As I'm writing you now, books are being written about the magical political calculus which "turned the Red State of Georgia ... Blue." And while I congratulate President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Senators Ossoff and Warnock ... before you all call the painters, let me share with you a story that almost no one is writing about, but that is also worth hearing ... I'll call it the Bubba Factor. I first met Lauren "Bubba" McDonald in the mid-1980s. I was a young staffer in the Secretary of State's Office, McDonald was the powerful and highly regarded chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and a favorite of legendary House Speaker and Democrat Thomas B. Murphy of Bremen. Speaker Murphy had been instrumental in the election and two terms of outgoing Gov. Joe Frank Harris and during the election season of 1990, Murphy placed his chips and his influence behind Bubba McDonald running for governor.