Politics & Government
Hice's Record Rated 'Perfect' By Conservative Lobbying Group
CPAC organizers rated Rep. Jody Hice's record "perfect," giving him a boost in his campaign to unseat Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
GEORGIA — A candidate for secretary of state endorsed by former President Donald Trump — and who backed Trump’s false claims of election fraud — is one of two Georgia representatives who received perfect scores Monday from a prominent conservative lobbying organization.
U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, a Republican who represents Georgia from east of Atlanta to west of Augusta, scored a 100-percent rating on the American Conservative Union Foundation’s 50th annual scorecard.
The only other Georgian to receive a perfect score was U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, a Republican who represents much of Cobb, Cherokee and Bartow counties.
Find out what's happening in Loganville-Graysonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The ratings were announced the same day that former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins announced that he wouldn’t run for office in 2022. A Trump supporter himself, Collins received only an 85-percent rating. CNN reported that Collins decided not to run after Trump signaled support for University of Georgia football great Herschel Walker to run against Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Before announcing his candidacy for Georgia secretary of state in March, Hice had condemned Trump’s second impeachment trial as “misguided” and supported his false claims of election fraud.
Find out what's happening in Loganville-Graysonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Trump in return lauded Hice as “one of our most outstanding congressmen,” according to The New York Times. “Unlike the current Georgia Secretary of State,” Jody leads out front with integrity,” Trump said. “Jody will stop the Fraud and get honesty into our Elections!”
Trump’s praise of Hice was also a dig at current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who deflected repeated attempts by Trump to overturn Georgia’s general-election results in his favor.
The American Conservative Union Foundation scores politicians on a range of issues important to conservatives, including taxes, gun rights and election security. ACUF also sponsors the Conservative Political Action Conference — or CPAC — most recently held in Orlando, Florida.
Seven other members of Georgia’s congressional delegation — all Republicans earned marks of 80 percent or higher: Rep. Rick Allen (93), Rep. Buddy Carter (85), Rep. Drew Ferguson (85), former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (83) and Rep. Austin Scott (81).
Other Georgians who received relatively high marks were former Rep. Rob Woodall (79) and former Sen. David Perdue (78), also both Republicans.
Receiving the lowest ratings were all Democrats, with Reps. Sanford Bishop, Hank Johnson, Lucy McBath and David Scott scored at 4 percent each. According to the ACUF news release, former Reps. Tom Graves, a Republican, and Kwanza Hall and the late John Lewis, both Democrats, didn’t vote on enough selected bills to receive a rating.
Read ACUF's ratings of conservative politicians.
RELATED:
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.