Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for August 25, 2025

On August 25, 1864, Union troops stopped artillery bombardment of Atlanta and withdrew from fortifications around the city. On the same day, in Virginia, Confederate forces attacked Federals under Gen. Grant at Ream’s Station.

On August 25, 1877, delegates to the state Constitutional Convention approved a new post-Reconstruction state Constitution, the seventh in state history, to be submitted to the voters on December 5, 1877.

The all-time highest score in a professional baseball game was recorded on August 25, 1922, as the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies by 26-23.

Paris was liberated from German army control on August 25, 1944.

On August 25, 1950, President Harry S. Truman ordered the seizure of the nation’s private railroads by executive order.

On August 25, 1973, the Allman Brothers of Macon, Georgia released “Ramblin’ Man” as the first single from the album “Brothers and Sisters.” From the Wall Street Journal,

Dickey Betts: In 1969, I was playing guitar in several rock bands that toured central Florida. Whenever I’d have trouble finding a place to stay, my friend Kenny Harwick would let me crash at his garage apartment for a few days in Sarasota. One day he asked me how I was doing with my music and said, “I bet you’re just tryin’ to make a livin’ and doin’ the best you can.”

Then one day in 1972, I was sitting in the kitchen of what we called the Big House in Macon, Ga.—where everyone in the band lived—and decided to finish the lyrics.

My inspiration was Hank Williams’s “Ramblin’ Man,” from 1951. His song and mine are completely different but I liked his mournful, minor-chord feel.

Except for Kenny’s line, the rest of the lyrics were autobiographical.

The WSJ article is worth reading in its entirety if you’re a fan of the Allmans.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Tuesday is election day in State Senate District 21, vacated by Sen. Brandon Beach, who now serves as Treasurer in the Trump Administration. From Georgia Recorder:

Seven candidates are vying to replace former state Sen. Brandon Beach as the lawmaker representing a northern Atlanta suburban district in the Georgia Senate. Early voting concluded Friday in the district, which covers much of Cherokee County and extends into north Fulton County, and just under 12,000 voters have already cast a ballot for a turnout rate of 8% in early voting.

Election day is Tuesday, and polls will open again at 7 a.m. If one candidate does not secure more than 50% of the vote, a runoff is on the books for Sept. 23.

Beach resigned earlier this year, leaving his seat vacant. His resignation came after a March appointment from President Donald Trump to become the 46th U.S. Treasurer. Prior to this appointment, the Alpharetta Republican held onto his seat in the Senate for 13 years.

Beach has been a consistent Trump ally – including by backing false conspiracies that the 2020 election had been rigged. The conservative suburban and rural district sent him back to the state Capitol with large margins of victory. In 2024, he won more than 70% of the vote against a Democratic challenger.

While Democrats are hoping to flip the seat, GOP voters feel optimistic about retaining party control with six Republicans on the ballot.

“I’m a Republican, so I’d like to see a Republican fill Brandon Beach’s shoes, and there were several to choose from,” said Fulton County early voter Lynna Lee after casting a ballot at the Alpharetta library.

Democrats have placed their faith in Alpharetta mom, attorney and small business owner, Debra Shigley. As the only Democratic candidate in the race, Shigley is fighting to overturn a long standing precedent in the red district.

“(When) hoping to flip a Republican-held seat, the best opportunity is to have only one candidate, because it’s a jungle general election where the candidates from both parties are listed on the ballot,” said Melita Easters, executive director of Georgia WIN List.

Georgia WIN List, a political action committee focused on electing Democratic women who support reproductive rights, has officially endorsed Shigley. Easters believes that Shigley will stand out against the “stale, pale, male” Republicans also fighting for a spot in the Senate.

“You’ve got these five men over here yelling, ‘I’m more MAGA than the other guys’, and they’re all spouting the same message,” Easters said.

Stephanie Donegan is the only Republican woman running in the district, and her campaign remains rooted in conservative values.

The party in power typically faces a backlash after a presidential election. Democrats are hoping frustration with GOP leaders at the state and federal levels could depress Republican turnout while invigorating Democrats to vote. Flipping a seat in a staunchly conservative district would be a major publicity win for a state party that has spent decades in the minority.

Gabrielle Smith, a Democratic voter, cast her ballot in Alpharetta during the second week of early voting. Smith said she was “concerned about the way things are going in the country” and hopes that her vote for Shigley could help make a difference.

“I think that a woman’s voice is needed,” Smith said. “I think that in a red state, a blue voice is needed. I think that somebody who isn’t trading on fear and hate is needed. Honestly, that’s why I voted for her.”

Democrats hope that having a single candidate in the race will work to their advantage, but Republicans are not convinced that the strategy will prove successful. Kennesaw State University professor of political science and former Cobb County Republican Party Chair Jason Shepherd said he thinks that it could be hard for Democrats to walk away with a victory.

Shepherd predicts Shigley could be a third place finisher in the “overwhelmingly Republican” district and that there will be a September runoff between Tuesday’s top two Republican vote-getters.

“If by some reason the Democrats do win it, then the Republicans need to be very nervous about these midterm elections,” Shepherd said. “And the person who should be most nervous is (Lt. Gov.) Burt Jones, who has Trump’s endorsement.”

Jones is a Republican running for governor next year who has heavily touted his early endorsement from the president. Right now, his top rival on the GOP side is Attorney General Chris Carr.

Despite signs some voters are excited to use their voice at the ballot box this month, low turnout is expected to continue tomorrow.

“Voting is important, and I think the local people can impact your life a lot, in addition to the people in Washington, D.C.,” Lee said. “I think that since I get the opportunity to vote, especially as women we’ve had people fight for us to vote, that I should execute that.”

Candidates qualified for three seats on Cordele City Commission, according to WALB.

According to the City of Cordele, the candidates will be on the ballot for the Nov. 4 election:

City Commission At Large

Joshua A. Deriso (incumbent)
Carl Brown
Nikitoe Lester
Dravian McGill, Sr.
Ronald Michael, Sr.
J. Michelle Murray
Joseph J. Wright

Ward 2 City Commissioner seat

Royce F. Reeves (incumbent)
Ulysses Morgan
Brenda Jones
Davontae Hunt
Christopher B. Fenn

Ward 3 City Commissioner seat

Issac Owens (incumbent)
Georgia Singletary
Jack Wood, Sr.

Republican United States Senate candidate Derek Dooley sat for an interview with the AJC.

When former football coach Derek Dooley sat down with Donald Trump to discuss his U.S. Senate bid in Georgia, he told the president he wasn’t seeking his endorsement just yet.

“All I asked for him was an opportunity to earn his support, and so that’s what I’m setting out to do,” the Republican told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a wide-ranging interview, Dooley made clear there’s no daylight between his stances and Trump’s priorities. He also said he’s better positioned to defeat Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff than his GOP rivals, U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins.

He laid out a range of policy views, from advocating two-term limits to backing U.S. arms sales to Israel. He sidestepped others. He defended his record of not voting in the 2016 or 2020 presidential elections. And he revealed he wasn’t as close to Kemp as some might think.

Key takeaways from the AJC interview, edited and condensed:

On his decision to run:

“My life really had a profound change during COVID and what happened with the Biden administration after that … I just saw an opportunity there to go in and make an impact. And I think I was the right candidate for the job. And since that time, I haven’t looked back.”

On winning Kemp’s support:

“I spent a long time proving to him that I had what it took. It wasn’t something where he says, ‘Yeah, you can do it. Let’s go.’ … I don’t see it as a risk. We need new leadership in the Senate that’s going to reflect what the people of Georgia want, and we should learn from President Trump as an outsider.”

On skipping presidential elections, including the 2016 and 2020 votes:

“Well, I did vote for President Trump in 2024 and I did vote for Gov. Kemp. There was a time in my career where I was overly focused on my job and my family. COVID and the Biden administration changed me … That’s why I proudly got involved and started voting, and that’s why I’m here today.”

On not voting in 2020, even after COVID

“I voted in 2024 for Donald Trump. What happened with the Biden administration after COVID — that’s what changed me. I saw the disasters that were happening around our country that I never thought I’d see again. And I was so frustrated with the leadership and it motivated me to get in the game. And that’s what I did.”

Schools continue preparing for the classroom ban on portable electronics for students, according to the Capitol Beat News Service.

Next fall, every public elementary and middle school in Georgia will have to swim against the cultural tide by banishing cellphones.

It will be a major undertaking: nearly every teen in America has one, and they have grown up with addictive social media flashing across their screens.

Despite the size of the task, some schools have already checked it off their to-do list, and their experience can serve as an example for the rest of the state.

“It is going surprisingly better than we expected,” said John Pace, III, superintendent of the Henry County School District, which prohibited cellphone use in all schools when students returned from summer break a few weeks ago.

Pace’s district of 40,000 students south of Atlanta is a year ahead of the deadline set by a state law passed this year. Henry County also prohibited cellphone use in high schools even though the new law will not require it.

Pace said the only pushback he received was an email from a student who said she needed her phone to study even though the district gives students locked-down devices.

Henry County could have banned phones by fiat, but experts say that approach invites opposition, and Pace agrees, adding that his system is not even using the word “ban” to describe its new policy.

“Distraction-free learning environments. That’s what we like to call it,” he said.

Pace brought the community along through meetings with teachers, parents and students, where they discussed the consequences of cellphone distractions.

Last year, a teacher asked all students to turn on the notification sounds on their phones, then counted the rings, dings, beeps and buzzes. On average, there were 636 per 50-minute class period, the district reported in an online video.

At a forum on cellphones and teens at Emory University last week, public health professor Julie Gazmararian cited research that says it takes 23 minutes to refocus after disruptions like phone notifications.

“This is an issue that is considered a crisis in both health and educational arenas,” she said.

The lawmaker who introduced the cellphone legislation said he was inspired by observing his own family’s behavior.

“I have three children who are addicted to their cellphones,” state Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, said at the Emory conference. “And we need to change that.”

It will be a big task. There are more than 1.1 million students in Georgia’s public elementary and middle schools.

And, according to a 2023 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 95% of teenagers in the United States have a smartphone, almost all of them with daily internet access.

The report said social media is good and bad: it can foster connection, creative expression and learning while also encouraging unhealthy social comparisons and stealing time from exercise, sleep and study.

Older studies have measured the brain drain caused by phones, even when they are not in use. One published in 2017 found that university students who placed their smartphones on the desk in front of them performed worse on math and memory tests than peers who left their phones in a different room.

A year later, another study said participants who dined with friends or family enjoyed the interactions less when they put their phone on the table than when they stowed it.

Most districts have not yet implemented cellphone prohibitions.

In a collaboration with the Georgia Department of Education, Gazmararian surveyed superintendents across the state. Her preliminary results indicated 42% prohibit phones the entire day. The superintendents cited various barriers to implementation, with two-thirds saying their biggest challenge was parent resistance.

A high school in Brockton, Mass., overcame such resistance, in part because cellphones were being blamed for extreme violence.

Students were getting into so many fights at Brockton High School that members of the school’s leadership committee called for intervention by the National Guard.

Students were using their phones to antagonize each other and to schedule fights, one news outlet reported. Some parents said their kids were afraid of going to school.

The National Guard never actually came, but Kevin McCaskill, the school’s principal, leveraged the discontent to push for a prohibition on cellphones.

At evening community meetings, he and his staff emphasized the academic toll from phone-related distractions. They also addressed parents’ biggest concern: how would they reach their kids during an emergency?

The school would send accurate and timely information, McCaskill promised. He told them that if they relied on calls or texts from students, they would be more likely to receive and spread misinformation, causing hysteria.

The school’s case was convincing enough, and as of last fall students were no longer allowed to use their phones at Brockton High. Staff at eight entry points ensured that all 3,800 students put their phones into pouches that only the staff could unlock. Students could carry their phones around in these pouches made by a company called Yondr, but they could not access them.

The number of violent incidents dropped, and students began to engage with each other more, McCaskill said.

Instead of brooding over something they saw on social media or in a text message, they were making eye contact and talking — in the cafeteria, in the hallways and in classroom discussions.

“We brought back the art of conversation,” McCaskill said.

He said more students have been passing their Advanced Placement courses and earning dual enrollment credits.

Marietta City Schools, a small district north of Atlanta, implemented a Yondr pouch policy in middle school the same semester as Brockton High.

The district compared the students’ year-to-year responses on the Georgia Department of Education’s Student Health Survey.

“The kids reported a 22% improvement in their ability to focus in class,” Grant Rivera, the superintendent, said at the Emory conference.

In Henry County, students leave their phones in their lockers or place them in storage units in each class, then stow them in their backpacks while walking between classes. They face disciplinary action if they use them.

Gazmararian’s research indicates that nearly two-thirds of her survey respondents who have prohibited phone use are doing so with lockers and backpacks.

McCaskill said the main tool is cultural. At Brockton High, some students have tried putting a fake phone in their Yondr pouch, but other teens turned them in when they pulled out their real phone, he said. “Phones have gone underground.”

Some schools in the Savannah-Chatham County system have had a similar experience. A longstanding policy that outlined how students could bring their own devices to school and use them in classrooms also allowed school leaders to prohibit them. About half the schools that were surveyed as part of the district’s preparation for the new law had already done so, including some high schools, said Derrick Butler, the district’s chief administrative officer.

The schools used various methods to control phones, including portable lockers purchased on Amazon.

The district has not yet studied the effectiveness of the various tactics. What is more important, Butler said, is the norm that gets established. Some kids might hide their phone so they don’t have to put it in the teacher’s locker, but during classroom observations and through interviews with school staff they didn’t see or hear about students using their phones where they were not allowed, he said. “And ultimately, that is the goal, right? It’s not so much that we want to collect your phone. We want you to be actively engaged and not distracted.”

Pace, the Henry County superintendent, said he included high schools in the phone prohibition because the students themselves acknowledged their phones were distracting them.

He decided he should lead by example. He used to tour schools with his phone in hand, taking notes. Now, he jots on paper, though he still transfers the information to his phone later.

Pace likened his own experience to withdrawal from an addiction.

“The first two days, it was hard for me,” he said. “By the time I got to day five, it was easy.”