Here's who's hosting Donald Trump's Atlanta fundraiser on April 10 – Atlanta News First
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Georgia’s Republican political divide will be showcased next week during a major Atlanta fundraiser for the nation’s 45th president by some of his most devoted supporters.
The fundraiser for Donald Trump will be held April 10 at a location that has not yet been disclosed. Former Georgia U.S. senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler — who were both unseated by Democrats — are among the hosts for the event.
Perdue was a one-term GOP senator from Georgia who was defeated by Jon Ossoff, while Loeffler — appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to fill out the unexpired term of the late Johnny Isakson — lost in her own election bid to Rev. Raphael Warnock.
Perdue then launched a GOP reelection challenge against Kemp, a race in which he was handily defeated. Loeffler has since founded a conservative voter outreach organization, Greater Georgia.
Also hosting the event are The Home Depot co-founder and founder of the Georgia Aquarium Bernie Marcus.
But political strategist Brian Robinson said what is just as interesting is who was left off the list of attendees and hosts.
“Anybody who is in the current Georgia establishment isn’t on there,” he said. “No one who is in elected office leadership is mentioned as an honorary guest, and that shows you some of the rift that still remains from the 2022 election cycle where President Trump came in and endorsed against Governor Kemp and other incumbent Republicans.”
Kemp, along with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, have both been heavily criticized by Trump and his supporters for not supporting Trump’s claims of election interference in 2020.
But regardless, Trump’s visit is less about collecting votes and more about collecting dollars in a state that has seen a quick ascent to the top echelon of fundraising nationwide.
“Georgia’s important not just politically because this is a swing state that will have a big say in the Electoral College, but also because we’re increasingly a big ATM state, a place where both candidates will be coming in and digging for dollars,” said Robinson.
Trump, along with more than a dozen of his allies, remains under indictment in Georgia by embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on charges they engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. That election resulted in Democrat Joe Biden becoming the first Democrat since 1992 to carry Georgia — or any other deep Southern state — in a presidential election.
On Friday, attorneys for the former president and several of his fellow co-defendants appealed a judge’s ruling allowing Willis to remain on the case.
Friday’s appeal came after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee gave the green light to allow such an appeal over his decision. The appeal was filed in the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Trump will undoubtedly use his criminal case as a key element of his campaign.
“Donald Trump has done a very strong job of centralizing his campaign on the idea that he’s being targeted by all of these forces trying to prevent him from winning the upcoming election,” said Atlanta attorney Josh Schiffer. “That’s resonated strongly with his base.”
Earlier this month, McAfee rejected defense efforts to remove Willis and her office over her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, but he did give the defendants permission to seek a review of his decision from the appeals court.
In mid-March, McAfee ruled Willis must remove Wade from the racketeering indictment if she were to remain on the case. Wade resigned just hours after that ruling.
The move to disqualify Willis came after one Michael Roman, one of Trump’s co-defendants, and Ashleigh Merchant, Roman’s attorney, accused the district attorney and Wade of having an improper relationship. Both Willis and Wade have since acknowledged a romantic relationship.
The allegations that Willis had improperly benefited from her romance with Wade upended the case for weeks. Intimate details of Willis and Wade’s personal lives were aired in court in mid-February.
Also last week, Trump’s lawyers and attorneys for former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, argued Trump’s allegations of a stolen 2020 election clearly fall under the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
Fulton County prosecutors argued Trump’s allegations of 2020 election fraud were an attempt to violate Georgia’s RICO laws, while Trump’s attorneys argue the Georgia election interference case seeks to criminalize political speech the First Amendment protects.
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