millions of americans taking a stake in the country's
future today with voters headin to the polls in five
states, Arkansas Alabama and Georgia will be holding
primary elections texas will have its runoff elections
from its march primaries in Minnesota is holding a
special primary election. Former President Donald trump
and former Vice president Mike Pence were usually on
the same page during their four years together in
office, but after clashing in the aftermath of last
year's insurrection at the capitol, the two are looking
to send their party in different directions and that i
on display in today's primary elections in Georgia.
Specifically, the governor's race trump supports a
challenger who embraces his false election claims.
While Pence sides with the incumbent Pence campaign fo
governor brian kemp yesterday in an Atlanta suburb
while trump held a tele rally with former senator David
Perdue last night, polling site are now open in the
state, voters are casting ballots not just in the
governor's race though, but also races for Senate and
house seats. Georgia emerged as a key battleground
state in the last election and that's proving to be
true for this year's midterms as well. Let's bring in
national correspondent Maura Sirianni who is following
the Georgia primaries for us. She's live at a polling
site in Cobb county this morning. Good morning mara
Alex and J good morning. Yeah, the polls opened here in
Georgia. It is decision day about 30 seconds ago. You
see some voters may be trickling in behind me. There
was just a line of people actually and we had reco
turnout in this state which was really amazing to see
more than 800,000 people actually came out to vote
ahead of Election Day. Now you mentioned governor kEMp
if you believe the polls in this state, they have him
projected with a massive lead here against his top
challenger, former state senato David Perdue. And so
yesterday we saw both of these candidates out and about
in the metro Atlanta area making their final push to
voters. Something that we again said. It was really
interesting was that vice president, former Vice
President Pence was with kEMP yesterday. And then
Purdue held a rally. It was a tele rally with president
trump. So we are former president trump. So we know
that president trump has really been a staunch opponent.
He's wanted to oust camp ever since the 2020 election,
didn't go his way in the state of Georgia. And so
really one theme that I saw yesterday from both of
these rallies was a lot of the candidates and their
their backers, Pence and trump, had a lot to say about
Democratic challenger opponent. Stacey Abrams take a
listen. Yeah, and I'm here because brian kim is the
only candidate in tomorrow's primary who has already
defeated Stacey Abrams whether knows it or not, I'm
here because Stacey Abrams can never be governor of the
great state of Georgia. This is a national race for the
direction of our country. We see the failed platform.
The democrats have put forward under the biden
administration. We see what Stacey Abrams wants to do
as governor this state and we're not going to let it
happen. And now again, ever since the 2020 election,
President, former president trump has really been
against some of these challenging incumbents I should
say governor kemP. He's also been against incumbent
secretary of state GOP brad raffensperger. He's been
working to back challengers in the state of Georgia to
them. Um And so it looks like when it comes to kEMP
that is not going to happen again. Looks like he is
projected to win. Even though Purdue yesterday calling
the polls in this state fake news. But when it comes to
raffensperger, that race was thinking could actually go
to a runoff in june his top opponent is congressman
Jody Hice and Heist is another trump backed candida
in the state of Georgia. Force secretary of state now
in the Senate race, it does look like herschel walker.
Of course, former NFL star is going to walk away with
this thing. He's really blowing away the primary field
and he's on his way to taking on Democratic Senator
Raphael Warnock. And what could be one of the most
expensive Senate rates Senate races in history and as
we know, could ultimately determine control the balance
of power in the U.S. Senate going into next year. So
there's so much going on in Georgia, there's so much on
the ballot this time around again. We see some voters
behind me walking into the polls on this election day
morning. Um and another thing to mention is that we had
some some new election law that was passed last year in
2020 2021 I should say. Um and so that's been
interesting to see. But Secretary of state brad
raffensperger has been tweeting out all week. He said
that the new election law um he doesn't think has hurt
turnout whatsoever. So we're go to keep our pulse on
this throughout the day and continue to give you
updates back to you a lot to watch there. And it's so
interesting that you noted the fake news remark from
Purdue, which is really echoing the language of former
president trump and shows you how much sway he's having
in that race right now. National correspondent Mau
Sirianni in Cobb County for us. Thanks Mark. While
Georgia's governor's races grabbing national headlines,
the gubernatorial race in Arkansas has flown mostly
under the radar. But what makes Arkansas politics so
unique is the shift in political affiliation across
state, once dominant democratic state has flipped the
other way and become a dominant state for the
republicans. And a prime example of that is the
governor's office since 1900. Arkansas had only elected
four Republican governors, two them in the last 25
years, mike Huckabee served for 10 years while asa
Hutchinson is completing his eight year term joining us
to add some insight is dr Janine parry professor of
political science at the University of Arkansas and the
director of the Arkansas poll, which collects opinion
information on policy and politics. Thank you so much
for joining and welcome to the show. So what is driving
this shift in Arkansas politics Why are democrats not
succeeding in the statewide elections Well, thank you
so much for knowing that Arkansas went very swiftly
from being one of the bluest to one of the reddest in
the country just between 2010 and 2014. Um but there
are really two things that happened at basically the
same time. The first one is similar to what happened
nationwide, which is the role of the Tea Party movement
movement and so successfully. Um uh and kind of
vehemently casting the affordab Care act or Obamacare
as this massive government overreach that, you know,
wasn't going to serve quote unquote regular americans
Well, that spoke to a lot of our kansans who had been
voting blue but had been moderate to to the
conservative side in terms of ideology, but it wouldn't
have made that much of a difference as past things
really had not passed national movements, if not for
the second thing, which was the explosion of money uh
in election politics and campaigning prior to that
Arkansas, it doesn't have a big metro center. So
candidates and their allies had complained for decades
that you had to make about six ad buys in order to put
out enough television ads, uh, to try to win a
statewide race. Once we had that pair of court cases
that happened right around the same time as the Tea
Party movement. Suddenly, very swiftly, Arkansas
elections were fully nationaliz You didn't have to
go to the tomato festival or the watermelon fest
anymore or count on, you know, who your mom went to
college with. Um Suddenly it was all fully nationalized
and our Kansans made a switch in a, in a real hurry. So
it was sort of like the Tea Party movement is the, was
the catalyst and the money was really the, the
accelerant. And it's just that the change is hard to
overstate. Do you see any opening for democrats to, to
win back voters in the state I think it's going to be
some time, we were just watching a segment on Georgia
politics and of course a lot of that is driven. Any
degree of competition is driven by that Atlanta metro
area. We just don't have anything comparable to tha
right now. Little rock is a modestly sized city.
Northwest Arkansas appear where the university is, is
uh is about the same size and it's growing um really
exponentially. But I think that 30 to 40 years out
before you get that kind of more urbane, you know,
highly educated population that that pushes back
successfully at least in statewide races. Um, and makes
it of any kind of level of competition here. So,
Press Secretary to former President trump Sarah
Huckabee Sanders seems to be a shoo in to win the GOP
primary for governor. Her father of course, also a
former governor of the state. What is her appeal to
Arkan Arkansas voters Well, there are two things that
are getting a lot of attention that I had mentioned.
third thing. One is certainly that in the very early
years of the trump administration, she was literal
his mouthpiece uh as the White House spokesperson an
um that just, you know, gave her the kind of brand that
I just mentioned had, you know, suddenly become the
brand. Everybody wanted to hitc their wagon to here in
the state with that massive shift to the trump brand of
republican politics. Um And then the second thing of
course is, as he all mentioned, she does carry that
Huckabee name. Mike Huckabee was one of the rare
republicans in Arkansas politic Um well into the 21st
century and but he had really good approval ratings fo
all, but maybe two or three years when he got tangled
up in a school consolidation fight here. Um but even
then his approval ratings were above 50 50% but they
often were into the well into the sixties and up to 70%.
So it's a popular name here. Um In, in a lot of, a lot
of households that gathers votes. And then the third
thing I think that gets overlooked is she's a master
strategist and she has been since she was in her
twenties, uh campaign tactics are I guess maybe what
she was born and bred on, but she pulled john bozeman
She was his campaign manager in 2010. Right, is this
process of realignment happened in Arkansas He was in
an eight way primary to be the republican in the U.S.
Senate race against the then incumbent democrat blanche
Lincoln. He came out of that without the need for a
runoff, just mathematically. Um that is telling, So
this is someone who um is a master tactician, she know
what she's doing. So you you take those three things in
combination and you get the juggernaut that Sarah
Huckabee Sanders is in this state, interesting. Dr
Janine parry, professor of political science at the
University of Arkansas and director of the Arkansas
poll. Thank you for joining us, appreciate it. Than
for having me.