Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for April 8, 2026

On April 8, 1917, U.S. President William Howard Taft (R-Ohio) spoke in Augusta, Georgia, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

Former President William Howard Taft spoke on the precarious world situation for more than an hour to an Easter Sunday crowd at Augusta’s Tabernacle Baptist Church.

Taft, who had lost the White House four years earlier to Woodrow Wilson, defended the actions of his former rival.

“Our national conscience is entirely void of offense in this war. We have been forced to vindicate our rights,” Taft told an enthusiastic audience.

Hank Aaron hit home run number 715 on April 8, 1974 to become the all-time home run champion, a title he arguably holds to this day.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig wrote about what Aaron meant to baseball and America.

As the last major league player who was a part of the Negro leagues, he was one of the game’s most prominent bridges to integration. For 23 years on the field, this humble native of Mobile, Ala., represented the game with unfailing grace, overcoming obstacles that most of us could not even imagine. In the years since then, Hank has remained one of the most distinguished and revered figures in American public life.

Aaron himself spoke to the Associated Press about the 40th anniversary of his record-breaking home run.

Aaron’s record-breaking homer will be celebrated tonight before the Atlanta Braves’ home opener against the New York Mets.

Hate mail and threats made it impossible for him to savor the chase of Ruth’s revered record, but on Monday he said he’ll enjoy the anniversary because such old friends as former teammate Dusty Baker will return for the pregame ceremony.

Aaron, 80, said he has a greater appreciation for fans who still celebrate his career.

“It does. It means an awful lot to me,” Aaron said.

“I’m not one to go around bragging about certain things. I played the game because I loved the game. … I am quite thrilled that people say that he, whatever he did, should be appreciated. That makes me feel good.”

The Braves will wear an Aaron 40th anniversary patch on their uniform sleeves this season. An outfield sign at Turner Field also will mark the anniversary.

Before hitting the homer into the Braves’ bullpen beyond the left-field wall, Aaron told [Dusty] Baker what was about to happen.

“That I can remember like it was yesterday,” Baker said. “It was a cold, cold night in April. Hank told me, ‘I’m going to get this over with now.’ He knew every pitch that was coming. He had total recall of pitch sequences. He was as smart as they came.”

Aaron confirmed Baker’s tale on Monday: “I think that was right. I think I made that remark and made it to Dusty maybe three or four times. I just felt within myself that eventually before the night was over I was going to hit a home run.”

From the Associated Press via the Valdosta Daily Times on the 50th Anniversary:

Aaron’s teammates, including Dusty Baker, worried on his behalf even as the future Hall of Famer circled the bases following his record-breaking 715th homer on April 8, 1974. Baker, who was on deck, and Tom House, who caught the homer in the Atlanta bullpen behind the left-field wall, will return Monday for the 50-year anniversary of the homer.

After sprinting from the bullpen to deliver the ball to Aaron at home plate, House found Aaron’s mother giving the slugger a big hug.

“You could see both of them with tears in their eyes,” House told The Associated Press. “… It was a mother and son. Obviously, that was cool. It was also mom protecting her boy from at that time everybody thought somebody would actually try to shoot him at home plate.

“So there were all kind of things. I gave him the ball. I said, ‘Here it is, Hank.’ He said ‘Thanks, kid.’”

Bob Hope, then the Braves media relations director, said Aaron would not be deterred by the threats issued late in the 1973 season as he approached Ruth’s record of 714 career homers.

“One time the FBI wanted to come meet with him on a Sunday and asked him not to play because they felt they had legitimate death threats on him,” Hope said.

“We went down to the clubhouse and sat down with him and Hank just said: ‘What kind of statement would that be? I am a baseball player. You guys do what you need to do to keep things secure, but I’m playing baseball.’ And I thought that was very reflective of his personality all the way through.”

To mark the 50-year anniversary of Aaron’s 715th homer, the Atlanta History Center will open a new exhibit to the public, through the Henry Louis Aaron Fund, celebrating Aaron on Tuesday that will remain open through the 2025 All-Star Game in Atlanta. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is expected to attend a preview of the exhibit on Monday.

Aaron’s bat and the ball he hit for the record homer, owned by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York and normally not open to public viewing, will be on display at Truist Park’s monument garden on Monday.

Kurt Cobain was found dead by his own hand on April 8, 1994.

Governor Zell Miller signed legislation proclaiming Gainesville, Georgia the Poultry Capital of the World on April 8, 1995.

The Square Dance became the official state folk dance on April 8, 1996, when Gov. Zell Miller signed legislation recognizing it.

On April 8, 2005, Eric Rudolph agreed to plead guilty to the fatal 1996 bombing at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Republican Clay Fuller was elected to fill the remainder of former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s term, according to Georgia Recorder.

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, but Fuller will have to immediately defend his new seat.

Fuller’s victory in the special election only earns him the right to serve out the rest of Greene’s term. Greene stepped down in January after feuding with President Donald Trump over issues like Israel’s actions in Gaza and the files of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In November, Georgians will return to the polls to elect leaders across state and federal government including governor, a U.S. Senate seat and all of its 14 members of Congress – including Fuller. That means Fuller will be back on the ballot next month competing again for the GOP nomination for a full term.

As of late Tuesday, Fuller had about 72,000 votes, good for about 56% of the vote, and Democrat Shawn Harris had about 57,000, or about 44%, according to unofficial results on the secretary of state’s website. Harris appeared to outperform previous Democrats in the deep red district, beating his own showing in 2024 by about 8 percentage points.

Fuller, a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard and former district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit, attributed his win to President Donald Trump. An endorsement from Trump helped Fuller defeat a crowded field in the Republican primary last month, and the president campaigned for Fuller in Rome in February.

“He made sure that he was the ultimate trump card,” Fuller said. “The Democrat Party poured millions of dollars into this campaign, poured lies into this campaign, but they can’t beat Donald Trump, and they never will, and I will be on Capitol Hill as a warrior to have his back each and every day.”

Fuller’s election will offer some slight breathing room to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson. The House currently has 217 Republicans and 214 Democrats.

Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon called the win evidence that Republican rule in Georgia isn’t going anywhere.

“When Republicans are united, when we share a common purpose, and when we understand what’s at stake, we win,” he said. “We win every single time, and this is the blueprint for what we’re going to need to do in November here and all over Georgia.”

Harris appears to make gains for Democrats 

Harris told supporters that although they did not succeed Tuesday, he will not take a break from campaigning. Harris is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination in this year’s regularly scheduled election.

Harris said that while Fuller will have run in another primary ahead of the November election and will have to fend off other Republicans, he will immediately start campaigning against the Republican nominee, who he said may not necessarily be Fuller.

“Tonight, we start campaigning for November, because, guess what, nobody’s running against me in May,” he said. “Clay is in another fight right now because he’s got six other Republicans that’s running against him. And guess what? Just like we ran Clay to the wire tonight with Donald Trump’s endorsement, we’re gonna beat him the next time.”

Harris painted Tuesday night’s loss as a win, saying that his campaign has built enough momentum to make Republicans nervous. He pointed to $2 million Republicans spent on the campaign against him, despite it being the deepest-red district in the state, and still having such closer-than-expected results.

“They should never have to spend money on a ruby red district,” Harris said. “That tells you that things are changing here in northwest Georgia.”

Democrats were hoping a significant improvement in Harris’ performance in the conservative district would signal a statewide shift in their favor ahead of November’s pivotal midterm elections.

The 14th District is the most Republican-leaning district in the state, according to the Cook Political Report, with Republicans performing 19 points better than in the nation as a whole.

Harris previously ran against Greene in 2024, earning just under 36% of the vote at the time. If Fuller’s margin of victory remains smaller than Greene’s as all the votes come in, Democrats will likely seek to use it as evidence that they are set to overperform across the state in November.

Charlie Bailey, chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said Harris’ vote tally amounted to a “jaw-dropping … overperformance in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s backyard.” Whereas Greene beat Harris by nearly 29 percentage points in 2024, Fuller was leading Harris by 12 points Tuesday.

“Voters are ready for Democratic leadership that fights for them and their families, and that is exactly what the Democratic Party of Georgia will deliver up and down the ballot in November,” Bailey said in a statement Tuesday night.

Speaking to reporters after his win, Fuller pooh-poohed such a suggestion.

“What you see here is a completely dominating performance,” he said. “Again, the left did their best. They poured in millions upon millions of dollars, and what you’re seeing is the best that they can accomplish. The votes are still going to be pouring in. The margin is going to get wider and wider, and we completely dominated this performance.”

Voter voices from the 14th

Across the district, voters said they didn’t cast their ballots strictly along party lines.

John Hall of Catoosa County, a Vietnam veteran who spent 26 years in the U.S. Army called himself a “Trumper,” but he said Trump’s endorsement was not the main reason he voted for Fuller Tuesday.

“I just want him to be a dedicated Republican,” he said. “He doesn’t have to be a Trumper so much as just represent us properly, just take care of our country like I tried to take care of our country.”

Harris voters largely expressed dissatisfaction with the economy and with Republican leadership from the White House down.

That included some like Catoosa voter Patrick Amos, who said he had never voted for a Democrat in his life until voting for Harris Tuesday. Amos voted for former state Sen. Colton Moore in the primary.

Amos said his switch was largely a reaction to the war in Iran and the high fuel prices that have followed.

“I really loved Trump’s anti-war message that he ran on, and it’s been nothing but war and bombs and high gas prices,” Amos said. “So it’s really I voted for Shawn Harris almost as a protest vote to the current policies of the administration.”

“I voted for cheap gas prices and no war, and I got neither,” he added of the 2024 presidential election.

Rome resident Mary Thomas said that she begrudgingly voted for Fuller after voting for Moore in the primary in March. She said that even though Fuller is endorsed by Trump, she felt that Moore was more representative of the “Make America Great Again” movement. She said she liked former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s style, and that “she was out there, and she knew what she stood for.”

“I hated it, but I think everybody’s weak nowadays. Nobody really wants to go forward and say, this is how the country should be,” Thomas said after saying that she was still voting because she doesn’t “want Democrats to take over.”

From the AJC:

Initial returns show a narrower race than when Greene was on the ballot in 2024 against Democrat Shawn Harris. Harris lost to Greene by 28 percentage points then. Fuller was beating Harris by just 12 points with 99% of the vote counted.

Fuller likely will be sworn in next week when members of the U.S. House return to Washington from a two-week recess, improving Republicans’ still-narrow majority. He will inherit Greene’s old staff, although he can also make hires of his own. Fuller also will be assigned to committees.

From the AJC Politically Georgia:

Around the time that polls closed in the runoff deciding who would replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress, a mysterious text message began pinging cellphones in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.

“Should Clay Fuller underperform tonight would you be willing to support a REAL true conservative like Colton Moore in the REAL Republican primary on May 19th?” the text read.

Moore, a former state senator, finished third in the March 10 special election that preceded Tuesday’s runoff between Fuller and Democrat Shawn Harris. Fuller emerged victorious, besting Harris by 14 percentage points with 99% of the vote counted.

Moore also qualified for the May primary, and he is expected to challenge Fuller for the Republican nomination to seek a full two-year term.

What is unclear about the text message is whether Fuller’s victory qualifies as an underperformance. Greene beat Harris in 2024 by 28 percentage points. Trump got an even larger slice of voters’ support on the same ballot. Digging deeper, Harris saw a 20 to 30 point shift toward the Democrat in every county that voted.

Fuller, who was endorsed by Trump but relatively unknown districtwide before this contest, did not have the power of incumbency behind his name. And the slimmer-than-usual margin could say more about voters’ frustrations with the president amid rising gas prices and an ongoing war in Iran than his chosen candidate.

Fuller dismissed any concern that the results Tuesday night failed to meet expectations. He noted that Harris had the support of the Democratic Party, which poured resources into boosting his campaign.

“What you’re seeing is the best that they can accomplish,” he said. “The votes are still going to be pouring in, the margin is going to get wider and wider, and we completely dominated this performance, and I feel confident about it.”

Republican Lanny Thomas was elected to Senate District 53, according to Local 3 News.

Republican Lanny Thomas will be the Georgia District 53 Senator after winning 70% of the vote.

UTC Professor and Democrat John Zibluk trailed by 4,354 votes.

From News Channel 9:

Republican Lanny Thomas on Tuesday won Georgia’s 53rd District seat in the Senate, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s website.

When Colton Moore vacated that seat to run for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, that triggered a special election to cover the rest of his term.

The race took a sudden turn last month when Thomas suffered a medical emergency and had to step away from the campaign trail.

Zibluk paused his own campaign during that time.

With Thomas recovering, both candidates were able to get back on the campaign trail in time for the special election.

Republican candidate Thomas was the Mayor of Trion.

When he announced his bid for the 53rd District, Thomas framed his candidacy as a natural evolution from decades of improving his local community as an educator and municipal leader.

Thomas says his goal is to be a reliable conduit between the people of District 53 and the capitol.

Democrat Jack Zibluk has focused his campaign on coordination of regional economic development, local control of state roads, and better access to mental health facilities.

From Discover Dade:

Thomas received 68.7 percent of the vote with more than 22,000 votes, while Zibluk finished with 31.3 percent and just over 10,000 votes. The Associated Press called the race at 8:04 p.m.

State Senate District 53 includes portions of northwest Georgia, including Dade County and surrounding areas.

Voter turnout was a key factor in both races following early voting.

Election officials say final results will be certified in the coming days.

Democrat Venola Mason won the Runoff Election for State House District 94, according to WABE.

Education consultant Venola Mason handily beat attorney and former Snellville Mayor Kelly Kautz in the all-Democrat runoff. This district runs from the Lithonia area in DeKalb up to Mountain Park in Gwinnett and then toward the Brookwood area.

Mason was leading Kautz by nearly 40 points as of 10 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

The race was to replace former state Rep. Karin Bennett, who resigned in January, then was indicted on federal charges for alleged COVID-19 pandemic unemployment fraud. She pleaded guilty and her sentencing is scheduled for this month.

Democrat Sheila Clark Nelson won the Runoff Election for State House District 130 in the Augusta area, according to the Augusta Chronicle.

A former Augusta-area legislator appears headed back to Atlanta.

Democrat Sheila Clark Nelson won a runoff election Tuesday with 70.69% of the vote to represent District 130 in the Georgia House of Representatives.

Nelson, a retired postal employee who represented District 125 in the Georgia House from 2017 to 2023, defeated Republican challenger Thomas D. McAdams, 1,107 votes to 460.

The 1,567 votes cast across 16 precincts represent 4.08% of eligible registered voters in District 130, which covers eastern Richmond County.

From WRDW:

Voters in Georgia House District 130 went to the polls Tuesday in a runoff election to fill the seat held by Rep. Lynn Heffner, who resigned.

The Augusta Democrat resigned after damage to her home from Hurricane Helene left her unable to meet the residency requirement for House District 130.

From the AJC:

Voters elected two Democratic state representatives and one Republican state senator Tuesday in special election runoffs across the northern half of the state.

The results did not change the partisan mix in the Republican-majority General Assembly, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State’s office.

Senate District 53

Thomas, former mayor of Trion, has been on the mend from a life-threatening aortic dissection all while running for the state Senate. He said he couldn’t have won without his campaign staff.

“The team that has surrounded me has been phenomenal,” said Thomas. “The work they put in to help my campaign.”

But the work isn’t over for Thomas with the May primaries ahead.

“We’re going to finish this drill today, and we’re just going to start another one,” the former high school basketball coach said.

For the candidates who won or didn’t, there’s still work to be done. All the candidates in the runoff have qualified to run again in the May primaries next month, giving them another opportunity to run for a seat in the state Legislature.

Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King (R) has endorsed billionaire Rick Jackson for Governor, according to Atlanta News First via WRDW.

Rick Jackson has picked up another high-profile endorsement in his bid to become Georgia’s 84th chief executive.

On Tuesday, John King – who is running for reelection himself for insurance and fire commissioner – endorsed Jackson over Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, once thought to be a shoo-in for the GOP’s gubernational nomination but now engaged in a bitter legal and political battle with the billionaire health care CEO.

Jackson has already been endorsed by former Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich, whose “Contract with America” back in the 1990s launched a historic GOP takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives after decades of Democratic dominance.

Last year, King launched a brief campaign for the GOP Senate nomination for the chance to face incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff this fall.

But King abandoned his bid after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp endorsed Derek Dooley and chose to run for reelection instead.

Jackson has filed several lawsuits against Jones, one of which accuses Jones of “acting intentionally and maliciously” by accusing Jackson and his company, Jackson Healthcare, of receiving funding from Planned Parenthood and “helping doctors perform transgender procedures on minors.”

The first lawsuit filed by Jackson against Jones was in federal court, aiming to prevent Jones from using funds in his leadership committee for his gubernatorial campaign. A judge had placed a temporary restraining order limiting his ability to raise unlimited funds, but that ability has been temporarily restored.

Earlier this month, the Georgia State Ethics Commission found probable cause that an organization behind millions of dollars in attack ads on Jones had violated state law.

The attack ads have been airing for months on Georgia’s airwaves from the Delaware-based group. However, Jones claims Jackson is behind the ads.

LG Burt Jones shared his thoughts on Jackson’s campaign, according to the AJC.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones posted a video of himself at a tire store in southwest Georgia holding a rather unusual prop.

“I finally found what Rick Jackson is selling down here, I want y’all to look at that right here,” he says, pointing to a can of barbecue seasoning sold by a Dahlonega-based company.

The name of the product can’t be printed in a family newsletter. Let’s just say it rhymes with “full spit.” Predictably, his rivals in the GOP race for governor didn’t let it sit for long.

A Jackson campaign account quipped: “Didn’t get real property tax relief done. Didn’t get election integrity done. Couldn’t get his opponent kicked off the ballot. Burt’s record is BS, but don’t take our word for it!”

And Attorney General Chris Carr’s camp was just as gleeful. Chief strategist Heath Garrett likened it to a Michael Dukakis-in-the-tank moment.

“If my candidate ever attempted to hold cans of BS,” he told us, “I would tackle him before any video or photographic evidence was allowed.”