Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for February 23, 2026

President elect Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington, DC on February 23, 1861.

On February 23, 1945, United States Marines raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi, the highest point on the Pacific island Iwo Jima.

This first flag-raising was photographed by Marine photographer Sgt. Louis R. Lowery. On Lowery’s way down Mt. Suribachi, he ran into AP photographer Joe Rosenthal and two other Marine photographers, PFC Bob Campbell and PFC Bill Genaust, who was shooting movies, informing them that the flag-raising they were looking for had already occurred, but encouraging them to check out the view from the top of the hill. The three men continued up the volcano.

Once atop Mt. Suribachi, Rosenthal attempted but was unable to find the soldiers involved in the first flag-raising, deciding instead to photograph the second flag-raising, which featured a much bigger and more photogenic Stars and Stripes. Lowery’s film was sent back to military headquarters for processing via ordinary army post–and took a month to arrive. Rosenthal’s film was sent by seaplane to Guam, and sent from there via radio-photo to the United States. The photograph so impressed President Roosevelt that he ordered the men pictured in it to return home for a publicity tour. Rosenthal later won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo, but for years was forced to deny erroneous reports that he personally staged the second flag-raising and attempted to pass it off as the original.

Although the famous photograph has long led people to believe that the flag-raising was a turning point in the fight for Iwo Jima, vicious fighting to control the island actually continued for 31 more days.

Today, the first and second flags flown atop Mt. Suribachi are held at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia.

On February 23, 1954, the first children in the U.S. were inoculated against polio using a vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Under the Gold Dome

Monday, February 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . committee work day
Tuesday, February 24 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 23
Wednesday, February 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 24
Thursday, February 26 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 25

Monday, February 23, 2026

9:00 AM HOUSE JUDICIARY 132 CAP
9:00 AM Joint Appropriations Conf 403 CAP
9:00 AM Senate Vets, Mil, and Homeland Sec 450 CAP
10:00 AM HOUSE JUDICIARY JUVENILE 606 CLOB
10:00 AM HOUSE Natl Res & Envt Sub EQ 506 CLOB
10:00 AM Senate Natl Res & Envt MEZZ 1
10:30 AM HOUSE Reg Ind Sub Occupl/Prof Lic 406 CLOB
11:00 AM HOUSE RULES 341 CAP
11:00 AM Senate Education & Youth 307 CLOB
12:00 PM Senate Agriculture & Cons Aff 307 CLOB
1:00 PM HOUSE HIGHER EDUCATION 606 CLOB
1:00 PM HOUSE Education Sub Policy & Innov 506 CLOB
1:00 PM HOUSE W&M Sub Inc Tax 406 CLOB
1:00 PM Senate Public Safety 450 CAP
1:30 PM HOUSE JUDICIARY NON-CIVIL 132 CAP
1:30 PM HOUSE W&M Sub Ad Val (Upon Adj. Inc Tax) 406 CLOB
2:00 PM HOUSE TECH & INFRA INNOV 515 CLOB
2:00 PM HOUSE HEALTH 403 CAP
2:00 PM HOUSE REGULATED INDUSTRIES 606 CLOB
2:00 PM HOUSE W&M Sub Sales Tax (Upon Adj Ad Val) 406 CLOB
2:00 PM HOUSE Educ Sub Curriculum & Acad Acvt 506 CLOB
2:00 PM Senate Health & Human Services 450 CAP
2:30 PM HOUSE W&M Sub Tax Reform (Upon Adj Sales Tax) 406 CLOB
3:00 PM HOUSE GOVTAL AFF 506 CLOB
3:00 PM Senate Finance MEZZ 1
4:00 PM HOUSE AG & CONS AFF 606 CLOB
4:00 PM Senate Judiciary 307 CLOB

From AccessWDUN:

Key dates:

March 6: Cross-over day (the deadline to get bills from the Senate to the House and vice versa)
April 2: Sine Die (adjournment)

The Senate passed their version of the FY 2026 Amended Budget, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.

Taxpayers, rural drivers and the mentally ill were among the winners in the mid-year budget adopted by the Georgia Senate on Friday.

Financially distressed college students and metro Atlanta drivers were not exactly the losers, but they would get less than initially proposed in the Senate’s version of the $42.3 billion amended budget for the fiscal year through June.

The state House started the budget based on a blueprint from Gov. Brian Kemp. On Friday, it was the Senate’s turn to make some edits.

Both the House and Senate kept Kemp’s $1.2 billion rebate to taxpayers that would break down to $250 per single filer, $375 for heads of household and $500 for couples filing jointly.

But the House added more gravy with an $850 million property tax grant for homeowners, and the Senate liked that line item.

Several senators are running for higher office, and voters tend to appreciate tax breaks, especially in an election year when affordability is key.

The property tax rebate would work out to about $500 per homeowner in urban areas and $300 in rural areas, said Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia.

“We are laser focused on affordability,” said Tillery, who is running for lieutenant governor and, as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, helped craft the Senate’s budget.

What the Senate gives, the Senate can take away. Under its proposal, state employees would get a smaller bonus than Kemp wanted. He had put a $2,000 one-time pay supplement in the budget at a cost of over $600 million, but the Senate saved a couple hundred million by knocking the payment down to $1,250.

The Senate also kneecapped a new program for college students that Kemp had touted. Georgia is still on a path to give taxpayer dollars to a need-based scholarship fund called Georgia DREAMS.

But instead of the $325 million endowment allotted by Kemp, the Senate kept only $100 million.

The Senate also slashed Kemp’s idea for a $50 million grant to communities to address homelessness, trimming it to $10 million.

Senators needed the money for other priorities. They shifted $15 million to the Department of Veterans Service and put a whopping $409 million toward construction of a regional hospital for the mentally ill who often wind up housed in local jails by default.

The House had introduced money into the budget for the same project, but it was only $27 million to get it started.

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican running for governor, said all could agree that mental health services in Georgia were lacking.

“This is not a partisan issue,” he said. Judging by the 49-1 vote to pass the budget, or House Bill 973, he was right.

The Senate made several changes Kemp might appreciate. The governor had proposed $88 million for an aerospace building at Georgia Tech, but the House had pared that back to $15 million. The Senate’s budget restored the funding.

But there were some bumps in the road.

The Senate cut nearly $100 million from Kemp’s $2 billion in improvements to I-75 south of Atlanta and to state Route 316, from Gwinnett County to Athens.

Yet the Senate added back $15 million that the House had trimmed from Kemp’s $100 million to fix rural bridges, some dating to the 1940s, according to Tillery.

Senators also added $30 million for rural infrastructure projects, and they expanded the $35 million improvement program for natural gas infrastructure that had been pitched by Kemp and endorsed by the House.

In the Senate’s budget there is now $55 million to deliver methane to customers as a means of spurring economic development.

“There are areas across our state where gas capacity is so weak that we can’t even put another Burger King on the line,” Tillery said.

The House said later Friday that it did not like the Senate’s changes. So, the budget will now go to a conference committee where a handful of lawmakers will negotiate the finer details.

After they pass the mid-year amendments, they will look to the full budget for the fiscal year that starts in July.

From Atlanta News First via WALB:

The Georgia Senate voted 49-1 Friday to approve the amended state budget, including a late addition to spend $409 million building a 300-bed forensic mental health hospital, the state’s first new psychiatric facility in more than 60 years.

The vote came six days after a federal court released Georgia from a 16-year ban on constructing such facilities. Sheriffs from across the state backed the plan, saying their jails have become mental health wards.

“Our county’s jails became the state’s mental health hospitals,” said state Sen. Blake Tillery, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “That burden has gone on for far too long.”

Sheriffs and police chiefs packed the state Capitol steps Friday and applauded from the gallery as the Senate passed the amended fiscal 2026 budget.

Sheriff Ron Freeman of Forsyth County, president of the Georgia Sheriff’s Association, said jails are expected to run out of beds because of increased mental health needs.

“Sometimes, the crime was committed because they have a severe mental illness and they need treatment, not incarceration,” Freeman said.

In Atlanta, police respond to about 19 mental health calls daily, according to Police Chief Darin Schierbaum.

“We have limited places we can take individuals in a health crisis in Atlanta,” Schierbaum said.

Schierbaum said officers can take people only to Grady Memorial Hospital or the county’s diversion center.

The hospital would be the largest mental health investment Georgia has made since the 1960s, according to Senate leadership.

But not all lawmakers support the plan.

State Rep. Imani Barnes (D-Atlanta) said the plan repeats past mistakes by institutionalizing people rather than preventing mental health crises.

“We do not continue to institutionalize further,” Barnes said. “Let’s put money into a more positive way of addressing mental health.”

Barnes is pushing her own legislation — the EmPATH Act — which would create specialized emergency units to stabilize people in crisis and return them home within 24 hours.

After the Senate passed the budget on Friday, the House objected twice, setting up a potential battle in negotiations.

The House must approve the budget before it reaches Gov. Brian Kemp.

Earlier this month, a federal judge released Georgia from behavioral health provisions of the 2010 Olmstead Settlement Agreement. The settlement required Georgia to increase community-based services for people with mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities.

If approved, Tillery said the hospital would be built in Augusta or Atlanta because of medical staffing requirements. Construction would take two to three years.

Tillery said Georgia needs 800 forensic mental health beds as 300 beds won’t solve the problem entirely.

The Senate’s amended budget differs from the budgets proposed by Kemp and the House. All three bodies must agree before the budget becomes law.

From the AJC:

In a news conference Friday announcing the initiative, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones said the issue is something that affected his former Senate district.

“Something that I heard many times as a senator myself representing Baldwin County where they had, at one time, probably the largest mental health facility in the state,” he said. “I know this issue has been paramount and been at the front for many, many years.”

Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman, who also serves as the president of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association, said sometimes crimes are committed because someone has a severe mental illness and needs treatment, not incarceration.

“Sheriffs, firsthand, we’ve witnessed the profound challenges that many inmates within our correctional facilities face,” Freeman said. “They’re not just serving sentences, but they’re battling these mental health conditions, and they require specialized care and attention.”

House Bill 1193 by State Rep. Chris Erwin (R-Homer), the “Georgia Early Literacy Act of 2026,” aims to improve early childhood literacy for Georgia students, according to WJBF.

New data shows Georgia currently ranks 46th nationwide in overall literacy, a statistic supporters say underscores the urgency for change.

House Bill 1193, known as the “Georgia Early Literacy Act,” would require:

• Full-time literacy coaches in all K–3 elementary schools
• Mandatory kindergarten attendance before enrolling in first grade
• Implementation of a phonics-based “science of reading” model for classroom instruction

State Rep. Karlton Howard (D–Augusta), one of the bill’s sponsors, says the goal is straightforward: ensuring students are reading on grade level by third grade.

“It’s mainly getting our kids reading on their level, on their level in time,” Howard said. “If they’re in third grade, they’ll be reading on a third grade level.”

Under the proposal, children would be required to attend kindergarten to ensure they are academically prepared before entering first grade, a move supporters say would strengthen foundational reading skills early on.

Howard says improving literacy is also about keeping Georgia competitive with other states.

“When we’re competitive, our students get educated, they go into the workforce,” he said. “When we’re not competitive with our teachers, we can’t retain teachers, we can’t pay teachers.”

The State Superintendent has said adding literacy coaches could increase reading proficiency rates by as much as 15 percent.

The bill also includes funding to provide books to families upon the birth of a child, encouraging literacy from infancy.

Some lawmakers argue that improving reading outcomes will also require updating Georgia’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) funding formula and increasing teacher pay. Supporters say higher salaries could help recruit and retain educators and potentially reduce class sizes to create stronger learning environments.

The measure is continuing to move through the legislative process. Backers say early intervention is key to reversing Georgia’s literacy ranking and setting students up for long-term academic success.

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (D-IN) endorsed Democrat Shawn Harris for the 14th Congressional District, according to the Athens Banner Herald.

“There’s no such thing as a permanently red state or district, and I believe Shawn Harris has the background and values to bring together and win,” the former secretary said in a statement Feb. 20.

Buttigieg and Harris share a military history, the former serving as a Navy intelligence officer in Afghanistan, and the latter as a retired Brigadier general.

“Shawn is running because he knows the status quo in Washington isn’t working for people in the district, and he’s ready to get to work to lower prescription drug prices, pass a farm bill that works for rural Georgia and defend Medicare and Medicaid,” Buttigieg said.

Harris called the endorsement “an honor,” and said former representatives for northwest Georgia haven’t been “putting their (constituents) needs first.”

During a conversation with Harris on Thursday, just before Trump arrived in Rome where Harris’ campaign is headquartered, he said during Greene’s time representing Georgia’s 14th, it was “very clear she did not represent everybody here in the district.”

“She only focused on MAGA. And because she only focused on MAGA, everybody else was left out. What I see actually happening as Trump starts transitioning out, he’s going to see that here today is the community coming closer together, and they want a candidate that’s going to represent everybody,” Harris said. “Yes, I’m a Democrat, but at the end of the day I’m a centrist, and I want to make sure … to serve the American people, or the people here in Northwest Georgia directly, and that’s it.”

United States Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Atlanta) spoke in Savannah, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Senator Jon Ossoff visited Savannah Friday afternoon as part of a campaign stop ahead of what is expected to be a heavily contested road to re-election.

During the 2026 election come November, Ossoff will face off against seven Republicans, three Independents and one Democrat.

Ossoff’s pit stop in Savannah follows President Donald Trump who completed a stop in Rome, Ga. as part of his tour to rally Georgians in the swing state.

In his opening remarks, Ossoff touched on the death of Dr. Linda Davis, a schoolteacher at Hesse Elementary School who was killed when struck by Oscar Vasquez-Lopez while fleeing Department of Homeland Security/Immigration and Customs Enforcement (DHS/ICE).

“I want to take a moment to grieve with you,” said Ossoff. “The community has been shaken after the death of Dr. Davis. Savannah-Chatham County Schools are grieving and the state is in sorrow.”

Ossoff then pivoted to healthcare and the lack of access to maternal care in the state.

“Georgia has lost nine rural hospitals in 15 years,” said Ossoff. “Maternal mortality is either the worst or near the worst in the United States. The wealthiest and most powerful nation sees women die in childbirth. Half of our counties have no OBGYN at all.”

But his biggest rallying cry was motivating crowdgoers to ensure they are relentless in their efforts to flip Georgia blue, calling out Trump’s immigration tactics and failed promises on lowering the cost of living for Americans.

“There is a portrait of the president draped outside the Department of Justice,” said Ossoff. “There are masked men and the killing of American citizens – their own government slandered them as terrorists. MAGA was sold as being about working class Americans, but you have to look at what people do. When you are slashing healthcare and nutrition programs to cut taxes for the wealthiest people, you don’t get to wear the mantle as a champion for the working class.”

From WSAV:

He said Georgia has lost nine hospitals in 15 years due to officials refusing to expand health care.

He went on to say the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among the richest countries in the world and Georgia has the highest in the country.

“They just cut Medicaid to lower taxes for the wealthiest people in the country,” said Ossoff. “Couldn’t we unite the people across Georgia to make sure every single county has a health clinic, to make sure every county has an ObGyn, to stop women preventively dying in childbirth in the wealthiest country in the world?”

State Rep. Rick Townsend (R-SSI) announced he will run for reelection, according to The Brunswick News.

“I’m going to continue working hard for Glynn County,” he said. “It’s pretty much in my DNA — serving. I enjoy it all.”

He continues to push to get kratom, a painkiller produced naturally from plants found in Southeast Asia, classified a Schedule I drug, which would make the substance containing any quantity of mitragynine or hydroxymitragynine (7-OH illegal to sell or possess in Georgia. His first attempt to outlaw the drug failed but placed restrictions on its sale.
“We’re always making a difference in saving lives in Georgia,” he said. “We are trying to do more this year.”
Townsend is especially proud of his education bills and in 2025 was recognized by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators as a Torchbearer for Education for his leadership on House Bill 235, the Georgia Supporting Living Donor Educators Act, as well as other education bills he sponsored.
“I’m really proud of efforts I made in education, Pre-k, literacy, technical education and workforce development,” said Townsend, a 30-year educator, a former coach and former president and CEO of the Golden Isles College and Career Academy.

Qualifying as a Republican or Democratic candidate begins March 2 and ends at noon March 6. Party primaries are May 19 and the general election Nov. 3.

The Gwinnett Daily Post has a Q&A with Georgia’s Secretary of State and one with former Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, who is running for the Democratic nomination for Governor.

Police blotter: former Troup County payroll manager Wesleigh Gaddy was sentenced to 18 months in prison and to pay restitution after being convicted of theft from the county government, according to WTVM.

“Gaddy stole more than half a million taxpayer dollars, misusing and abusing the personal information of dozens of former Troup County employees,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg. “We and our agency partners will hold accountable any public servant who manipulates his or her position for unlawful private benefit.”