All posts tagged "georgia"

DOJ moves to oust judge embroiled in sex scandal from key Trump voter rolls case

The Department of Justice is demanding that an embattled Georgia judge be taken off its case seeking to grab voter rolls, according to reporting by Reuters.

U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross in Atlanta was in the headlines earlier this week after news outlets identified her as the unnamed judge reprimanded for having sex in her chambers within earshot of clerks.

The DOJ is seeking her removal from the case because she attended a political campaign event for Fani Willis, who prosecuted Trump for alleged crimes related to the 2020 election, Reuters noted.

"A judge who attended a party celebrating the election of a Democrat best known for prosecuting a Republican President for alleged election interference cannot then preside over a case concerning that President's efforts to ensure election integrity," DOJ lawyers wrote, according to Reuters.

Ross is hearing the DOJ's lawsuit seeking to force Georgia to hand over its non-public voter registration list. The DOJ filed similar lawsuits in other states, though it's been defeated in some.

MAGA frontrunner posted fake endorsements on his campaign website: report

A MAGA congressman and frontrunner for a Georgia Senate primary race lied about having high-profile campaign endorsements, according to multiple reports.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) lied on his campaign website about having the endorsement of Georgia sheriffs, commissioners, and other local officials, according to reporting by The Daily Beast. He even touted having the same endorsements as those of his GOP primary opponent, Derek Dooley, the Beast added.

Wayne County Sheriff Chuck Moseley had his name listed on Collins' campaign website as an endorsement. However, he says he only talked to Collins' campaign twice, and when he saw his false endorsement, he told them to take it down, according to reporting by The Daily Caller.

"They've had their opportunity to correct it, and they haven't," he told the Caller. "I wouldn't vote for [Collins] if he's the only one running."

Worth County Sheriff Don Whitaker supported Dooley, but Collins' campaign website listed him as an endorser, according to The Daily Beast.

The GOP chair for Grady County, Jeff Jolly, said that he was also falsely listed as supporting Collins, along with a Grady County commissioner and the county's sheriff, according to The Daily Beast.

"I talked to them in private, and I said, 'Look, you do what you want to do, but for my own sake, I need to know why you endorsed Mike Collins,'" Jolly said, per The Daily Beast. "Both of them looked at me funny, like, 'What are you talking about?' They didn't know anything about it."

Grady County Sheriff Earl Prince said he had "never spoken to Mike Collins or any of his people," according to reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Meanwhile, Grady County Commissioner Sam Kline said he only ever sent a "generic reply" to a Collins campaign event and has actually supported Dooley, the Journal-Constitution reported.

Republican lambasted in hometown paper after ‘vile’ out-of-state attack

A Republican was criticized for racist remarks in an opinion piece published by the GOP lawmaker's hometown paper and written by Virginia's Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi Friday.

In her op-ed for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hashmi, who is a Georgia native, called out Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) for his "vile, xenophobic, and anti-Muslim attack on his X social media account targeting Virginia state Sen. Saddam Salim, D-District 37. Rhetoric such as Clyde’s is never harmless; it perpetuates violence, scapegoats entire communities and is antithetical to the core principles of our democracy."

Clyde wrote the following on May 15: "Saddam Azlan Salim, who immigrated from Bangladesh, authored Virginia’s new unconstitutional gun ban. Attempting to naturalize those who hold beliefs that are incompatible with our Constitution is a recipe for disaster—in this case, disarmament. Denaturalize. Deport. Defend 2A."

Hashmi cited why Clyde's messaging was so damaging in the wake of a fatal shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego last week where two extremist teens had attacked a mosque housing a school with children and left a security guard and two community members dead.

"Rep. Clyde is not a constitutional attorney. If he were, he might know that citizenship in the United States is not treated as conditional based on partisan politics. We are allowed to disagree with one another on matters of policy without facing threats of deportation," Hashmi wrote.

She described how Salim, who Clyde spoke about in his social post, has focused on gun violence prevention and common-sense gun laws in Virginia.

"Why do I care what Clyde has to say about one Virginia state senator? I know that Clyde would never have made such racist and bigoted comments about the other state senator who was the actual author of the law (Senate Bill 749) that finally puts basic regulations around deadly assault weapons in Virginia," she wrote.

She urged Georgia voters to take a stance against Clyde in the upcoming midterm elections.

"I care about what Rep. Clyde has to say because his efforts to target this particular Virginia state senator harm all Georgians, my fellow Virginians, and our values as Americans," Hashmi wrote. "Clyde’s ugly rhetoric attempts to divide us and to scapegoat hundreds of millions of immigrants who are devoted to America and raising their children to be proud of both their heritage and this country — just as my parents raised me."

GOP candidate touts election win despite running unopposed

A local GOP candidate is bragging about her election victory this week despite running unopposed.

The New York Post reported that Tiffany Henyard won her GOP primary race for a commissioner's seat in Fulton County, Georgia. However, as the Post noted, she ran unopposed.

"Thank you, Fulton County! We did it," Henyard wrote on Facebook. "Support the movement."

According to the Post, she's known in Georgia as the "Dolton Dictator" because she moved from Dolton, Illinois, and left the Democratic Party before running. Henyard, however, refers to herself as a "super mayor," per the Post.

Citing election results, the Post pointed out that the 1,136 votes she received on Tuesday were "more than 2,000 fewer votes than the candidate who got dead-last in the Democratic primary."

Henyard's victory came at a time when some political experts have said Democrats are carrying significant momentum into the November midterm elections. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump's approval rating within the GOP continues to sink, reaching a record-low 80% as of Thursday, according to polls.

Judge blocks battleground state from restricting poll watchers during election: report

A judge in Georgia has forced state officials in the battleground state to allow poll watchers on Tuesday as voters in the Peach State cast their ballots in the midterm primary elections, according to reports.

"A Fulton County judge just issued a temporary restraining order forcing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office to allow poll watchers and State Election Board observers to monitor the tabulation and reporting of today’s election results," Greg Bluestein, chief political reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wrote on X.

Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville granted a temporary restraining order against Brad Raffensperger’s office, and the court order outlined that designated poll watchers have the right to observe "the tabulation, aggregation, verification, and reporting of election results at the Secretary of State’s central office, Election Night Reporting Room, or any other facility or location where county results are received, processed, aggregated, verified, recorded or reported on May 19, 2026."

Raffensperger’s office cannot restrict or exclude the state's election board-designated observers, monitors or authorized representatives — and they should be granted "proximity and vantage points from which they can meaningfully observe all activities without interfering with the orderly conduct of election operations."

Chilling analysis warns 'MAGA has already won its war'

A frightening analysis revealed how "MAGA has already won its war" as the Trump administration hires hardcore election deniers to key roles.

"They need to sow doubt; they need to undermine public trust," Joanna Lydgate, who heads the nonpartisan States United Democracy Center, told The Atlantic for a recent report. "Whether it's an executive order or death by 5,000 cuts, it's chipping away at our election system."

The Trump administration is embedded with election deniers like Clay Parikh, The Atlantic reported. Parikh "gained a following by circulating conspiracy theories about President Trump's 2020 defeat, including that poll workers gave Trump supporters — but not other voters — felt-tip markers to fill out their ballots, rendering them invalid."

Parikh, a cybersecurity expert, is now a special government employee in the Trump administration, and an analysis he wrote "allowed the FBI to seize election materials in Georgia in January," The Atlantic reported.

Similarly, Kurt Olsen, an attorney, spent years "pushing debunked or unsubstantiated theories," and after the Trump administration brought him on last year to investigate the 2020 election, his work also "helped lead to the seizure of the Georgia ballots," according to The Atlantic.

"In Arizona, federal probes of the 2020 election by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are underway," The Atlantic noted. "Olsen and other Trump administration officials have participated in extensive meetings about U.S. elections with senior members of the Justice Department in recent months.

Heather Honey was a "Pennsylvania-based election activist" who "sought to reverse Trump's defeat" in 2020. She worked on "numerous efforts to challenge elections in Arizona," and "now holds a key role at the Department of Homeland Security," The Atlantic reported.

"There, she interacts with state election officials, many of whom don't trust her," six of those officials told The Atlantic.

"MAGA has already won its war against American elections," The Atlantic report concluded. "Confidence that a person's state or local government will run a free and fair election is slipping."

'Boom': GOP gov candidate who defied Trump hit with death threat day before bomb scare

A Republican candidate for governor in Georgia and the current secretary of state received a death threat the day before a bomb scare at one of his campaign events, according to a new report.

According to the New York Times, Brad Raffensperger received a four-page, handwritten manifesto on Monday. The manifesto came with a photo of Raffensperger and the word "Boom" written across his forehead, a campaign official told the Times.

"It was obviously targeting the secretary of state," campaign spokesperson Ryan Mahoney told the Times, which noted that "Mr. Raffensperger has been the subject of hundreds of threats since the 2020 presidential election, when he bucked President Trump's efforts to reverse his defeat."

The letter was mailed to the Clay County sheriff's office, which in turn notified the FBI and state law enforcement, the Times reported. Law enforcement "beefed up security for Mr. Raffensperger and his family," according to the report.

On Tuesday, Raffensperger planned to campaign in Macon, Georgia, at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport. He had to call off the event, though, after law enforcement and a team of dogs found "a suspicious object inside a vending machine," according to the report.

However, Mahoney said, "it remained unknown if the suspicious object found at the campaign event in Macon was related to the manifesto." Mahoney also said it's unknown whether law enforcement has identified the person who wrote the manifesto or planted the suspicious object.

"We're still trying to find that person," Mahoney said to the Times.

'MAGA lost its luster': MTG’s old seat may flip as Trump and GOP 'made a lot of enemies'

When Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned from Congress in January, as many as 22 candidates lined up to vie for her U.S. House seat in Georgia’s 14th District.

The vast majority were Republican. As of Monday, 12 remained in the March 10 special election race, giving Democrats hope that a split Republican vote might mean the seat can actually be flipped — despite its solid red rating and Greene’s definitive victories since 2020, when the high-profile, hard-right, conspiracy-theory-espousing politician was first elected.

Raw Story spoke with the three Democrats competing for the seat. With poor Republican polling under President Donald Trump and recent wins for Democrats in other red states, they presented different paths to victory.

Shawn Harris, a retired brigadier general and cattle producer, lost to Greene in 2024 and declared his 2026 candidacy prior to Greene’s surprise resignation announcement in November.

A Democratic win “is 100 percent realistic because this race here is completely switched,” Harris told Raw Story.

“Gotta keep in mind, whoever wins this race has never served in Congress before. Period.

“So now it goes back to people are actually looking at our résumés and looking at our background. They [are] looking at what we did before, and if I put my background up against anybody … people understand that, ‘Hey, this is the right guy.’”

Shawn Harris on his cattle farm in Rockmart, Ga. (Photo by Alexandria Jacobson/Raw Story)

Democrats have been chipping away at Greene’s domination in GA-14 since 2020, when she won with 75 percent of the vote.

In 2022, after two years of Greene’s far-right antics on Capitol Hill, Democrat Marcus Flowers cut her share of votes by nearly 10 percent, capturing more than 88,000 of his own.

While Greene won about 64 percent of the vote against Harris in 2024, nearly 135,000 voters, a record, picked the Democrat.

“We're taking everything that we learned from the last race and brought it to this race,” Harris said.

“I just want to make sure that everybody in northwest Georgia understands that Shawn Harris is going to go to Washington, D.C., and the people that I'm working for, the hardworking people here in northwest Georgia … I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican, my focus is you.”

Harris is far-and-away the biggest fundraiser in the race, having raised more than $2.2 million through the end of 2025, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.

He has brought in more than $2.4 million in 2026, Renee Schaeffer, his campaign manager, told Raw Story.

The next closest fundraiser is Republican Clay Fuller, endorsed by President Trump, who raised more than $786,000 as of Feb. 18, according to FEC filings.

‘Anything can happen’

Clarence Blalock, a Democratic consultant running for Georgia commissioner of labor, faced Harris in a runoff in the 2024 primary.

Withdrawing his 2026 candidacy, Blalock endorsed Harris.

“Shawn has a chance to clear,” Blalock told Raw Story.

“At some point all that spending matters. He's going to be able to reach more people, reach low propensity voters.

“If he can resonate with some Republicans, or just basically get out every Democrat — because it's a special election, because it's going to be low turnout — if you turn out a higher percentage of your people, you can close that gap.”

Clarence Blalock in front of a restaurant in Rockmart, Ga. (Photo by Alexandria Jacobson/Raw Story)

That happened in Georgia last year when Democrat Eric Gisler flipped a state House seat in a special election.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) counts Gisler’s victory in a Trump 12-point advantage seat as one of its biggest wins among the 26 seats the party has flipped since Trump’s re-election, said Sam Paisley, a spokesperson for the DLCC.

In Texas in February, Democrat Taylor Rehmet flipped a Republican state Senate district that favored Trump by 17 points — the DLCC’s first flip of 2026, a startling success that made national headlines.

“There actually probably are enough votes to win in these types of things, and in these specials, there's always a high level of chaoticness where anything can happen, too,” Blalock said.

In another state-level race, Blalock worked with Peter Hubbard, one of two Democrats to upset incumbent Republicans to win seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission, the first non-federal statewide wins for Democrats in Georgia in 19 years.

Even Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) celebrated the victories, calling them “a rejection of Trump-era policies.”

Towards the end of her time in Congress, Greene did the same — turning particularly fiercely against Trump over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Now, Democrats in GA-14 are hopeful that frustration with Trump and his party, particularly around hardline federal immigration enforcement and the Epstein files, will result in more switched votes.

“MAGA’s lost a lot of luster,” Blalock said.

“Who wants to be associated with pedophilia? I don't. I just think people are getting tired of it.”

Harris said 5 percent of GA-14 voters who backed Trump in 2024 also voted for him.

He is distributing “Republicans for Shawn” signs and said he expects many more to back him this time.

“We're very confident that we're going to be able to get our Democrats out, the independents out and those Republicans that feel that the Republican Party has left them,” Harris said.

“They [are] still Republicans, but the current Republican Party has left them with MAGA, and they're going to come out and vote for me.”

‘Times change’

Harris said he has resonated with some conservatives who consider themselves Ronald Reagan or Bush-era Republicans, focused on the economy.

Another Democratic candidate, patent lawyer Jonathan Hobbs, said the working-class district leaned Democratic in the 1970s and 1980s, so voters fed up with the GOP could flip back.

Jonathan Hobbs (provided photo)

“History tells us the future,” Hobbs said.

“Times change, and Trump [and] Republicans have made a lot of enemies … Everything changes, and especially with the handling of the immigration issue, where people are getting shot, that's not good. This is totally mishandled.”

Jim Davis, an author and political scientist who worked on Ross Perot’s independent 1992 presidential campaign, is also running as a Democrat — and is less confident of success.

Jim Davis (provided photo)

He created a computer model that showed a path to victory if only two Democrats were in the race and Republicans split their votes.

But Davis said Democrats were “very, very unfriendly toward my candidacy,” and with three candidates, “I don't think there's as much hope for any of us as there once was.”

While all three Democrats agreed affordability is one of the largest issues in GA-14, Davis said Democrats have lacked “winning issues” and clear messaging about “What do you stand for?”

“Welfare is very hard for people to accept down here in our district, because their backs are already to the wall,” he said. “They feel like they don't want to contribute to anybody else.

“They're hard people because they've had a hard time, and until Democrats get something in front of that, they're not going anywhere. They've lost all the people. They've lost their voting base.”

To win, Democrats need to demonstrate their stances in a concrete way, such as proposing subsidized daycare, Davis said.

“You've got to do something to break out,” he said.

Trump intel chief election meddling should 'freak everybody out,' top Dems shout

WASHINGTON — On Capitol Hill, questions keep mounting about Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s 2020 election investigation and whether she’s using foreign surveillance officers and resources on U.S. soil.

Democrats demanding answers about why DNI Gabbard was present for the hugely controversial FBI raid on an election office in Fulton County, Georgia last month are eager to grill her when she publicly testifies before the Senate intelligence Committee in March.

“It raises serious questions, because it would be a violation, in some cases, of laws if our foreign intelligence service was operating in the United States,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) told Raw Story on Capitol Hill.

As the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Reed’s an ex-officio member of the Intelligence Committee.

“The CIA clearly can't do anything [on U.S. soil], but no, it's just there's no explanation for” Gabbard’s actions, he said.

“The Department of Justice issues a warrant, etc, and you have an intelligence official down there? I don't know what's happened.”

Reed’s far from alone, as questions swirl and the administration remains mostly mum.

‘The plan all along’

As President Donald Trump fixates on his defeat by former President Joe Biden in 2020 and repeats disproved claims about election fraud in that contest, reports that Gabbard’s office last year took control of and tested voting machines in Puerto Rico only raised fears of interference in this year’s midterm elections.

“I've heard people indicate that she's trying to regain favor [with President Trump], so she might be given another mission like make sure 2026 goes our way,” Reed said.

“Are you nervous?” Raw Story asked.

“I am,” Reed said. “Everyone should be.

“Because if you look at the cumulative steps from the first day — taking apart the cybersecurity infrastructure approach, taking out the agency, the FBI, that handles election security — you know, it’s as if the plan all along is we won't have those protections we need for the election.”

President Trump’s recent call to “nationalize” those midterms isn’t helping.

“Nationalizing … is unconstitutional,” Reed said.

As Fulton County officials fight in court to reclaim control of election materials, critics say the conspiracy-fueled underpinningings of the Trump administration investigation are becoming clear.

On Tuesday, Fulton County officials wrote in a court filing that, “instead of alleging probable cause to believe a crime has been committed,” the FBI search warrant application did “nothing more than describe the types of human errors that its own sources confirm occur in almost every election — without any intentional wrongdoing whatsoever.”

The filing also noted the warrant relied on debunked conspiracies propagated by Kurt Olsen, an election denier sanctioned by a number of courts for unfounded claims that 2020 results were invalid.

‘No legitimate legal role’

For congressional critics, watching Gabbard claim new domestic investigative powers based on debunked conspiracies is especially alarming.

“She has no legitimate legal role to be at the Fulton County voter election bureau,” Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) told Raw Story, on the House side of the Capitol.

“It feels like a desperate ploy to get back in Donald Trump's good graces, but the fact that they're doing this by trying to elevate years-old, multiple-discredited, crazy conspiracy theories should be really concerning to everyone.”

The DNI’s role is “supposed to be about foreign threats,” Scanlon added.

Conspiracies beget conspiracies, it seems: Scanlon and others wonder if Trump’s fixation with Venezuela — and the dramatic January raid to capture its then-leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores — wasn’t tied to wild claims that the South American country controls voting machines across the globe and had a hand in Trump’s 2020 defeat.

“Certainly the fear that I've heard expressed is that now that they have the president, former president, purported president of Venezuela in custody and they have this crazy theory from 2020 that Venezuela somehow took over voting machines, can they get him to cop to doing this as a ‘get out of jail free’ card?” Scanlon said.

“I mean, it's a wild thing to even be thinking about, but we have seen that this is an administration that doesn't care what depths it descends to.”

Which is why Scanlon and others say the DNI investigating local American elections is so worrisome.

“We do need to look at what kind of domestic surveillance is going on or has been going on and the misuse of taxpayer funds to do political work,” Scanlon said.

Reports that Gabbard called President Trump after the Fulton County FBI raid are also concerning to Democrats.

“Let’s be clear: It is inappropriate for a sitting president to personally involve himself in a criminal investigation tied to an election he lost,” Senate Intelligence Vice-chair Mark Warner (D-VA) told congressional reporters.

‘Destroying democratic norms’

Nonetheless, the Trump administration seems set on testing the bounds of what’s politically appropriate — and the Constitution itself.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard, at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

“Obviously, they are destroying our national security infrastructure, destroying democratic norms every single day,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) told Raw Story.

“Yes, it should freak everybody out that the director of national intelligence is sitting outside of an election office in Georgia, but there's lots of things every day that should freak people out.

“None of this is normal, and nobody should act like it's normal.”

Back when he sat in the House, Murphy served alongside Gabbard, then a first-term Democrat from Hawaii. While the two teamed up on some foreign policy measures, Murphy says he barely recognizes her now.

“She's just desperately searching for relevance in the MAGA world and to get back on Trump's calendar,” Murphy told Raw Story.

“I've sort of stopped long ago trying to decipher the internal dynamics of the MAGA ecosystem.”

Gabbard’s scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 18.

This unscrupulous Trumper's involvement in the Georgia elections raid should worry us all

When the FBI carried out its controversial raid last month at the election headquarters of Fulton County, Georgia, it was already guaranteed to inflame partisan tensions.

What made the episode more striking was the presence of Andrew Bailey.

The former Missouri attorney general is now co-deputy director of the FBI. He traveled to Georgia to oversee an operation tied to claims about the 2020 election that have been repeatedly debunked and exhaustively litigated.

It’s worth pausing for a moment to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. He lost Georgia. The state conducted three statewide counts, including a hand recount, and still certified Joe Biden’s victory. Some Trump allies who made sweeping fraud claims about Georgia have since recanted, often under oath or under legal pressure. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani lost a defamation lawsuit for spreading those false claims.

For Missourians, Bailey’s involvement in Georgia is its own warning sign.

His political rise hasn’t been built on careful management or restrained lawyering. It has been driven by media visibility, aggressive rhetoric and a willingness to validate Trump’s preferred narrative — regardless of the record.

During his short tenure as Missouri attorney general, Bailey made election denial rhetoric a central feature of his political identity. After winning a full term in 2024, he hoped his loyalty would land him a new job in Washington as FBI director or U.S. attorney general.

According to multiple media reports, Trump was not impressed. Bailey did not receive either post.

He ultimately left Missouri last year after being tapped as co-deputy director of the FBI, a role that has historically been held by one person and involves managing the bureau’s day-to-day operations.

His fellow co-deputy director, Dan Bongino, later stepped down to return to podcasting. Instead of elevating Bailey into the traditional singular role, the Trump administration hired the former head of the FBI’s New York Field Office to replace Bongino.

Those who watched Bailey run the attorney general’s office weren’t surprised by the decision not to elevate him.

Bailey’s tenure in Missouri drew criticism over missed deadlines, bungled appeals and settlements that reflected disorganization rather than strategy. Under his watch, Missouri paid out record-breaking sums in settlements and judgments, including one settlement that committed taxpayers to annual payments stretching into the year 2098.

He also narrowly avoided being questioned under oath over an alleged ethics breach in his own lawsuit against Jackson County. A judge ordered his deposition, but Bailey moved to dismiss the lawsuit before it could take place. One of his deputies lost his law license in the ordeal.

Controversies accumulated. Bailey’s office missed an appeal deadline in a high-profile COVID mask mandate case. He falsely blamed a school district’s DEI program for an off-campus assault. He recused himself from a gambling lawsuit after political committees tied to gambling lobbyists donated to a PAC supporting his campaign. He accepted $50,000 from a company accused of poisoning a Peruvian town and later asked a court to move the case out of Missouri.

Which brings us back to Georgia.

Bailey’s presence at the Fulton County raid was not just a management detail. It was a signal about the kind of leadership now shaping the FBI and about how quickly the bureau’s credibility can be subordinated to political priorities.

Missouri has already seen what Bailey does when he’s in charge. The FBI is now taking its turn.

Jason Hancock has spent two decades covering politics and policy for news organizations across the Midwest, with most of that time focused on the Missouri statehouse as a reporter for the Kansas City Star. A three-time National Headliner Award winner, he helped launch the Missouri Independent in October 2020. Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.