ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Republican U.S. House member Barry Loudermilk, who has been active in efforts to discredit Democratic-led investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, announced Wednesday that he won't seek reelection this year.
Loudermilk has served in Congress since 2015. He is part of a wave of incumbents exiting the House. So far, 50 are stepping down or running for some other office.
Four Republican-held congressional seats in Georgia will change hands this year. In addition to Loudermilk, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from her seat in January, setting up a March special election. U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins are both running for the GOP's U.S. Senate nomination, aiming to unseat incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Loudermilk, 62, said in a statement that he wanted to spend “more dedicated time” with his family.
“I first ran for election to Congress in 2014 and, as I stated then, representing the people in Congress is a service, not a career," Loudermilk said. "And although I continue to have strong support from the people of the 11th Congressional District, I believe it is time to contribute to my community, state, and nation in other ways.”
The 11th Congressional District, northwest of Atlanta, includes all of Bartow, Gordon and Pickens counties and parts of Cherokee and Cobb counties. The Cook Political Report ranks the district as the fifth-most strongly Republican district of the nine that the GOP holds in Georgia.
Before serving in Congress, Loudermilk served in the Air Force. He chaired the Bartow County Republican Party and then served six years in the Georgia state House of Representatives and two years in the state Senate.
Loudermilk was scrutinized by the House Jan. 6 committee for giving a tour of parts of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 5, 2021. The committee suggested that some tour participants may have been examining security measures. Loudermilk denied wrongdoing, saying it was a “smear campaign.”
After Republicans took the majority, Loudermilk led a subcommittee that released a report alleging former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney acted improperly on the Democratic-led Jan. 6 committee and calling for her to be investigated for criminal witness tampering. Loudermilk currently leads another subcommittee that is charged with further investigating Jan. 6.
FILE - Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., speaks during a House Committee on House Administration hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington May 11, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.
The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.
Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.
“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.
Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.
“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.
In 2023 and early 2024, the state decided that the system did require going to court or showing proof of a pardon, not just a paperwork process, and that gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.
Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.
Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.
“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”
Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”
For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.
Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.
The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.
Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.
Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.
Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.
Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.
Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.
In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.
Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.
Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.
However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.
FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
