All posts tagged "georgia"

Sheer ambition has pitched this red state's leadership into a civil war

When the Georgia Senate stunned the state Capitol and wrapped up work before the typical midnight deadline on the last night of the 2025 session, a visibly frustrated House Speaker Jon Burns took a not-so-subtle dig at his friends across the hall.

“The House is focusing on its priorities of getting the job done, and we’re not worried about moving on to some other higher office,” the powerful Republican told reporters shortly before gaveling out his own chamber. “We came here to do a job, and we did our job.”

With the exception of the presidency, just about every position in politics can be considered a stepping stone to something bigger. But it’s not often (maybe once every four or eight years) that ambitious and powerful lawmakers suddenly go from colleagues to campaign rivals as they all seek to add another title to their resume.

The tension is already creeping into Georgia’s upper chamber, where greetings on the Senate floor have started to sound more aspirational than ceremonial. It’s not out of the ordinary, a former lawmaker once said, to hear someone walk onto the Senate floor and randomly shout, “Good morning, Congressman!”

But it’s becoming more than just a joke tossed around the chamber. At least 10 state senators — Republican and Democrat — are leaving behind their seats and leadership positions to run for “some other higher office,” in the colorful words of the speaker. And that number could grow as more offices open up ahead of the 2026 elections.

Let’s start at the top: Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who serves as president of the senate, recently launched a bid for governor.

Three Republican state senators have already entered the race to succeed Jones: Steve Gooch of Dahlonega, John F. Kennedy of Macon and Blake Tillery of Vidalia. State Sen. Josh McLaurin, a Sandy Springs attorney, is the only known Democratic contender so far.

With Attorney General Chris Carr also fighting for the governor’s chair, Republican state Sens. Brian Strickland of McDonough and Bill Cowsert of Athens, both lawyers, are aiming to become the state’s next top prosecutor. State Sen. Emanuel Jones is challenging a longtime incumbent in a metro Atlanta congressional seat. And state Sen. Jason Esteves is running in the Democratic primary for governor.

A lot of these names aren’t “backbenchers” — they are synonymous with the levers of power in the chamber. Kennedy is the president pro tempore, Gooch is the majority leader, and Tillery chairs the budget-drafting appropriations committee. Strickland chairs the judiciary committee, and Cowsert is also a former Senate leader (and a brother-in-law to outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp).

And a change in Republican bylaws means that many of these members must immediately stand down from their roles in leadership while they campaign for a different office, which means new leaders are already being named ahead of the 2026 session.

While this mass exodus of seasoned legislators definitely says a lot about their own ambitions (and how awkward next year’s session is going to be), it’s also a sign of the power transition underway at the state Capitol with Gov. Brian Kemp entering the final year of his term.

The governor’s mansion isn’t the only big office up for grabs. Insurance Commissioner John King is running to oust Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper are said to be plotting their next moves as well. More open statewide offices could lead to more lawmakers ditching their annual 40 days of work in search for higher office.

With several key senators already departing, however, the chamber is set to lose years of wisdom and institutional knowledge as key offices prepare to change hands. So the next governor and lieutenant governor won’t be the only ones learning on the job — a lot of their legislative partners will be new to their roles as well.

Strickland says the looming leadership turnover brings a great opportunity for new faces and names to step up to the plate.

“I think you’re going to see a chance for new people to step in who might have different leadership styles, but will maybe bring some needed changes in some particular areas,” he said recently while on break from court.

In the short term, lawmakers will need to convene for one more session before next November. But with so many senators running for other offices, how many of them will be focused on doing the work they were elected to do and not itching to get back out on the campaign trail?

“I think it’s incumbent on all of us who are running statewide to set [our campaigns] aside for those 40 days and to do the job we were elected to do for those 40 days,” finished Strickland.

“Obviously there’s going to be some tension. My hope is that it does not come from me.”

Georgia GOP has won 2026 already — with a truly evil scheme

It’s all over but the official count. Georgia Republicans can’t win the Senate seat now held by Democrat Jon Ossoff — the demographics will drown them: Georgia is now a “majority minority” state with non-whites predominant. EXCEPT. EXCEPT if the GOP can come up with a way to stop those un-white voters from voting.

And they have. This week, the violently partisan Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, announced that he is removing tens of thousands of voters who live in addresses that Republicans rarely haunt: office spaces used as housing [and] homes with 10 or more registrants.

That’s ON TOP OF the 480,000 voters the state is about to remove as “inactive voters.”

Hey, it all sounds reasonable. But consider this: in the entire history of Georgia, since the days of its treasonous attack on America, NOT ONE person has been convicted of voting while dead, while non-existent, while an illegal alien. Not one.

In other words, this is a punishment looking for a crime. And it’s severe punishment: losing your voting rights happens when you’re convicted of a felony crime.

But what you’re looking at is what we politely call, “institutional racism,” because, from what we learned from our in-depth study for the ACLU, is that the overwhelming number of Georgians purged are voters of color — the color ‘blue’ for Democratic. African-Americans, Asian-Americans, new young voters … you get it.

The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the premier voting rights organization, warned: “This would create new and unnecessary barriers to voting for Georgia’s unhoused and housing-insecure voters — a population estimated to include over 10,000 eligible Georgian voters. Among the segment of the homeless population that is residing in shelter facilities more than 50 percent of the time, 2022 data found 57 percent were Black and 31 percent were adult victims of domestic violence.“

Maj. Gamaliel Turner. Photograph: Palast Investigative Fund

And here’s one of the most evil schemes announced by Raffensperger. (I use “evil” most carefully). He’s announced Georgia will remove 87,027 voters because they’ve filed Change of Address forms with the post office.

If you’ve seen my film, Vigilantes Inc., you know the story of Maj. Gamaliel Turner of Columbus, Georgia, because he filed a change-of-address to get his absentee ballot while assigned by the Pentagon to California. He was one 4,000 who lost their vote to a challenge by the Georgia Republican Party on or near his military base.

Then there was Christine Jordan, MLK’s cousin, who put in a change of address form because, at 92, she wanted her daughter to review her mail.

Then there is the case of Dr. Carry Smith, expert on voter purges, who herself was removed for cockamamy reasons.

But I want you to see the faces of American apartheid’s victims. If these were rare cases, I wouldn’t waste your time. But removing hundreds of thousands of voters can, and has, changed the presidency and control of the Senate.

And let’s not pussyfoot around the purpose of this ethnic cleansing of Georgia’s voter rolls: Gov. Brian Kemp is termed out next year, so the only way he can climb up the greasy pole is to challenge the popular Sen. Ossoff. Kemp can’t, and never has, won fair and square.

Marc Elias’ Democracy Docket raised the alarm this week about the new mass purges in Georgia. Elias cited my study for the ACLU that showed that 63.3 perscent of voters, in 2020, were purged from the rolls even though the Postal Service and Amazon’s experts (they know where you live) verified that 198,351 of them still lived at their legal voting address.

We gave the names of the wrongly purged to Raffensperger — who defied a federal judge in refusing to review our list. Still, Ossoff and Biden won the state: evidence that they can’t steal all the votes all the time.

But they can try. This year, the state has doubled the number of voters facing the elimination of their citizenship rights. Gerald Griggs, President of the Georgia NAACP, is staring at that list of half a million Georgia voters about to get the heave-ho. He says, “This is Jim Crow 2.0. We’ve warned you, America: what they test in Georgia they will take to your state.”

Greg Palast with Christine Jordan. Photograph: Palast Investigative Fund

What about those voters living at “commercial addresses.” That would be me: I lived in a building zoned for business which my friends and me turned into apartments. Who could have dreamed that my right to vote depended on my zoning.

By the way, Mr. Raffensperger: if you find illegal voters, arrest them. They’ll be in nursing homes … and, according to the Vera Institute, at least 10,000 are in Georgia’s jails awaiting trial. Mr. Raffensperger, a poor man who can’t make bail, sitting in the can awaiting trial for selling dime bags, should not lose their citizenship. We are not Russia. Yet.

Here’s what you can do:

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Subscribe to my new Substack.
Catch my new column at RawStory
Check if you’ve been purged by CHECKING YOUR REGISTRATION at Vote.org — NOW!

Greg Palast is the author of investigative reports for outlets including the Guardian, the BBC, and Rolling Stone, and New York Times bestsellers including The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits. His latest film, Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen, is narrated by Rosario Dawson and produced by Martin Sheen and George DiCaprio. On Substack, he writes at Greg Palast Investigates

'Huge Coup for Dems': GOP dragged as prominent governor bows out of Senate race

News that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) will not run for Senate in 2026 had social media buzzing Monday.

Kemp had been the Republican favorite to take on incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA). Kemp's departure from the race may be a boon for MAGA Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has expressed interest in the Senate seat.

Kemp released a statement on his X account that read, in part, "Over the last few weeks, I have had many conversations with friends, supporters, and leaders across the country who encouraged me to run for the US Senate in 2026. I greatly appreciate their support and prayers for our family."

Kemp vowed to help "President Trump and Senate leadership" to "ensure we have a strong Republican nominee who can win next November."

Kemp's bowing out led to swift reactions across social media.

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MSNBC analyst Tim Miller posted, "While 98% of GOP pols have shamelessly sacrificed their integrity at the altar of Trump, Brian Kemp hasn't. And he understands that there is no way to run for Senate while Trump's president and maintain your dignity. So hat's off to him for that."

Democratic pollster Matt McDermott wrote, "Between Brian Kemp in Georgia and Chris Sununu in New Hampshire, a remarkably bad recruitment year for Republicans hoping to maintain their Senate majority."

"This is a huge, huge coup for Dems and a massive set back for GOPs going into 2026. Ossoff is a favorite against every other possible opponent and Kemp was the perfect GOP candidate to oppose him," wrote Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo.

Republicans Against Trumpism posted, "Republican Gov. Brian Kemp will NOT run for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat in 2026 against incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. It was recently reported that Marjorie Taylor Greene Is expected to run for the seat if Kemp stays out. Very good news for Ossoff."

Podcaster Mueller, She Wrote echoed the sentiment: "Kemp will NOT run for senate, making it easier for Ossoff."

Democrat takes shot at Trump after President mentions her name during big speech

Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams hit back at Donald Trump's accusation that the two-time nominee for governor was a paragon of wasteful government spending.

During Tuesday night's address to Congress, Trump "rattled off a list of questionable projects that received federal funding," including, "$1.9 billion to recently created decarbonization of homes committee headed up — and we know she's involved —just at the last moment, the money was passed over by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her?"

Republican lawmakers in the House chamber booed and jeered at the mention of her name.

CNN's John Berman asked Wednesday what her response was to Trump.

ALSO READ: 'Absolutely unconscionable': Ex-Republican demands Trump removed from office after fight

"That he is trying to distract Americans from his failure to deliver on any of his promises, and instead of doing his work, he's going after those of us who are actually doing the work of the American people," Abrams responded. "I am very proud of the work that i've done to protect voting rights, to lower the cost of energy for real people in the state of Georgia, and working with organizations that want to do it around the country, because Donald Trump is failing in his promises and focusing on petty retribution instead of fulfilling his promises to the American people."

Berman then asked what Abrams' "connection" was to the organization that got the federal funding Trump mentioned.

"I led a project in southwest Georgia that has lowered the cost of energy for struggling families, and I'm extraordinarily proud of that work. And because of that work, because of the work of five major organizations around this country who have done more than 250 years of service combined, the Biden administration authorized a grant."

Abrams continued, and took a dig at Trump.

"I did not work for the entity that received the grant, ultimately — I worked for one of the partner organizations, but I was very much a part of pushing and showing America that we have the ability to lower prices, that the money is there, the will is there, the capacity is there. But what is not there is Donald Trump and his lackeys' willingness to actually let American people get the benefit of these services."

Watch the clip below via CNN or click the link.

Georgia Democrats taunt Trump with airplane banner about 'debate loss'

Democrats in Georgia taunted Donald Trump on Saturday by having an airplane fly over a football game with a banner making fun of the former president's "debate loss."

Trump has consistently claimed he won his only debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, who most analysts and experts say defeated the ex-president by throwing him off his game and getting him to rant about Haitian immigrants "eating cats."

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's (AJC) reporter Greg Bluestein reported on the news about the plane fly-over before the banner took to the skies at the game between the Georgia Bulldogs and Auburn Tigers.

ALSO READ: Inside Trump and Johnson's shocking new bid to suppress women's votes

"Georgia Democrats are planning to hoist this airplane banner above Sanford Stadium during today’s Georgia-Auburn game," Bluestein reported. It reads, "Trump: 1 debate loss, 0 SEC championships."

Later, during the match, Bluestein posted an update with a photo of the banner fly-over.

"Updates from the game," he wrote on Saturday.

'Nightmare scenario': Expert shows how latest Georgia moves could hand presidency to Trump

Recent activity in the state of Georgia could wrongfully hand the 2024 election to Donald Trump, according to a voting rights expert.

Ari Berman, Mother Jones' national voting rights correspondent, appeared on MSNBC on Saturday to discuss the situation in Georgia, where far-right MAGA allies have been throwing wrenches into the gears of the state's vote-counting processes. Requiring extensive reviews and hand-counted ballots are among the MAGA proposals that could delay the vote being certified.

The host, Jonathan Capehart, asked Berman, "How could delaying the results in Georgia hand the presidency to Donald Trump?"

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"So what would happen is that Georgia would not certify its electoral college votes in time," Berman said. "No candidate would get a majority in the electoral college as a result and that would then throw the election to the House of Representatives, which has not happened since 1824."

He continued, saying that "the House would vote, but it would not be a majority of members of the house voting. It would be a majority of state delegations, where Republicans would have an advantage."

"And that is really the nightmare scenario," he added. "You could have a presidential candidate who loses the popular vote, who does not win a majority of the electoral college, but who then could be selected by House Republicans who don't even represent a majority of that body. And it might be a far-fetched scenario, but under the Constitution it is a possible one."

Watch below or click here.

'Something is amiss in Georgia': Legal expert flags Trump loyalists' likely unlawful acts

Donald Trump's loyalists have infiltrated a Georgia election board and are now wreaking havoc, a legal analyst said on Friday.

MSNBC's Lisa Rubin, a former litigator, highlighted the actions of three pro-MAGA members of the local board, and how some of them may be illegal.

"Georgia's State Election Board, a five-member body controlled by fervent Donald Trump loyalists, adopted a rule allowing local election boards to conduct a 'reasonable inquiry' before certifying election results — a task that, pursuant to Georgia statutory law, has long been understood to be mandatory and ministerial," Rubin wrote, adding that the state election board "failed to define what constitutes a 'reasonable inquiry' and suggested — again, in contrast to plain language in Georgia law requiring counties to certify this year's election results by Nov. 12 — that such inquiries could justify failing to certify by that date (or any specific date)."

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But, she said, "it gets worse."

"As good government types and local Democrats sputtered, the Georgia election board wasn't quite done. Instead, it met again Wednesday because its very newsy vote Tuesday night meant other agenda items went unaddressed. In May, the board voted to resolve that complaint by reprimanding Fulton County for such errors and appointing independent election monitors for the upcoming general election," Rubin wrote Friday. "Yet on Wednesday, despite strenuous objections from the board's chair, John Fervier (an appointee of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican and a Trump foe), and the board's lone Democrat, Sara Tindall Ghazal, the three remaining members reopened that complaint and approved referring it to Georgia's attorney general, Chris Carr."

Rubin further suggested that "one of the members he has praised, Janelle King, reacted to Fervier's repeat warnings that the board's actions might run counter to state law."

"For example, according to public reporting, the Georgia attorney general's office — which has now been charged with conducting a new investigation — had advised Fervier that reopening the complaint would itself be unlawful," she added Friday. "A source close to the board confirms that Carr's office provided such guidance through a written memo in June."

Read it here.

Thousands of voter challenges rejected in Georgia over faulty data

A Georgia county election board rejected a wave of voter challenges filed under the state's new election law.

The Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration dismissed an attempt Saturday to cancel the registrations of 2,472 voters challenged by local conservative activist Eugene Williams using software from the Republican-backed company EagleAI to identify voters who may have moved, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Williams has previously challenged thousands of registrations using the database to find voters without an identifiable address, and the state's Republican legislature passed a new law that went into effect July 1 to give private citizens even more power to challenge voter eligibility.

The new law upholds challenges if evidence shows a voter has died or moved, registers in a new jurisdiction, or is registered at a nonresidential address, and it's one of several laws passed by Republican legislators after Donald Trump claimed fraud cost him re-election in 2020, although numerous investigations have found no proof of those claims.

Another election law passed a year after Trump's loss allows activists like Williams to challenge an unlimited number of voters who appear to have moved, and conservatives have filed more than 350,000 challenges since Trump lost, although county election boards have rejected the vast majority of those.

EagleAI, which is enthusiastically endorsed by election denier Cleta Mitchell, has marketed its software to state and local governments as a system for clearing potentially ineligible voters from the rolls. Voting rights activists say the database is unreliable and could be used to cancel the registrations of eligible voters.

The Cobb election board voted 4-1 to dismiss all but four challenges, with only GOP-appointed board member Debbie Fisher standing in opposition, and board members cited errors in the data sourced from EagleAI and other third-party vendors.

The four registrations that were canceled were removed before the hearing, and 88 others flagged by Williams were already scheduled to be removed by routine maintenance.

'This should alarm us': Elections expert says Trump revealed a 'preview of his strategy'

Donald Trump gave a rally speech on Saturday, during which he attacked local Georgia GOP officials and slurred some words. He also revealed an "alarming" part of his November strategy, according to an elections expert.

Max Flugrath, director of communications for Fair Fight Action, a voting rights advocacy organization, on Sunday highlighted Trump's rally, which Flugrath described as "lie-riddled" and even "rambling." He said it included "all the usual hits," including election conspiracies and attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris.

"But one part of Trump's remarks stuck out," he said.

ALSO READ: We asked 10 Republican senators: ‘Is Kamala Harris Black?’ Things got weird fast.

He continued: "And it may be a preview of his strategy in November."

Flugrath explained that Trump did something a bit out of character at the Georgia event.

"Trump praised the Georgia State Election Board, a government body overseeing its election rules," he wrote. "Trump thanked three of the Georgia State Election Board's members specifically for their efforts to change Georgia's certification rules. This is odd. Trump doesn't usually concern himself with details this in-the-weeds."

Flugrath went on to say that the Georgia State Election Board members Trump thanked and singled out were "recently appointed."

"Janice Johnston Rick Jeffares Janelle King," he wrote. "Trump called them 'pitbulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.' So, what exactly are they fighting for?"

Flugrath explained, "The Trump-aligned GA election board members are working to change the state's election rules with less than 100 days until the election. They recently held a meeting, unlawfully noticed and carried out, where they advanced changes to Georgia's election certification process."

"After a lawsuit, the election board is holding another vote on some of the proposed election rule changes, on Tuesday, August 6. The new rules they're trying to pass can be used to sow doubt in the results and delay certification of the the 2024 election," according to the expert's analysis. "One proposed rule change would give authority to local election officials to slow down or refuse to certify the 2024 election results. With election deniers holding local election positions in Georgia, this should alarm us all."

'Politically stupid': GOP leaders warn 'Trump may have just lost Georgia'

Donald Trump's attacks on Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during his Atlanta rally Saturday were not new. The former president, ex-Georgia GOP chairman David Shafer, and MAGA allies have long blamed the two Republican leaders for Trump's 2020 loss in the state.

Not only did Trump claim Kemp and Raffensperger are "doing everything possible to make 2024 difficult for Republicans to win," but the MAGA hopeful also attacked the governor — who has still vowed to back the ex-president in November — via social media, calling Kemp a "bad guy" for refusing to overturn the election.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Greg Bluestein reported Sunday that Trump's attacks on Georgia state leaders during his rally "reopened festering internal wounds within the Georgia GOP and left fellow Republicans baffled and seething at the timing of his tirade."

Conservative activist and Kemp ally Cole Muzio told the AJC, "Attacking a successful and popular governor is not only wrong, it’s politically stupid."

He added, "The stakes are too high for pettiness – and for the candidate to actively undermine his own chances."

Conservative commentator Martha Zoller emphasized, "Trump is under the misconception that MAGA Republicans are a majority of the electorate. And he is alienating people instead of bringing them together."

One former state lawmaker — Allen Peake — believes the ex-president might have ruined his chance of winning the state all together in November.

"A lot of Republicans like me might just decide not to vote at all in the presidential election because of stupid antics like tonight," Peake said. "Trump may have just lost Georgia."

The AJC's full report is available at this link (subscription required).