CNN
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A bunch of Southern Democrats is urging President Joe Biden and the Democratic Nationwide Committee to host its presidential nominating conference in Atlanta, arguing in a letter despatched Monday that Biden owes his 2020 victory and a Democratic majority within the Senate to Georgia.
Atlanta is likely one of the high three cities being thought-about to host the conference, together with Chicago and New York Metropolis, in keeping with a supply acquainted. The timing of the letter, which was despatched to Biden and DNC chair Jaime Harrison, was strategic. It was despatched days forward of the DNC’s winter assembly so it might be entrance of thoughts for members and mentioned on the Philadelphia gathering later this week, the supply stated.
Greater than 65 present and former Democratic US senators, members of the US Home, governors, mayors and native leaders in Southern states signed the letter, a replica of which was obtained by CNN. Notable names embrace Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner of Virginia, and DNC senior adviser and former senior adviser to the president Cedric Richmond, amongst many others.
Former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones helped set up the letter, in keeping with the supply, and has been main the hassle to rally assist for Atlanta’s bid all through the South.
“Democratic turnout within the state of Georgia is the only best motive that you simply and Vice President Harris are within the White Home at present as an alternative of Donald Trump and it’s the single best motive why Democrats have maintained a majority in america Senate,” the letter, first reported by NBC Information, reads. “The whole lot we’ve got completed as a celebration since January of 2021 may be traced again to Georgia, and particularly, to the metro Atlanta space which swung the state in our favor.”
Ossoff and Warnock each gained runoffs in January 2021, giving Democrats Senate management after Biden gained the state within the 2020 election. Warnock helped Democrats keep their majority by successful a full six-year time period final 12 months.
The letter argues Atlanta must be chosen as a result of it “served because the cradle of America’s civil rights motion” and “stands as a beacon of LGBTQUIA+ rights within the Deep South.”
“Because the cultural and financial hub of Black America, town embodies the American Dream within the twenty first Century. A nominating conference within the metropolis of Atlanta will offer you a backdrop that displays your private values and embodies your imaginative and prescient for America,” the letter reads.
Biden has proposed a drastic shakeup of the 2024 presidential nominating calendar that might add Georgia as an early nominating state. Below that calendar, which nonetheless must be permitted on the upcoming DNC assembly, South Carolina could be the primary state to carry a major, adopted by Nevada and New Hampshire on the identical day a couple of days later, after which Georgia and Michigan earlier than Tremendous Tuesday. It breaks with the normal calendar of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, which Republicans have already locked in as their early state order for 2024.