Here’s what two GA Republican candidates said during their campaign visits to Columbus
Two Georgia Republicans seeking statewide office in 2022 rolled through Columbus this week, making their early pitches to voters ahead of what will likely be contentious political races.
U.S. Senate Candidate Latham Saddler held an outdoor meet and greet on the Houlihan’s patio at the Doubletree hotel near the Columbus airport. Saddler, a former Navy seal officer and a White House fellow under the Trump administration, has so far outraised other Republican challengers who’ve entered the race.
Saddler hopes to emerge from the Republican primary to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who won his seat in a January 2021 runoff.
Tuesday, gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones held a meet and greet inside the Springer Opera House saloon. Jones, a former state legislator who gained national attention when he left the Democratic Party and endorsed then-President Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 election, is challenging incumbent Brian Kemp in the Republican primary.
Here’s what you need to know about the two Republican challengers as 2022 campaigning begins:
Meet Latham Saddler, former Navy SEAL vet and Georgia’s ‘national security guy’
Saddler spoke to roughly 60 attendees Monday before taking a few questions from members of the audience. It was among Saddler’s first stops as a Senate candidate.
The 38-year-old highlighted his Georgia roots, national security background and corporate experience. Saddler, born in Atlanta, attended the University of Georgia when the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred. Those events put him on the path towards the military and the Navy SEALS, he said.
After landing a job at IBM doing IT sales in New York, Saddler met a retired Navy SEAL captain who was mentoring men in Manhattan. The retired captain took a look at Saddler’s resume and told the Georgia native that he “didn’t have a blank chance of getting selected.”
Saddler then attended graduate school at Georgia Tech’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and he started learning the Fari and Darsi languages. After spending time in Tajikistan, a Central Asian country north of Afganistan, Saddler said he got into the best shape of his life and put in his application with the Navy.
At 28, he was the oldest officer in his class, Sadler said.
“I was like a grandpa compared to these kids out there,” he said. “It was humbling. ... It’s a miracle I became a SEAL.”
During his eight years with the SEALs, Saddler was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq before receiving orders to serve at the White House as Director of Intelligence Programs on the National Security Council during the Trump Administration.
Latham was then accepted into the White House fellows program before working in Atlanta as Synovus’ Chief of Staff in January 2020. He entered the Senate race in April.
Among Saddler’s chief talking points Monday were the threats posed by China and those who “make it hip to hate our country and think socialism is the answer.”
“Whether this century is a Chinese 21st Century or an American 21st Century will not be written by what happens in China. It will be written by what happens right here at home,” he said. “I think, in part, the answer is getting authentic, country-first leaders in office.”
Saddler argued that Georgia needs a national security expert in the United States Senate, invoking the names of former senators like Richard B. Russell, Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss.
He also touched on Georgia’s new voting law. In an interview with the Ledger-Enquirer after the event, Saddler defended Georgia’s Election Integrity Act calling it a “fantastic law” that “secures the election with the requirement of a voter ID.”
From April 1 to June 30, Saddler raised $1.4 million, well ahead of the two other Republicans who’ve declared, including Gary Black, the state’s current agricultural commissioner.
However, big-name Republicans rumored to be interested in the race have yet to enter. Former University of Georgia and NFL football player Herschel Walker has yet to declare his intentions.
Meet Vernon Jones, the vocal Trump supporter looking to unseat Brian Kemp
Jones appeared in Columbus Tuesday, speaking to a crowd of roughly 60 supporters at the Springer Opera House’s saloon for more than an hour.
In a nearly half-hour interview with the Ledger-Enquirer before the event, Jones outlined his key issues for the 2022 campaign. Election integrity, he said, was his top issue.
He repeated claims that Donald Trump won the 2020 Presidential election, saying some ballots were “invalid” because the state legislature did not approve certain changes to Georgia’s election laws, particularly the use of ballot drop boxes in 2020. Jones called for a “forensic audit” for all of Georgia’s 159 counties similar to the one in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Georgia officials have repeatedly said the state’s elections results were sound, that no widespread voter fraud occurred and that there should be no doubts that President Joe Biden won the state.
All attempts by Trump and his supporters to overturn the results in courtrooms across the nation were unsuccessful, including a long-shot U.S. Supreme Court bid that alleged several battleground states used the COVID-19 pandemic to “(usurp) their legislatures’ authority and unconstitutionally revised their state’s election statutes.”
“We need a people’s audit,” Jones said. “A people’s audit. Independent audit. Let it go to an independent organization out there that has the background, expertise and knowledge and the technical ability which the GBI certainly doesn’t have.”
The 2022 Republican primary, Jones said, is going to be a referendum on Brian Kemp’s actions in November 2020 and his “failure of leadership”
“They feel like Brian Kemp did not fight for election integrity,” he said. “Brian talked like (Florida Governor Ron DeSantis) but he walks like Mitt Romney. He doesn’t have the backbone.”
Jones also promised to “protect female sports” by banning transgender athletes from participating. Critics of similar legislation in other states say the proposals are being used to discriminate against transgender Americans
Jones said young people and “minorities” are responding to his campaign and that he is the only conservative who could beat Stacey Abrams in 2022. He alleges major media outlets in the state are trying to help Brian Kemp win the Republican primary because they know Kemp will lose to Abrams.
“My changes are far better than Brian’s. Brian is afraid of me. I’m not afraid of him,” Jones said.
This story was originally published July 22, 2021 at 6:00 AM.