Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder

Dalton Republican state Rep. Kasey Carpenter is facing criticism after a photo of him dressed in blackface has been circulating on social media.

The grainy photo shows Carpenter posing alongside his wife at a party with his white skin painted brown.

Carpenter said the photo was taken at a Chattanooga bar about 12 years ago when he was in his 30s. He said it was a costume party where guests dressed like power couples, and they chose to dress like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, who were married at the time....

Clay Fuller, a Trump-backed Republican, is heading to Washington to replace former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene after winning a runoff election Tuesday against Democrat Shawn Harris.

The Associated Press called the race for Fuller, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard and former district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, at 8:23 p.m. Tuesday.

As of 9 p.m., Fuller claimed nearly 56% of the vote and appeared to lead Harris by about 10 percentage points, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State....

A second Georgia House Democrat is accused of unemployment fraud

by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder
January 5, 2026

A Democratic state lawmaker resigned her seat days before she was charged with fraudulently receiving nearly $14,000 in unemployment benefits intended for people who lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic....

Decisive Democratic victories in Georgia and across the country on Tuesday have given the Democratic Party momentum ahead of the 2026 midterms, while Republicans are left grappling with how to quickly recenter voters’ affordability concerns.

Democrats Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard delivered an upset Tuesday by gaining over 60% of the statewide vote each, unseating two Republican incumbents on the Public Service Commission and clinching the first non-federal statewide victories for Democrats in Georgia in nearly 20 years. Johnson and Hubbard’s victories will reshape the current all-Republican commission, though the panel will remain under GOP control.

Johnson and Hubbard won by focusing their campaigns on energy affordability, citing six Georgia Power bill increases over two years that were approved by the current commission and pledging to help lower energy costs. Democratic Party of Georgia Chairman Charlie Bailey attributed Tuesday night’s results to a “repudiation of Republican leadership” that raised people’s bills by an average of $500 a year....

In the Georgia political world, reaction to U.S. military attacks against three nuclear sites in Iran fell mostly, but not entirely, along party lines.

President Donald Trump announced the strikes Saturday night, calling them “a spectacular military success.”

The intervention into the war between Iran and Israel stoked fear of reprisal against U.S. military bases in the Middle East or terrorist attacks at home, but Trump and his allies said the strikes will prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons....