:56]
Kelly
Joe and I are indeed in Atlanta or Hotlanta, which is certainly living up to its name today. But we are here in the aftermath of yesterday's primaries, which of course didn't result in definitive outcomes in all cases. There are two races that will be going to a runoff scheduled for mid June. The Republican Senate primary. It is not yet decided who ultimately will be facing off against the incumbent Democrat John Ossoff. And then the gubernatorial race on the Republican side, also heading to a runoff between Burt Jones and Rick Jackson. Knowing of course, that while President Trump did make an endorsement in that gubernatorial race, he did not do so in the Senate, which raises the question of whether or not the president could have been the one that avoided this getting to a runoff, knowing that there were plenty of races where President Trump was willing to make his voice heard and Kentucky was a big one. Northern Kentucky.
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Host/Moderator
The lack of a presidential endorsement and the fact that Brian Kemp chose not to run made this a bigger field and I guess one that was not able to be decisive last evening here. So Jon Ossoff essentially gets another month to cruise and not spend as much money, just focus on his own campaign while Republicans figure out who will run against him. Keisha Lance Bottoms, I guess will have the same luxury in the gubernatorial contest.
- [02:06]
Kelly
Yeah, but she was indeed the victor in the Democratic primary, so that will be races that we are of course watching knowing. Keisha Lance Bottoms was able to secure the endorsements of the likes of former President Biden, the very first endorsement act after leaving the president.
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Host/Moderator
So we want to get into all of this, not just here in Georgia, but what happened last evening in Kentucky. Remarkable. The most expensive US House primary in American history and it did not end well for Tom Massie, knowing that some $32 million was spent in this race. Kelly it wasn't just the presidential effort to Dispatch him. It was an enormous amount of pro Israel money, a pac. We heard from him repeatedly that Miriam Adelson had put so much money into the race that she couldn't paid for the ballroom any longer. And we want to get a better sense of what the president's making these decisions based on which race to weigh in on, what the actual aftermath is and how this helps Republicans maintain majorities in Washington. Nancy Cook is our Trump whisperer and joins us live from our Washington bureau. Bloomberg News senior national political correspondent who spent quite a bit of time in Kentucky ahead of this race. Nancy, now that we know how it ended, what does this tell us about the president's grip on the party?
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Nancy Cook
Well, I think that it tells us that Trump still has an incredibly strong grip over the MAGA base. And we saw that in Louisiana, as you said. We saw that in Indiana, where his White House really waded into state legislative races, which was remarkable. And also we saw that in Kentucky, you know, the White House really made a big push to unseat people who had defied Trump on a range of issues, either on redistricting or on, you know, Senate confirmation, you know, or Massie who kept defying the president on his support for the war in Iran or the tax bill or the release of the Epstein files. And so these elections, this was basically a Trump revenge tour. And the purpose was to show that Trump is not a lame duck. Even though he's not running for president again, he still has a lot of political power with his base. And I think that that's the message that the Trump people wanted to send, and they sent it. And we saw, you know, several of Trump's top political advisers crowing about this on social media last night, posting a lot of messages that were full of bravado, a lot of memes. They seem quite like they're riding really high at this point.
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Katie Frost
Well, and on the notion of the
- [04:32]
Kelly
president's control of the base of the party, Nancy, it's one thing to be able to exert that in the primary, but how does that carry on as we advance toward the general and the actual vote in November?
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Nancy Cook
Well, that's really the problem facing the Republicans. There was some new polling that came out from the New York Times in Siena that just showed how underwater Republicans are with independent voters. You know, they don't like Trump's handling of the economy. They don't like the cost of living issues. They're worried about the war in Iran. And part of the reason that Trump was successful in 2024 was because he took that MAGA base of voters and expanded, disbanded it. And that, you know, he reached out to young men, Hispanics, black men, you know, health conscious voters who liked his whole MAHA agenda. And a lot of those people have swung back towards Democrats or just back to being independents. The Trump coalition that helped him win in 2024 is no longer intact. And so my question for November is how are Republicans going to make up that ground? Because you cannot win general elections just with that MAGA base. You have to add to it. And that's really where they're challeng lies.
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Host/Moderator
Case in point, Texas. Nancy, I'd love your thoughts on the President's decision yesterday to at the very last minute weigh in on the runoff for Senate in Texas. He went with Ken Paxton, the MAGA candidate, if you will, the Attorney General, over a longtime establishment senator, the incumbent, John Cornyn, who just not that long ago, a couple of years ago, was considered a prime candidate to be a majority leader in the Senate. The conventional wisdom in Washington is that makes it a lot easier for Democrats to flip that seat. What do you think?
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Nancy Cook
I think it does make it easier. And it also means, you know, Kelly was talking a lot about how much these races cost. It also means that Republicans are going to have to spend a ton of money on the Paxton race. Paxton campaign does not have a lot of money right now. And so the Republican Senate operation is going to have to pour, you know, as much as 150 million, maybe more, into that race just to try to keep Paxton viable. I do think that Democrats have not elected a member to the Senate in many, many years. It's sort of a white whale for Democrats. So I do think it is a long shot that James Talarico gets elected. However, you know, as there's been this intra Republican warfare between Ken Paxton and John Cornyn, James Tallarico, the Democratic candidate, has had time to raise money. Last week he was campaigning with President Obama. He has about 20, $27 million on hand. You know, he's just had time to give speeches, meet voters, unveil policy proposals, and that's a huge advantage to him.
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Kelly
Well, and when we consider the implications for the President's agenda, Nancy, obviously whoever ends up in control of both chambers after the vote in November is going to influence things in the final two years of Trump's term. But what about his agenda in the meantime? We saw Senator Bill Cassidy, who was successfully primaried by and now is going to be ousted from his seat because he couldn't even make the runoff by a Trump backed. Trump backed challenger. He wanted Cassidy out. Cassidy voted against him yesterday in a war powers, a procedural vote in the Senate. I wonder if we might be able to add John Cornyn to that list as well, and if all of this is going to make it harder for the President to get things done that he wants done on Capitol Hill.
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Nancy Cook
I think that's a great point, Kelly. I mean, by unseen seating, these actually very conservative, you know, Republicans. John Cornyn is, I mean, we don't know what will happen there, but John Cornyn is a reliable conservative voter for Trump. So is Bill Cassidy in Louisiana. By sort of working against these people, what Trump is essentially doing in the Senate is creating more potential critics. And we saw that with Thom Tillis, who is a Republican senator, who Trump has really gone after. You know, Thom Tillis is now a thorn in the side of the White House. He held up for a while, Kevin Wash his nomination to the Fed, which Trump really wanted. You know, he critiques Trump. I think that we will see. This will encourage senators who aren't running again or who have lost their primaries to really stand up for things like should they have the power, should they be able to vote for support of a war in Iran. It's just going to create more Trump critics in the Senate and in Congress. And, and this is at a moment when I would say the relationship between the White House and Capitol Hill is already a little bit tenuous. You know, Capitol Hill, I think, is starting to bristle at the amount of control that the White House wants to have over it. And I think we'll just see a further breakage of that relationship.
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Kelly
All right, Nancy Cook covering all things politics for us here at Bloomberg. Thank you so much.
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Host/Moderator
Stay with us on Balance of Power. We'll have much more coming up after this.
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IBM AI Representative
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- [09:55]
Bloomberg Announcer
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- [10:15]
Kelly
We are covering it all, indeed, from the results of yesterday's primaries here in Georgia and in five other states across the country to geopolitics, which we're tracking on a number of fronts as we await a decision, it seems, from President Trump potentially in coming days to either move forward with continued military strikes against Iran or pursue an actual deal. But we're also tracking Cuba as we've seen, obviously increasingly aggressive rhetoric coming from the administration trying to pressure the Cuban regime. And now the DOJ. The U.S. department of justice is making a filing in a federal court in Florida an indictment against Raul Castro. Of course, the former president, president of Cuba, the brother of Fidel Castro, still in many ways a de facto leader in Cuba. This is tied to the shooting down by the Cuban air force of planes in the 1990s. But many see this as essentially potentially a precursor to a greater pressure campaign. Allah. What we saw in Venezuela with Nicholas
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Host/Moderator
unclear whether we'd be going to seize him as we did Maduro. But look, the president's been talking about this for weeks, I suppose months now, just recently saying Cuba is next to after operations in Venezuela that led to this. And now, of course, with Iran. The acting attorney general, Todd Blanch, is going to be holding forth in a news conference a short time from now. We'll keep ears on that, Kelly, to see if he speaks to this. And of course, we've got the matter of Iran now with a new warning to the United States suggesting that it will attack U.S. interests or allies outside of the region, outside of the Middle east, if America indeed resumes kinetic action. The president is being briefed by senior military leaders on potential options with regard to that right now. And ahead of our conversation with iconic civil rights leader Andrew Young, we want to compare notes with our Washington correspondent. Tyler Kendall is on the scene right now in Washington with the latest on all of this. Tyler, do we know any more about this indictment in Cuba, Raul Castro,
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Christopher Bruce
But
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Tyler Kendall
we are expecting additional information to come from the Department of Justice as they hold this event in Miami. But as you mentioned, it really does dovetail with what has been at this point, months of pressure from the US on the Cuban regime to capitulate to US Demands. We've seen really a strong economic sanctions list put on Cuban officials just earlier this week. Also the potential threat when it comes to military action. And it appears that this indictment is going along with that. Earlier this week, the US Unveiling a sanctions regime against not just top Cuban officials, but also the country's spy Agency at this point, Cuba's energy sector has really taken a hit over what has been a blockade of oil ever since we saw the US Go after the Venezuelan regime and the capture of Nicolas Maduro. And that is really where we started to see President Trump's efforts and focus center on Cuba when it comes to his rhetoric and the changes that he wants to see in the country. J marks Cuban Independence Day and we did get this statement earlier today from President Trump where he said in part, quote, we look forward with confidence towards a new golden age for the island and its people. He also touted what has been a buildup of US Military assets surrounding Latin America, going on to say that the U.S. quote, will not rest until the people of Cuba are free. We did get a response from Cuba's Foreign Minister who hit back on some comments from the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier today, saying in part on a post on X that the Secretary of State, quote, is repeating his deceitful script and trying to blame Cuba's government for the ruthless harm the US Government is causing the Cuban, Cuban people. This is something that we are going to be watching very closely in the months ahead as this administration has prioritized some serious change when it comes to how it is looking at foreign policy and the balance of the global order.
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Kelly
Well, and that certainly is also on full display in the Middle east and Iran. Tyler, we've heard from President Trump on Iran a few times today, including in giving a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut, saying the only question is do we go in and finish it up or are they going to be signing a document? Do we have any sense as to whether the White House thinks they're closer to option A or option B?
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Tyler Kendall
Well, at this point, Kelly, President Trump appears to be keeping his options open. He did say that he felt that they were getting closer to a final deal, in his words, as he maintains that diplomacy is still a viable option. Yet at the same time, we haven't seen the President take the threat of escalation off of the table. And it was interesting to also hear him today confirm reporting that so far the US has seized at least three Iranian linked oil tankers as this White House maintains that the naval blockade is not going anywhere. That is part of what at this point has become a sticking point in these discussions since the White House says that so far all of Iran's counter proposals have been insufficient, mainly because we haven't seen much of a discussion around potential, potential curbs when it comes to Iran's nuclear program, though we know other differences remain, including how Iran views the naval blockade, how they want to retain some sense of control over the Strait of Hormuz once the conflict is ended. They want to see full financial relief and also payments in regards to more damages. At this point, the US has said that it's not going to budge on these issues as we wait to glean any more details about what is happening privately and so far publicly, the two sides appear very far apart. And as we get this threat from President Trump, on one hand, he has said that he's not in a rush to make a deal with Iran. On the other hand, he has said that he's only giving Iran limited time to come to the table on a deal amid reporting that he has been advised that perhaps limited strikes on the country could pressure Iran into making a deal. We did get a new threat from Iran today, vowing to hit targets outside of the Middle east if the US Or Israel attacks Iran again. That, of course, is raising some concerns and flags here about just how far this conflict could spread, because Joan Kelly, earlier this week we did say Iran take some action against regional allies, including the UAE seeing a power plant hit and Saudi Arabia confirming that it had intercepted multiple drones that entered into its airspace.
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Kelly
All right, Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall report reporting live from the North Lawn of the White House. Thank you so much. And I'm pleased to say now live from here in Atlanta, Georgia, where we are coming to you live on Bloomberg TV and Radio. We're joined by civil rights activist Andrew Young, who, of course, is also a former Democratic congressman from Georgia and the former U.S. ambassador to the United nations in the Carter administration. Mr. Ambassador, welcome to Bloomberg.
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Andrew Young
Thank you.
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Kelly
So nice to be with you here in Atlanta. And we have much we want to discuss with you about to make domestic politics. But as ambassador, you, too, had to deal with the challenge of Cuba. You had some harsh words for the regime. And it now seems that the Trump administration is looking to pressure the Cuban regime further with the seeking now of unsealing an indictment against Raul Castro. What will it take to change the circumstances, the relationship between the US And Cuba, but also the circumstances the Cuban people find themselves?
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Andrew Young
Well, I don't know. You know, in all my travels, I've been all over the Caribbean, but I've never been to Cuba. And I deliberately stayed away because I think Cuba's on its own. And we had enough troubles here that I'd rather us make America work for all Americans. And as that happens, we'll have a natural interchange we do pretty good with Jamaica, with Trinidad, with Dominican Republic. We get along with our neighbors as long as we're not trying to run their business. And we have enough trouble right now. We certainly do here in Georgia. And the United States right now is in deep difficulty in more places than ever in my lifetime. I think I was never as nervous about the Second World War. And I'm old enough to remember Franklin Roosevelt saying, only thing we have to fear is fear itself. And I believe that. And I was confident that what was happening had reason, it had structure, it had a long range discipline plan. And I never had any doubts that we'd win. I think we keep jumping around from one place to another and I don't know what we've done about Venezuela. I was in Venezuela when I was ambassador and Venezuela was a good friend of ours and they didn't have a democracy, but as we traded, they upgraded their economy little by little they were getting better. And I don't know where things are, are now, but this election was. Well, I don't know what it was yet. And I think that it's a reaction to the jumping around of the president,
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Host/Moderator
administration, this election, this primary election, everything. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'd love to hear from you on the issues facing Georgia. I appreciate your weighing in on international affairs. We could ask you just about anything based on your resume. But with regard to Georgia and the rewriting of congressional maps, you had quite a quote, Ambassador. You said the Supreme Court can go to hell over the decision on section two.
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Andrew Young
I mean that literally. I'm not talking about hell on earth. I'm talking about actual hell. I'm basically a preacher. And there is good and there is evil.
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Host/Moderator
What's your message to Brian Kemp who says it's time to rewrite Georgia?
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Andrew Young
Well, my message is that Georgia has done really well. And Georgia has done well. Well, I moved here in 1960, and since then we've developed a mass transit system, a wonderful highway system. The economy has exploded from less than a half a million people to closer to 8 billion now almost. And things. We send more people to college than any other city in the world. 60% of the people in Atlanta have been to college, according to one of these big surveys. And. And we're doing well. And I don't know that right now we're thriving on the private sector. We're looking forward to the World cup coming here. And the last big jump we made, we made because 30 years ago we had the Olympics here. And the Olympics we raised two and a half billion Dollars privately, no city money, no state money, no federal money, and put on the Olympics and everybody profited. 41% of the money we spent, we spent with minority and female owned businesses and a fair, aggressive economy that's open to all the world fairly and that protects the values. Well, right now in Atlanta, we have almost 200 nations represented in the schools in Atlanta. And everybody's learning here and everybody. Some of them stay here, some of them go back home, but that's the way we have built trade.
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Host/Moderator
Does redistricting start to undo that progress?
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Andrew Young
What's that?
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Host/Moderator
Does redistricting start to undo the progress you're describing?
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Andrew Young
Well, I don't know what it'll do. Say we. I was redistricted out of the 5th congressional district. When I ran for Congress the first time I was put in a district with Newnan 40 miles south of where I lived. And the district went 40 miles south, north of where I live. And I didn't have a chance to get to win. But I laid enough of a foundation there that two years later I had no problem winning. I thought it was going to be a problem because it poured down rain all day on election day and it rained from Monday afternoon till Tuesday night after the polls closed. And yet we had a 75% black turnout problem. There's no way I could have calculated. And I got close to 30% of the white vote. I didn't know that in 1972. I couldn't expect that. But in the time between 70 and 72, I ended up involved in a lot of strikes where because they were mostly racial and I was chairman of a community relations commission, I ended up being able to settle them very easily just by talking to everybody.
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Kelly
So you could do. Excuse me for interrupting, Ambassador, you could do that in the 70s. But I wonder now that the Supreme Court with the Calais decision, has effectively paved the way across the south, not just here in Georgia, for the drawing out of majority, majority minority districts. What the lasting consequence is going to be?
- [24:48]
Andrew Young
Well, it's not going to be good. And I don't know. One of the things I think of is how well the south has done in football. I mean, all, all the great football teams across the south, and they're that way because years ago Bab Riot got really beat by his team in Philadelphia. And he finally said, if we're going to play football, we have to have speed and more speed and I don't care what color it is now. That's when all of the south began to rise up in the nation. If you're going back to redistricting and moving black folk out of key positions. It's not going to be good. It's not going to be good for anybody. It's not going to. I mean, there are more rich white people, there are more white people going to college than there were 20 years ago. And I think the way this city is going, and there's a judgment day coming, it might not be this election, but I just have real confidence in the American people and I have confidence in, I have confidence in our Constitution.
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Host/Moderator
We'd love your read on the gubernatorial race before you leave us because you ran. Stacey Abrams ran twice. Now Keisha Lance Bottoms has an opportunity to be the first black governor of Georgia. How does she win? How does she beat the Republican who will be chosen in that runoff? With Brian Kemp's backing, possibly.
- [26:38]
Andrew Young
Well, Brian Kemp was a moderate guy when he got elected. Everybody liked him and most of us would think that he's been a fair governor. But that meant that he withheld 11,078 votes from President Trump. He didn't change those votes and he governed Georgia. If he's playing national politics, there's another judgment to be made.
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Host/Moderator
How about Keisha Lance Bottoms? How does she become the next governor?
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Andrew Young
She becomes the next governor by really the two Republicans. Their campaign ads have been antagonistic since the very beginning and it's not going to slow down. They will take Keisha Lance Bottoms for granted. But when you look at the slates that have won, it's amazing how many women are there. Right? And not only that, how the civility of women in politics, the politeness, the brains. We got a lot of smart women running around here and anybody that plays them cheap is going to get beat.
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Host/Moderator
Fascinating. Looking to a judgment day here in American politics. Andrew Young, the civil rights legend, former congressman, former former mayor of this great city of Atlanta. You must be dazzled by this skyline. With Google.
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Andrew Young
When I was elected, none of this was there.
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Host/Moderator
Well, we understand that and that's partly why we came down here today.
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Andrew Young
Was engaged. We're glad to have you.
- [28:30]
Host/Moderator
Thank you for joining us today and appreciate your conversation. Ambassador, stay with us on balance of power. We'll have much more coming up after this.
- [28:41]
Bloomberg Announcer
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- [29:31]
Host/Moderator
as we join you live once again from Atlanta, Georgia, this day after the primaries. And it's not, of course, Georgia alone, five other states, we've got a half dozen to run through here. And we're going to go to ground with you here in the great city of Atlanta with our political panel. Kelly, we've got two runoffs that we're going to be tracking coming out of Georgia. Now, Kentucky's sucking a lot of oxygen out of the room, but these are really important races. First, we need to decide who's going to be running against Senator John Ossoff. And in the gubernatorial race, we do have a Democratic nominee in Keisha Lance Bottoms. Now we'll have to figure out who she's going to run.
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Kelly
Yeah, of course, she being the former mayor of Atlanta, where we're broadcasting from. But yeah, she will either be up against Bert Jones, who of course the current lieutenant governor is backed by President Trump, or health care billionaire Rick Jackson. They will be heading to a runoff while Congressman Mike Collins and Derek Dooley, a former Tennessee football coach who has been backed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, heading to the runoff to go up against John Ossoff for the Senate seat. So it's a lot to get into. And let's play it to our political panel who is joining us here in Georgia. Chris Bruce is with us. He's policy director for the ACLU of Georgia alongside Katie Cross, Republican strategist and former executive director of the Georgia Freedom Caucus. Welcome to you both. Katie, just to begin with you, as the Republicans, two different Republican races are heading to runoffs here, what happens between now and June 16th to change the dynamics and create definitive winners in both of these?
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Katie Frost
Well, it runoffs always depend on turnout. As someone who ran a bunch of campaigns, many of them that went to a runoff, the runoff period that is the most intense and stressful period of any campaign because you have to rely on your candidate to actually drive turnout. You're not going to be especially down ballot. You're not looking for other interesting things to happen. So this is going to be very important. There are also going to be a lot of some smaller states and everyone else are going to be happening too in the Republican Party. So they're going to be looking to see how much momentum and energy is coming out of the gubernatorial and editorial campaigns. But for Rick Jackson, you have to look at that and go, you spent over $70 million of your own money to finish in second place. How much more are you going to spend over the next four weeks?
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Host/Moderator
Credible dollars at play here. Let's talk about the actual nominee, keisha Lance bottoms. Mr. Bruce, it's great to have you. You worked on the Abrams campaign for governor in 2022, so you understand how this works. She's got some time on her own to start off with here while Republicans duke it out and try to figure out who their nominee will be. How does she best use that time?
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Christopher Bruce
Well, that really goes into what happened. Many people expected a runoff in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
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Host/Moderator
Yeah.
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Christopher Bruce
It didn't happen.
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Host/Moderator
Yeah.
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Christopher Bruce
In fact, she vastly overperformed in many areas. So Democrats have a message that they're going off of. She is the front runner and she's the leader of the party at this time. She needs to make sure that all of the other people who are running coalesced behind her as well as the rest of the Democrats in the state.
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Kelly
Well, so how does she do that if Stacey Abrams could not what needs to be different in this 2026 cycle versus 2022 for her to actually be able to flip what is currently a Republican held governorship loop?
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Christopher Bruce
Yeah. And I'll go back to the simplest. It is all about turnout. When we're talking about what Democrats are about with the messaging, affordability, health care, education, she was able to get that message through. And that is something that's reverberating with not only Democrats but Georgians. And she needs to hit all parts of the state, not just metro Atlanta, to make sure that happens.
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Host/Moderator
Interesting. Give us your side of that story because obviously you've got the same period of time to work with and you're going to be on TV a lot duking it out with each other.
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Katie Frost
Well, here's what I would say about the former mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. Yes, she does have more time, but she also has a record and it's not one that's going to resonate well with Georgia. There were a lot of serious problems in Atlanta during her tenure as mayor and a lot of frustration is our city was having rising crime and there was a lot of rioting in the aftermath of 2020. She was trying to audition to be vice president for Joe Biden rather than actually doing her job as mayor of Atlanta. There was a lot of frustration in Atlanta and there's a reason she did not run for reelection. She would have been defeated. So I frankly expected her to be the nominee. I didn't think there would be a runoff in the Democratic side. So I think, you know, they have their nominees, we're going to have ours pretty soon. And I'm optimistic.
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Host/Moderator
Who's a more formidable Republican to run against her?
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Katie Frost
You know what I think it's going to be the Republican message, the who the messenger is that's carrying that as
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Host/Moderator
a generic ballot race for you as a generic absence.
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Katie Frost
Absolutely. It really is.
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Kelly
Well, of course, one of the most vocal messengers of the party is the leader of the party, President Trump, who made his voice known in certain instances in yesterday's primaries. Yes, in the gubernatorial race here in Georgia, but others as well. Primary politics obviously, though, Chris, are very different than general election politics. Even in a primary where a lot of candidates have wanted to draw President Trump closer, do you see the need to distance themselves from him the closer we get to November? At risk of Democrats playing off of
- [34:35]
Christopher Bruce
that relationship, what I'm mostly interested in, I think we all are the Senate race. So you have a Trump backed candidate and a Kemp backed candidate at this time. When it comes down to it, Brian Kemp was able to defeat Donald Trump and Stacey Abrams at the same time when it came to the past gubernatorial election. Now having these two senators go up, we know one thing. John Ostoff goes in very well. He is the second highest senatorial candidate to raise that much funds. And these other two candidates are not coming even close. So he's going to continue on with his message of what he's bringing back to Georgia. And the Republicans have to have their message as well.
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Host/Moderator
Yeah, I keep reading that he's the most vulnerable Democrat on the map here and a potential flip for Republicans.
- [35:17]
Kelly
Well, of course, he is the incumbent in the only, only Democratic Democratic incumbent in a state that Trump won in 2024. So I guess that is where that comes from. But also the same question to you, Katie. Primary politics versus general election politics. Where do you want the president to fall in terms of your closeness to him if you're a candidate moving on to November?
- [35:37]
Katie Frost
Well, I'll say just a moment to the fundraising element that Senator Ossoff's third state that he receives funding from is actually Georgia. The overwhelming majority of all fundraising comes from California, California and New York. So he may be able to get donations from those states, but they won't be able to vote for him. So that's going to have an impact going into November. But as far as where do you want President Trump? Look, if you're say, Mike Collins, who is the frontrunner at this moment, he had a 10 point spread lead. You look at someone like him, he is very close in line with President Trump, although he has not been officially endorsed by the president. But he is someone who has gotten legislation passed and signed by both the Biden and Trump administrations. He's someone who's able to deliver for his state regardless of who is in power. And that's a message that will resonate. Someone who wants to work with people and actually deliver for their state. He got some regulatory reform under the Biden administration and of course the Lake and Riley act as under the Trump administration, which was kind of his hallmark piece of legislation, the first piece of legislation President Trump signed in his second term.
- [36:31]
Host/Moderator
Who's got a bigger influence on Republican outcomes here? Is it Trump or is it Brian Kemp? Because the conventional wisdom there again is he didn't run for Senate this time because he wants to run for president.
- [36:41]
Kelly
Or do you twist the idea of
- [36:42]
Katie Frost
running for president and then run again for the Senate in 2020.
- [36:44]
Host/Moderator
You don't have this two year thing and take another swing at it later
- [36:47]
Katie Frost
against Senator Warnock, who is arguably maybe a little bit of a weaker candidate. And it'll be a different political environment in 2028 and that might be.
- [36:54]
Host/Moderator
Is that your hope?
- [36:56]
Katie Frost
That's my projection.
- [36:57]
Host/Moderator
We'll see what happens.
- [36:58]
Kelly
Well, it will be different in 2028 for a lot of reasons. Also because the congressional map here in Georgia is likely to look different. Governor Camp is calling a special session for the day after the runoff next month, June 17, to redraw the congressional maps in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's Voting Rights act ruling and the ability that now exists to kind of erase majority minority districts. How is the ACLU thinking about it? How are you getting involved in that fight and fiddle? When we look at the redistricting effort, frankly, not just in Georgia, but across
- [37:26]
Christopher Bruce
the south, what I would say is Georgia's are very similar happened. First off, Georgians broke a record when it came to early, early voting turnouts.
- [37:35]
Kelly
Yeah, a million.
- [37:36]
Christopher Bruce
That's starting there. Georgians also know with what message they want to resonate with. So in 2020, they elected John Ossoff and Senator Warnock. In 2022, they elected Senator Warnock and Brian Kemp. They're able to designate within a message the message that I would say to them, as well as all Georgians, people should pick their elected officials, not elected officials picking the people. Brian Kemp, calling a special session when it is not needed at all to gerrymander district really shows that you have a weak message, saying that you cannot pick up on policy, you have to pick up on cheating. And gerrymandering these districts is what we expect. And the ACLU will be there to fight with the people on the ground and their legislators. No, you can try to draw the lines, but you cannot stop the people.
- [38:24]
Host/Moderator
What did you make of the turnout then for the state Supreme Court seats last evening? There seemed to be an enormous amount of energy behind this, the Democratic movement, at least because of redistricting.
- [38:36]
Christopher Bruce
Energy and money. When it comes down to it, if you look at Miracle Rankin, she actually percentage wise outperformed Kamala Harris. So you see a continuous trend of an upbeat of people actually paying attention to these elections. And our Supreme Court race is nonpartisan. So it's something that goes along again with a message that reverberates with the people.
- [38:58]
Katie Frost
Respectfully counter on the Supreme Court element. You know, we had Jen Jordan, who was the Democratic nominee for attorney general, running, and she lost Clayton county, that Vice President Harris won by 69%. Sarah Warren, who is seen as the more Republican aligned candidate, actually won that county by 1% percent. So it was a 70 point swing.
- [39:14]
Kelly
All right, well, we've covered Georgia pretty well and thank you both. I do want to quickly get your take on some other primary news from yesterday. The downfall of Thomas Massie in Northern Kentucky teaches other Republicans who are considering how they want to handle the requests of the president. Tells them what?
- [39:31]
Katie Frost
Well, I would say as you look at Thomas Massie, he went ahead to have President Trump in 2020. President Trump tried to field a challenger against him and he won with over 80%. But then there was definitely a lot of people, you know, in the Republican circles felt there was a slight shift in him over the last six years, and he got very comfortable with challenging the party and they weren't quite sure to what end. Marjorie Taylor Greene here in Georgia kind of had a similar thing. She became a bit of a darling of the media. When you do that, that shows instant distrust among the Republican primary electorate.
- [40:00]
Kelly
So is this unique to Tom Massey or is it a lesson for everybody else?
- [40:04]
Katie Frost
I would say say it's a lesson that you need to if you're going to stand up to your party, you need to be very clear as to why you were doing it. And you can be combative you can disagree, but have a very clear reason why. In 2020, he was pushing for everyone to come back and vote in person on budgeting procedures and not do remote voting during COVID And people went, okay, I can understand that. I get that. But then there was some confusion over some of his recent messaging with Republican primary voters.
- [40:27]
Host/Moderator
He was pretty clear about the Epstein files, of course. Course. And that seemed to be the final sin in this relationship. And he's also going to be around for another seven months. Christopher Bruce, you've got Bill Cassidy in the Senate now, Tom Massie in the House could spoil the party for Donald Trump in a lot of different ways.
- [40:45]
Christopher Bruce
Well, let's look at what's happening across the country. You see Democratic wins around. So this is an unpopular president, let's just say it up front, one that is focusing on wars abroad and on a ballroom instead of really the needs of affordability.
- [41:01]
Host/Moderator
And when the calls coming from inside the House, though, this is a family matter. This is Republican on Republican action that we're talking about here. Can Democrats make that their own opportunity?
- [41:10]
Christopher Bruce
Well, yeah, exactly. And that's what Democrats have as far as their game plan. Republicans need to coalesce around each other, really come up with a real plan to stand up against the unpopular, the president. Will they do that? That's the real question.
- [41:25]
Host/Moderator
We have a lot of questions around today. That's why we brought you two in. And we appreciate your insights very much. Katie, it's great to have you back. Katie Frost, Christopher Bruce, a great panel. Thanks for listening to the Balance of Power podcast. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't already at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And you can find us live every weekday from Washington, D.C. at noontime eastern@bloomberg.com okay, tech leaders, word on the street is security incidents are dropping way down with Windows 11 PCs built in security for the win upgrade to Windows 11 Pro.
- [42:06]
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