Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for December 19, 2025

George Washington’s Continental Army entered winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania on December 19, 1777.

During 1777, Patriot forces under General Washington suffered major defeats against the British at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown; Philadelphia, the capital of the United States, fell into British hands. The particularly severe winter of 1777-1778 proved to be a great trial for the American army, and of the 11,000 soldiers stationed at Valley Forge, hundreds died from disease. However, the suffering troops were held together by loyalty to the Patriot cause and to General Washington, who stayed with his men.

When Washington’s army marched out of Valley Forge on June 19, 1778, the men were better disciplined and stronger in spirit than when they had entered.

In her youth, Mrs. GaPundit continually reminded her parents that the area in which she grew up, literally down the street from Valley Forge National Historic Park, was well known for causing frostbite.

On December 21, 1835, Oglethorpe University was incorporated near Macon, later moving to Atlanta.

On December 19, 1860, the Georgia General Assembly adopted Resolution 14, which read in part,

Resolved 4th. That, should any or all of the Southern States determine in the present emergency to withdraw from the Union and resume their sovereignty, it is the sense of this General Assembly that such seceding States should form a confederacy under a republican form of government; and to that end they should adopt the Constitution of the United States, so altered and amended as to suit the new state of affairs.

General William Tecumseh Sherman received the surrender of Savannah, Georgia on December 21, 1864.

On December 20, 1864, Confederate forces in Savannah retreated ahead of Sherman’s army, crossing over into South Carolina, four years to the day after South Carolina’s secession.

On December 21, 1863, the Confederate government selected a site in Sumter County for construction of Camp Sumter, which would be better known by the name Andersonville Prison.

On December 19, 1868, Congress opened hearings into barriers African-Americans faced to voting in Georgia, which included threats, violence, and death.

Eugene Talmadge, who was elected four times as Governor of Georgia, in 1932, 1934, 1940, and 1946, died on December 21, 1946, leading to the Three Governors Controversy.

The United States invaded Panama on December 20, 1989.

On December 19, 1998, the United States House of Representatives voted to approve two of four Articles of Impeachment against President Bill Clinton.

Article I was approved 228-206. Voting in favor were 223 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Voting against were 200 Democrats, 5 Republicans, and one Independent.

Article II was defeated 229-205. Voting in favor were 200 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Voting against were 200 Democrats, 28 Republicans, and one Independent.

Article III was approved 221-212. Voting in favor were 216 Republicans and 5 Democrats. Voting against were 199 Democrats, 12 Republicans, and one Independent.

Article IV was defeated 285-148. Voting in favor were 147 Republicans and one Democrat. Voting against were 203 Democrats, 81 Republicans, and one Independent.

On all four impeachment articles, Georgia’s congressional delegation voted exclusively along party lines. Republican congressmen Jack Kingston (1st district), Mac Collins (3rd district), Newt Gingrich (6th district), Bob Barr (7th district), Saxby Chambliss (8th district), Nathan Deal (9th district), Charlie Norwood (10th district), and John Linder (11th district) voted in favor of all four articles. Democratic congressmen Sanford Bishop (2nd district) and John Lewis (5th district) and congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (4th district) voted against all four articles.

Former United States Senator Johnny Isakson died on December 19, 2021.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) appeared before the Senate Special Committee on Investigations, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.

After more than a year of rebuffing Republican attempts to compel her testimony before the Georgia Senate, Fani Willis went to the state Capitol Wednesday to give three hours of often combative testimony to a special committee that she deemed to be a political farce.

Senate Republicans created the committee to investigate “alleged and admitted” misconduct by Willis, whom they have been pursuing since her decision to indict Donald Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators in the wake of the 2020 election.

The hearing featured questions about her use of public funds as Fulton County district attorney, whether she had coordinated with the administration of President Joe Biden, her handling of open records requests and her payment to a subscription service she used to track the value of the media coverage of her and her office.

It also featured Georgia’s last Democratic governor, Roy Barnes, as her attorney, who frequently interrupted to advise her not to answer questions.

Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, led the committee in the place of Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, whom Dolezal said was recuperating from surgery.

When Barnes cut Dolezal off after dismissing the relevance of some of his questions, Dolezal said they were about the investigation while Barnes said they were merely to infer wrongdoing.

Willis then added, “also to divide the country.”

Each side accused the other of political grandstanding. Dolezal asked about a $10,000 a year subscription service that reported media coverage worth tens of millions of dollars, according to a projected slide of an email to Willis from her media relations staffer.

Dolezal also offered documents that indicated the same staffer had worked as a Democratic political consultant and that Willis had contributed to the political campaign of Charlie Bailey, now chairman of the state Democratic party, when he ran for lieutenant governor in 2022. (She pointed out that the money was for his primary campaign against another Democrat.)

Willis, in turn, had handed out photocopies of social media posts that showed both Dolezal, who is running for lieutenant governor, and Cowsert, who hopes to be attorney general, using the investigation for political messaging.

She repeatedly insulted Dolezal, telling him at one point that he had asked “a really ignorant question” about whether she had considered investigating Trump before his infamous phone call to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

She also insulted the premise of the panel itself, calling it a “QAnon committee.” She said white senators were pursuing her because she is Black and she had indicted white and influential people. She said repeatedly that they wanted to be “daddy.”

After the hearing, Sen. Harold Jones II, D-Augusta, the Senate minority leader and a member of the committee, questioned the purpose, as well. He said Dolezal, who by committee rules was the only one besides Jones who got to ask questions, had simply rehashed old information about billing while raising “esoteric” questions about Willis’ handling of open records requests.

He said none of the questions got to the core issue of why Willis chose to indict. He said that was because the defendants had tried to overturn the election and she had done the right thing.

Although four defendants took plea deals, the rest avoided trial. Last month, Peter Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, asked a judge to dismiss the case and the judge agreed.

Skandalakis had taken over as special prosecutor after the courts sidelined Willis on ethical grounds because of her romantic entanglement with a contract lawyer she had hired to help her with the case.

Dolezal said the committee would have to cut through the “theatrics” and name calling in her testimony to determine what to do next. He said the committee should look at Willis’ handling of state funds and open records and at her use of a special purpose grand jury to investigate the defendants before indicting them.

He also said he was glad to finally force her to answer questions on behalf of “my friends who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending themselves against these politically motivated charges.”

The United States Department of Justice is suing Georgia’s Secretary of State over records from the 2020 election, according to the Macon Telegraph.

The Department of Justice is suing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in Macon, in an effort to force him to provide detailed voter information after he allegedly refused to do so.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, for the Department of Justice’s civil rights division, filed the suit Thursday against Raffensperger for not providing voting records, including personal information of voters, to the DOJ.

Dhillon said in a video posted to her Instagram account that she’s in litigation with 18 different states in 19 lawsuits relating to this issue.

Dhillon requested the information for an investigation that the DOJ is conducting to ensure that Georgia is complying with statewide voter registration list maintenance requirements. The DOJ alleges in its suit that it asked Raffensperger for that information and his office refused to provide it. The DOJ argues this violates the Civil Rights Act of 1960, according to the lawsuit.

She requested two times in a letter to Raffensperger to provide voting records that include “all fields,” which would include Georgia residents’ full name, date of birth, residential address, state driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number, court records show.

She also asked for the contact information of local election officials, since they are also part of maintaining the voter registration list, according to the lawsiut.

Raffensperger hasn’t turned over the records because he claims that Georgia law prohibits the disclosure of the specific records Dhillon requested. Raffensperger did provide some requested records on Dec. 8, but the records excluded “sensitive information that implicates special privacy concerns,” his attorney, Charlene McGowan, said in a letter to the DOJ.

Lacking that “sensitive information,” the DOJ has asked a judge to declare that Raffensperger violated the Civil Rights Act. The DOJ also wants a judge to order Raffensperger to provide the records.

Dhillon said these privacy claims were “total nonsense,” and indicated she’s trying to confirm registered voters are U.S. citizens.

In a video posted to her Instagram, Dhillon said she is taking legal action against Fulton County because they still have election information from 2020 that she would “like to look at.”

From WRDW:

“The law is clear: states need to give us this information, so we can do our duty to protect American citizens from vote dilution,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Today’s filings show that regardless of which party is in charge of a particular state, the Department of Justice will firmly stand on the side of election integrity and transparency.”

According to the lawsuits, the Attorney General is charged by Congress with enforcing the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.

Congress designed those laws to ensure states have proper and effective voter registration and voter list maintenance programs.

The Attorney General also has authority under the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to demand the production, inspection and analysis of statewide voter registration lists.

The Georgia Republican Party filed a complaint with the Georgia State Ethics Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission over ads targeting Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones (R-Jackson), according to Atlanta News First via WALB.

The Georgia Republican Party has filed a state ethics complaint against a group running ads against gubernatorial candidate Burt Jones, claiming the smear campaign is illegal.

Submitted on Tuesday, the complaint says the Delaware-based Georgians for Integrity is operating as an independent committee but not following the rules of one. The group has run television ads claiming Jones, Georgia’s lieutenant general, lines his own pockets at the expense of taxpayers.

Georgians for Integrity appears to have spent at least $4 million on the ads, according to the complaint — but nobody knows where the money is coming from.

As per state law, committees, which are groups that spend money on activities to affect elections, have to register and file mandatory disclosure reports. Georgians for Integrity, however, has “thumbed its nose” at the requirements, the complaint claims.

“The harm is not abstract,” the complaint later continues. “Every day this group remains unregistered, Georgia voters are deprived of their right to know who is funding electioneering activity, who is attempting to influence their vote, and whether prohibited or excessive contributions are being funneled into the political process.”

The complaint asks the State Ethics Commission to open an investigation into, and ultimately penalize, the group.

Atlanta News First could not find a way to contact Georgians for Integrity.

Georgia’s gubernatorial race has already been marked with controversy. In August, attorney general and fellow Republican candidate Chris Carr filed a lawsuit against Jones, claiming a $10 million loan to his campaign for governor violated state law.

The ethics commission ruled Jones’ loan could go through, saying there is “nothing in the current statute which prohibits such a loan of personal funds.”

The 2026 Georgia gubernatorial election will be held on Nov. 4.

Governor Brian Kemp announced he will appoint David Burge as the new Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Revenue, according to a Press Release.

Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced his appointment of David Burge as the incoming Commissioner of the Department of Revenue (DOR), following the confirmation of current commissioner Frank O’Connell by the Georgia House and Senate Judiciary Committees as the state’s first Tax Court Chief Judge. Governor Kemp officially appointed O’Connell as DOR Commissioner in February 2023 after more than two decades of dedicated work within the Department, and he will officially become the Chief Judge on April 1, 2026.

“Marty and I are truly grateful for Frank O’Connell’s years of service to the people of our state and for his great strides in improving the efficiency of the Department of Revenue,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “That unwavering commitment to putting the best interests of hardworking Georgians first is why I nominated him to be Chief Judge of the Tax Court, and those values will serve him well as the very first person to serve in this role.”

David Burge will begin his service at the Department of Revenue on February 1, 2026, and will officially take over as commissioner on February 16.

“David has spent decades making Georgia’s communities and economy stronger, both in his professional and personal capacities,” said Governor Kemp. “Marty and I are thankful that he will continue this good work after accepting the call to serve at the Department of Revenue, where he will always prioritize the good stewardship of taxpayer money.”

David Burge is currently a partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP in Atlanta where he focuses on real estate transactions in commercial lending, corporate, and capital markets; as well as in general leasing, sale, and purchase. Governor Kemp also appointed him to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs board in 2020, where he subsequently served as both Chair and Vice-Chair, providing oversight to the state agency responsible for operating 65 programs and managing nearly $300 million in state and federal funding annually. Burge is also a member of the State Ethics Commission.

Throughout his extensive and accomplished career, Burge has served on many community and statewide committees and civic organizations, including the Georgia Real Estate Commission, the Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority Board, the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, the Atlanta Bar Association and the State Bar of Georgia, the board of the Atlanta Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Visitors of Emory University, and the Trustees of Buckhead Christian Ministries. He is a graduate of the Midtown Alliance Leadership Program, the Coverdell Leadership Institute, and Leadership Atlanta.

Burge earned a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University. He and his wife, Sally, live in Atlanta and have two children.

State Rep. Dale Washburn (R-Macon) is considering new legislation on speed cameras, according to 13WMAZ.

Representative Dale Washburn with District 144 is considering giving Georgians a choice when it comes to school speed zone cameras.

Washburn previously proposed a bill that would ban the cameras in the state. Now, he’s considering amending that bill, and require a local referendum for any new cameras, or to extend any camera contracts.

In Macon, Abby Dowling is no stranger to these cameras.

She says her husband received a warning in the mail after he was caught by a speed zone cameras about a month ago.

“It was also for going 36 and they clearly photographed him right at the end of the zone and so it felt a little bit like they were kind of intentionally pushing it,” Dowling said. “He could have sped up at the end of it, not realizing that the camera was gonna take the picture right before literally the picture showed the 35 mile per hour in the photo that was how close he was to the 35 mile per hour sign.”

As a Macon mother, Dowling says she cares deeply about safety, but says she has concerns about the speed zone cameras. She says one of those concerns is traffic, which she says has increased in her neighborhood since a camera was placed on Vineville Avenue near residential street.

“When one was added on Vineville, we’ve started to get more traffic coming through our street, and they blow through our street to the point that I don’t feel comfortable letting my children play in our own front yard,” Dowling said.

Representative Washburn says Dowling’s concerns aren’t uncommon. He says he gets plenty of calls complaining about the cameras.

“I think it is a solution looking for a problem. It is mostly about revenue. It is about money being taken out of the pockets of Georgia drivers,” Washburn said.

In January, Washburn tried to get the cameras banned in the state, and now says he’s considering amending that bill. His new plan includes requiring a local vote to put up new cameras, or to extend any speed camera contracts.

“If you require a local community to decide by local referendum, I think they’ll be voted down. However, it doesn’t matter. It just gives the local people the right to have a voice on this,” Washburn said.

Washburn says the next step in the process is speaking with House and Senate leadership to see if the amended legislation will be introduced. The next legislative session is scheduled to start on Jan. 12, 2026.

State Rep. Chas Cannon (R-Moultrie) was elected to the Executive Committee of the National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses, according to the Moultrie Observer.

“I grew up hunting and fishing with my dad and developed a love of the outdoors as a result,” Cannon said. “It’s something we need to protect so that we can continue to hunt and fish – and also provide a place for our younger generations to have the same opportunity. I look forward to doing that as a part of Executive Council and hope to be able to contribute where I can.”

Established in 2004 by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), NASC seeks to provide the synergy to protect and advance hunting, angling, recreational shooting, trapping and professional fish and wildlife management in state capitols, according to a press release from the Georgia House of Representatives. With more than 2,250 legislators who are members of state legislative sportsmen’s caucuses from all 50 states, this network of pro-sportsmen legislators seeks to provide the nexus between and support for the state caucuses.

Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy discussed President Trump’s Executive Order to reschedule cannabis, according to Atlanta News First via WTOC.

One metro Atlanta organization is weighing both the potential benefits and risks following President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order Thursday aimed at expediting the reclassification of marijuana.

Atlanta News First spoke with Michael Mumper, executive director of Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy. He emphasizes this action is about research – not legalization – and said the science surrounding marijuana use remains unsettled.

“There are a lot of results, research that says that it has benefits and a lot that says it has harms,” Mumper said. “We need to dive into those much more before we rapidly expand marijuana access. This research will allow us to dig deeper into the real benefits and harms of marijuana.”

He adds that this action will also reduce paperwork for researchers and change how the drug is regulated by both the FDA and the DEA.

This order makes marijuana a schedule three classification under controlled substances, putting it in the same category as some steroids. Drugs that can be used in different situations based on the type and severity of pain.

Mumper shares his deep concern after this decision on Capitol Hill.

“Most important message to the public is that it normalizes marijuana as a product for consideration,” Mumper said. “For us, that’s a bit premature and dangerous because youth are still being harmed at alarming rates.”

The move does not change Georgia law and does not fully legalize the use of cannabis.

In Georgia, multiple efforts to legalize or decriminalize marijuana at the state level have failed. Under current state law, patients may access low-THC oil strictly for medical use if they have one of the qualifying medical conditions approved for treatment.

“Will be pressure on states to expand medical marijuana programs,” Mumper said. “But our argument has always been we have to stick to the science.”

President Trump has also directed his administration to work with Congress to “ensure seniors can access CBD products they have found beneficial for pain.”

The Georgia Department of Human Services has cut funding to support foster families, according to the AJC.

Georgia’s foster care providers told state lawmakers Thursday that recent cuts to services caused by a massive budget deficit at the Georgia Department of Human Services were catastrophic and had already resulted in tragic consequences.

In a hearing before state House members, providers detailed how the cuts have led to resignations, emptying the field of skilled workers. Families were being impacted too, they said.

DHS suspended or eliminated funding for several foster care programs last month in the face of an $85.7 million deficit for the 2026 fiscal year. The cuts include assessments for children’s needs, services that prevent children from living outside their home and parent training programs.

The subcommittee hearing comes ahead of the 2026 legislative session, which begins Jan. 12.

DHS Commissioner Candice Broce told lawmakers she made the cuts “to keep the lights on” because the department has run out of money.

“I did not want to terminate contracts,” she said. “I also don’t want to break the law by overspending my budget, so I’m in a real catch-22 right now.”

Democratic state lawmakers in the joint hearing argued the state is sitting on a $14.6 billion surplus that could be used to cover the budgetary hole.

Broce said the agency routinely operates on a tight budget, sometimes furloughing staff or delaying payments to get by, the result of chronic underfunding. Broce said she wasn’t sure when the department’s house of cards began to collapse.

Port Wentworth City Council adopted an ordinance to regulate data centers, according to WSAV.

Dozens of residents spoke out at a Port Wentworth City Council meeting on Thursday, opposing the idea of data centers. The residents asked the council to wait before making a decision; however, the council voted in favor of the ordinance.

This meeting comes after the Port Wenworth Commissioners voted against an ordinance for data centers. A data center is a connection of buildings that are part of a single development, which is primarily used for digital data operations.

Every resident who spoke up during the meeting opposed the zoning ordinance plan.

“The city was overrun with industrial development warehouses everywhere,” a resident said. “Truck traffic everywhere and residents being told that this is the price of economic development. Now we’re being told the same thing again, that data centers are good for us. The new ordinance language will protect us from the inevitable. That argument is like a dog that won’t hunt.”

Port Wentworth City Manager Steve Davis shared a presentation going over the zoning ordinance. He highlighted key requirements a potential data center will have to follow if it were to be built in the county.

The presentation included how they would use water and electricity, the requirement to do a noise study, the requirement for the center to be built 500 feet away from residents and more.

A majority of residents asked the city council to hold the vote and not make a rushed decision.

“Like we’re being rushed,” a resident said. “I don’t know what the rush is. Why are we pushing this through? You can ban it now, right? Then we can come revisit the ordinance and do all the things that we can reinstate it later, if that’s what we’re truly going to do.”

Council Member Artlise Alston-Cone also suggested the council to wait before making a vote and wait till a meeting early next year. She was the only council member to speak out at the meeting opposing the plan.

“We need to make a decision based on what they want, not what we want,” Alston-Cone said.

The City Council voted in favor of an ordinance to amend the zoning ordinance to define and set rules for data centers. Alston-Cone was the only council member present who voted against.

City council did state that this is not the approval of a data center, but rather the approval of rules and regulations if one is built.

From WTOC:

City Manager Steve Davis said the city made changes to the amendment following an earlier planning and zoning meeting, saying the city had taken citizens’ concerns to heart.

“The staff took those comments in, we talked with some of the council members, and made some modification,” Davis said.

The city said it is not currently in contract with any specific data centers but that data corporations are looking at places across Chatham and Effingham County.

Dalton City Council extended a moratorium on new vape shops, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen.

In June, the Mayor and Council passed Resolution 25-09 to impose a six-month moratorium on the approval of certain types of new regulated businesses in the City, including vape shops, adult entertainment establishments, event centers, extended stay hotels, stores operating coin operated amusement machines, massage parlors, and pawn broker businesses. The City is currently analyzing its code of ordinances and considering possible regulation changes that would affect those types of businesses and requires more time to complete that work.

Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson is rebooting the search for a new City Manager, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

“We encountered a situation that necessitated that we pause the process a little bit,” Henderson said.

The search began at the start of the year after the news that former city manager Isaiah Hugley planned to retire at the end of 2025. When the council voted 7-3 in May to fire Hugley, following the investigation of the city’s finance department, Henderson told the Ledger-Enquirer he had no plans to speed up the process in searching for a new city manager.

This decision to pause the search was made because they did not have a candidate they could bring to the Columbus Council for approval and a recommendation provided by the search committee, he said.

The plan is to reboot the search in the first or second week of January, Henderson said.

From WTVM:

Henderson said the city will wait until the holidays are over to continue the search for a city manager and defended the timeline against criticism from District 9 City Councilman John Anker.

“After narrowing 30 applicants down to a top five candidates you again kicked the can past your own written timeline. You have a clear duty that you have failed,” Anker said during the December 16 city council meeting.

Henderson responded that he would not sacrifice quality for speed in the hiring process.

“I’m not going to sacrifice quality for speed. By the way one of the reasons we are struggling to try and get people in here is because of what happened to the previous city manager,” Henderson said.

Despite not finding an ideal candidate, Henderson said the public has no reason to worry because the city is operating as it should.

“We’ve got two great deputy city managers who are doing a fantastic job. We have not skipped a beat, so when we do get a city manager in it’s not going to be starting from a standstill. It’s going to be keeping the momentum moving going and keeping things on track,” Henderson said.

Henderson said they would not be pausing the city manager search if it was not what’s best for the city. The search is expected to resume in January.

Carl Blount of Athens announced he will run for District 3 on the Athens-Clarke Board of Education, according to AccessWDUN.

Carl Blount, a local insurance professional, announced Tuesday he will be a candidate next year for the District 3 seat on the Clarke County School Board of Education.

The election is set for May 19, 2026. District 3 is currently held by Linda Davis.

He said his campaign will focus on issues including raising literacy and math achievements in the early grades, supporting students who “fall through the cracks,” and providing a safe learning environment.

Floyd County Board of Education member Tony Daniel announced he will not run for reelection, according to WRGA News.

Tony Daniel has announced that he will not seek a fourth term on the board.

His final meeting will be in December 2026.

Daniel represents the Pepperell Community in District Four, and he is the current vice-chair of the board.