CNN
—
A group of Southern Democrats is calling on President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee to host their presidential nomination convention in Atlanta, arguing in a letter sent Monday that Biden owes his 2020 victory and a Democratic Senate majority to Georgia.
According to a trusted source, Atlanta is one of the top three cities being considered to host the convention, along with Chicago and New York City. The timing of the letter, sent to Biden and DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, was strategic. It was sent out days before the DNC’s winter meeting for the thought of members and will be discussed at the Philadelphia meeting later this week, the source said.
More than 65 current and former US Democratic Senators, members of the US House of Representatives, governors, mayors and local leaders in southern states signed the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CNN. Notable names include 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.
Former Alabama Senator Doug Jones helped organize the letter, according to the source, and led efforts to rally support for Atlanta’s bid across the South.
“Georgia’s Democratic turnout is the number one reason you and Vice President Harris are replacing Donald Trump in the White House today, and it’s the number one reason Democrats have retained a majority in the United States Senate,” he said the letter, first reported by NBC News, reads. “Everything we’ve accomplished as a party since January 2021 can be traced back to Georgia, and specifically the Atlanta metropolitan area, pivoting the state in our favor.”
Ossoff and Warnock both won the January 2021 runoff, giving control to the Democratic Senate after Biden won the state in the 2020 election. Warnock helped Democrats retain their majority by winning a full six-year term last year.
The letter argues that Atlanta should be chosen because it “served as the cradle of America’s civil rights movement” and “stands as a beacon of LGBTQUIA+ rights in the Deep South.”
“As the cultural and economic center of black America, the city embodies the American dream in the 21st century. A nominating convention in the city of Atlanta will provide you with a background that reflects your personal values and embodies your vision for America,” the letter reads.
Biden has proposed a drastic restructuring of the 2024 presidential nomination calendar that would add Georgia as an early nominating state. Under that calendar, which has yet to be approved at the upcoming DNC meeting, South Carolina would be the first state to hold a primary, followed by Nevada and New Hampshire the same day a few days later, and then Georgia and Michigan ahead of Super Tuesday. It breaks with the traditional calendar of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, which Republicans have already set as their early state order for 2024.