On March 15, 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated at a meeting of the Senate.
On March 15, 40 BC, Octavian executed 300 Senators and knights in vengeance for Caesar’s death.
On May 13, 1607, English settlers founded the first permanent English settlement in America, at Jamestown on the James River. This led to the first English-language politics in America:
Dispatched from England by the London Company, the colonists had sailed across the Atlantic aboard the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. Upon landing at Jamestown, the first colonial council was held by seven settlers whose names had been chosen and placed in a sealed box by King James I. The council, which included Captain John Smith, an English adventurer, chose Edward Wingfield as its first president.
On March 13, 1736, the Spanish Governor of Florida complained to Georgia’s James Oglethorpe about English settlements and forts in areas claimed by Spain.
On March 15, 1758, Georgia’s Royal Governor Henry Ellis signed legislation dividing the colony into eight parishes, primarily for religious administration, but with some parishes having secondary government functions.
Lyman Hall arrived in Philadelphia as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress on May 13, 1775.
On May 13, 1798, a Constitutional Convention adopted the Georgia Constitution of 1798.
The Mexican War began on May 13, 1846.
Georgia Whigs, led by Governor George Crawford, Alexander Stephens, and Robert Toombs, criticized the war for raising divisive questions about slavery in the territories. Georgia Democrats, led by Howell Cobb and Herschel Johnson, staunchly supported the war and states’ rights afterward. Because Whigs, nationally, appeared to be antislavery, Georgia Whigs lost the governorship in 1847. The Compromise of 1850 temporarily settled the slavery question in the territories, but the moderating influence of Georgia’s Whigs dissolved in the heated rhetoric of states’ rights in the 1850s. The next war would find Americans fighting Americans.
The first fighting at Resaca, Georgia took place on May 13, 1864 and Union forces marched into Dalton.
On March 13, 1868, the first impeachment trial of a United States President began in the Senate. President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House for allegations based on his Reconstruction policies that allegedly violated federal law.
Sworn in as president after Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, President Johnson enacted a lenient Reconstruction policy for the defeated South, including almost total amnesty to ex-Confederates, a program of rapid restoration of U.S.-state status for the seceded states, and the approval of new, local Southern governments, which were able to legislate “black codes” that preserved the system of slavery in all but name. The Republican-dominated Congress greatly opposed Johnson’s Reconstruction program and passed the “Radical Reconstruction” by repeatedly overriding the president’s vetoes. Under the Radical Reconstruction, local Southern governments gave way to federal military rule, and African-American men in the South were granted the constitutional right to vote.
In March 1867, in order further to weaken Johnson’s authority, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act over his veto. The act prohibited the president from removing federal office holders, including Cabinet members, who had been confirmed by the Senate, without the consent of the Senate.
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879.
S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, was born on March 14, 1921.
On March 15, 1933, Governor Eugene Talmadge negotiated bank loans totalling $2 million dollars to keep the state’s public schools open.
On March 15, 1943, Sea Island was officially named as Governor Ellis Arnall signed legislation designating the island that had informally been given several different names.
Elvis Presley played the Fox Theater in Atlanta on March 14, 1956.
On March 13, 1957, Governor Marvin Griffin signed a joint resolution by the Georgia General Assembly purporting to impeach United State Chief Justice Earl Warren and associate justices Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, Thomas Clark, Felix Frankfurter, and Stanley Reed, and calling on Congress to impeach the Justices.
On March 13, 1992, 34 years ago, “My Cousin Vinny” was released.
On May 13, 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot at St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
The largest traffic accident in Georgia history occurred on March 14, 2001 on I-75 in Catoosa County, involving 125 cars, injuring 39 people and killing 5.
On May 13, 2005, the Pentagon Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) recommended the closing of Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Fort Gillem in Forest Park, the Naval Air Station in Marietta, and the Naval Supply Corps School in Athens.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
Save the Date: Vice President JD Vance will speak in Athens next month, according to WRDW.
Vice President JD Vance will visit the University of Georgia next month as part of a speaking tour.
The event is part of the Turning Point Tour and will be hosted by the university’s Turning Point USA chapter.
Turning Point USA is the organization founded by Charlie Kirk, the conservative commentator assassinated last year.
The event is scheduled for April 14 at 6:30 p.m.
According to a social media post from UGA’s Turning Point chapter, he’ll be joined by organization CEO Erika Kirk, widow of the late Charlie Kirk, who founded the conservative student political activist group in 2012.
“Each stop is a chance to honor Charlie’s mission and keep the fight alive. We know he wouldn’t want us to surrender or be coerced into silence. Free speech is only free if we use our voices,” reads the Turning Point website.
The planned visit comes just weeks before the election primaries May 19.
The upcoming tour will also feature Donald Trump Jr., White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, White House border czar Tom Homan and multiple conservative influencers. It is not clear if they will join Vance and Kirk at UGA.
Here’s what would be cool and I think in line with what Charlie Kirk used to do, but with an Athens twist: pre-game tailgating for people attending or protesting the Vance appearance. You’d probably have to have and enforce some level of civility, but
Under the Gold Dome
Monday, March 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 32
Tuesday, March 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . committee work day
Wednesday, March 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 33
Thursday, March 19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 34
Friday, March 20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . convene for legislative day 35
Governor Brian Kemp welcomed the announcement that Yamaha Motor Company will relocate their US headquartert to Kennesaw, according to a Press Release.<
Governor Brian P. Kemp today welcomed the announcement that Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. has officially decided to move its U.S. headquarters to Kennesaw, Georgia, opting to relocate out of California following roughly 50 years of operation there. This decision follows a meeting between the governor and Yamaha executives in October of last year at the Southeast U.S./Japan (SEUS-Japan) annual gathering in Tokyo. A manufacturer of ATVs, boat engines, personal watercraft, and other motorized products, Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. already has a strong presence in the Peach State, employing over 2,300 Georgians. The relocation of the Yamaha Motor Corp. U.S. headquarters will begin this year and is expected to continue through 2028.
“After many years of great partnership, we are honored and proud to welcome Yamaha’s American headquarters to the No. 1 state for business,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “This is another loud and clear testament to what we offer job creators from around the world. To any other California-based companies looking for a better home, we’ll give you plenty of reasons to keep Georgia on your mind.”
The Yamaha Motor Company currently employs thousands of people across various facilities in Georgia. The 1.3-million-square-foot Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation of America factory in Newnan opened in 1986 and currently employs roughly 2,000 Georgians. Yamaha relocated its marine division to Kennesaw in 1999, expanding the facility with a 75,000-square-foot Marine Innovation Center in 2023. In 2019, the company moved its motorsports operations to the state to benefit from close proximity to the existing facilities.
From the Savannah Morning News:
Here’s Kemp’s statement on X:
“You won’t see this in Newsom’s new book. Bad policies, high taxes, and endless red tape are driving people away from failing blue states like California. We’re doing what they won’t: cut taxes, create good-paying jobs, and make our state more affordable—not less.”
Kemp’s remarks referenced California Gov. Gavin Newsom and ongoing political debates about economic policies in different states.
[M]uch of Yamaha’s U.S. business has already shifted to Georgia over the years. The company’s Marine division moved to Kennesaw in 1999, followed by its Motorsports division in 2019. The relocation of remaining corporate functions will consolidate key operations in one state.
Senate Bill 424 by State Sen. Marty Harbin (R-Tyrone) passed the House and would allow the use of gold and silver currency and precious metal backed electronic payment systems, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.
Forget paper money. Georgia senators want to legalize using gold and silver for everyday purchases.
The Senate passed a bill last week that would set up a system for Georgians to buy gold, store it in a depository, and use a debit card to spend it on items such as fast food or milkshakes.
Senators are selling gold as a hedge against inflation of the U.S. dollar, but skeptics say gold doesn’t necessarily protect hard-earned cash from rising prices.
Sen. Marty Harbin, R-Tyrone, the sponsor of Senate Bill 424, said making gold legal tender will bring “financial freedom” to Georgians.
“It’s really true money, because paper money is currency that we have the faith of the government in it,” Harbin said. “This is hard currency that we can own.”
The bill passed on a bipartisan 29-21 vote Friday and now advances to the House.
Under the legislation, a politically appointed “Bullion Depository Commission” would contract with a private company, such as Brinks, to provide vault and electronic payment systems for gold and silver.
Critics say the idea doesn’t make financial sense.
For Georgians are trying to avoid inflation, investing in gold also comes with risks, said Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University with expertise in decentralized finance and investment management.
“Gold is as volatile as the stock market. There is no guarantee that it will provide a hedge for inflation in the short term,” Harvey said. “What if inflation surges and the price of gold goes down? This is not, in my opinion, the business that a state should engage in.”
Instead of buying gold directly, Georgians could instead purchase it through an exchange-traded fund, which has lower costs and security issues, Harvey said. Gold is near record-high values today, but he said buying at a high point is often an investing mistake.
The bill calls for the costs of gold storage to be paid in the form of storage fees charged to Georgia residents who choose to use it. Harbin said public money wouldn’t be used to run the depository.
Several other states recognize gold as legal tender, including Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Texas, and Utah.
Legislators also moved forward with another bill that would change transactions.
The price of products sold in-person in Georgia would be rounded down to the nearest five cents, according to House Bill 1112, which passed the House on Friday. The bill is a response to the Trump administration’s decision to stop making pennies.
That’s great. Now, I can use the $20 gold coin I inherited to pay for part of my next order from Wing Stop.
More on the proposal to legalize silencers sound suppressors, from the Capitol Beat News Service via the Tifton Gazette.
Georgia has some of the loosest gun laws in the nation, but a bill to remove the state’s restriction on silencers tested lawmakers’ limits.
The gun silencer bill fell four votes short in the House on Friday, a rare defeat for pro-gun proposals in Georgia.
Other bills that expand protections for gun owners advanced, including legislation strengthening Georgia’s “stand your ground” law and a measure banning cities from passing local gun storage laws.
Meanwhile, a proposal to provide Georgians a tax credit worth up to $300 for the purchase of gun safes stalled in the Senate this year. The latest version of House Bill 79 creates a tax holiday for the purchase of firearms and only allows the tax credit to pay for gun safety classes, not for gun safes.
“They’re very much ignoring the problem” of gun violence, said Heather Hallett, director for Georgia Majority for Gun Safety. “They haven’t adjusted to this reality where we know the majority of people support our principles. They can vote on gun safety.”
Georgia Majority for Gun Safety supports universal background checks for gun purchases, secure storage requirements, red flag laws that take guns from those whom a judge deems to be a threat, and funding for secure storage education.
Gun rights advocates said they’re disappointed the bill lifting Georgia’s limits on silencers fell short in the House. A similar bill passed the Senate.
State law bans possessing silencers unless Georgians pass a federal background check.
James Rankhorn, president of the gun rights group GA2A, said if the courts rule the federal requirement is illegal, silencers would then become prohibited for everyone in Georgia.
Rankhorn said lawmakers shouldn’t try to restrict firearms or silencers to address gun violence, including school shootings such as the killing of two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Barrow County in 2024.
“I don’t think there is an answer in state law. Anytime there’s a catastrophe, people bounce these proposals around,” Rankhorn said. “When you look at the situation and look at the law they proposed and compare it to the event that sparked the discussion, they law they proposed would not have stopped the incident.”
A jury found the Colin Gray, the father of the teenager accused of the Apalachee school shooting, guilty last week of second-degree murder and several other crimes.
Gray said he bought his son the rifle used in the shooting for Christmas, and witnesses in the trial said he allowed his son to keep the rifle in his bedroom. Prosecutors said Gray ignored years of warnings from mental health professionals, the kind of concerns that gun safety advocates say could have triggered a “red flag” law if Georgia had one.
Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, said in the House on Friday she resented that Georgia legislators were seriously considering a bill to loosen restrictions on gun silencers.
“A gunshot is loud by design, and that sound is not just a fun noise, right? It’s a critical warning sign that alerts people nearby that something is wrong. It prompts witnesses to call 911, it prompts bystanders to run away, it helps police to identify the location of a threat,” Au said of House Bill 1324. “I cannot believe how stupid it is that I need to make these points.”
Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, said silencers help hunters without disturbing animals as much, and they stifle noise that leads to hearing loss. He said Senate Bill 499 would safeguard the ability of law-abiding gun owners to continue using silencers.
“It makes sure that the 270,000 folks in Georgia who have a silencer will be able to keep that, regardless of what changes in federal law,” Ginn said.
Although SB 499 passed the Senate, its prospects are uncertain after the House rejected its own silencer legislation, with Democrats opposed and numerous Republicans skipping the vote.
Everytown for Gun Safety, a pro-gun control group, ranked Georgia as having the 44th-weakest gun safety laws in the United States.
In the wake of the Apalachee shooting, the General Assembly approved a bill last year that requires public school districts to identify and mitigate potential threats from students, implement panic alert systems, and create student behavioral health plans.
Senate Bill 220 by State Sen. Matt Brass (R-Newnan), the “Putting Georgia’s Patients First Act,” passed both chambers with different language, according to Georgia Recorder.
A bill aimed at modernizing Georgia’s medical cannabis program passed the Georgia House with broad bipartisan support, marking another step in lawmakers’ yearslong effort to incrementally increase patients’ access to the program.
Senate Bill 220, introduced by Newnan Republican Sen. Matt Brass, would expand the conditions eligible to receive a medical cannabis card, change the limits on the amount of cannabis that someone can possess and enable patients to vape the product. It passed the House in a 138-21 vote.
The changes made to the bill incorporate feedback from a House study committee that met last year to examine the issue, according to Rep. Mark Newton, an Augusta Republican who sponsored the bill in the House. In a speech shortly before Wednesday’s vote, he said updates to the program were needed to ensure that patients and providers can successfully navigate the program.
“For the patients that this program is designed to serve, it’s not always worked well enough,” Newton said. “This bill is an effort to make sure that for the patients, this program works better.”
Tetrahydrocannabinol, generally abbreviated to “THC,” is the psychoactive compound in marijuana that is currently classified as a Schedule I drug at the federal level, though the Trump administration is looking to loosen federal restrictions on marijuana to gain a better understanding of its potential medical benefits. Some studies have shown that THC’s non-psychoactive counterpart cannabidiol, also known as CBD and derived from the hemp plant, may be effective in treating health conditions like epilepsy, chronic pain and anxiety.
Both compounds fall under the umbrella of medical cannabis, according to the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, which administers the state’s program.
Georgia law currently mandates that medical cannabis products must not contain more than 5% THC. The version of the bill that passed the Senate would have raised that cap to 50%, but House lawmakers ultimately decided to switch from a percentage cap to a 12,000 milligram limit, which Newton said is aimed at ensuring Georgia’s regulations better reflect doctors’ prescribing practices.
“There are other delivery methods, other ways of delivering this medical cannabis, that are more aligned with the way we practice medicine in every other field,” Newton, who is an emergency medicine doctor, said.
The bill also adds a provision allowing patients over the age of 21 to vape medical cannabis, which was not previously allowed under Georgia law. Advocates had argued that patients with seizures and other conditions needed greater access to inhalable forms of medical cannabis, which can offer relief faster than alternate forms of the drug.
“The oral forms were taking one to two hours, sometimes four hours, to have an effect,” Newton said. “Some people’s conditions, we heard from patients, need some relief more rapidly than that, and so the inhalation version takes care of that.”
Smoking and public consumption of cannabis will still be outlawed under the bill, he added, as will products like candy and edibles. The bill also expands the list of qualifying health conditions, adding Lupus, severe arthritis and severe insomnia, and removing the requirement that certain diagnoses like cancer or Parkinson’s disease be “severe or end stage.”
Rep. Alan Powell, a Hartwell Republican, also applauded the bill in a speech on the House floor.
“This is a natural product,” he said. “I have said this from this well before, and I continue to tell you that something that God lets grow naturally is better than anything made in a pharmaceutical laboratory.”
Newton said he hopes to see more medical research on cannabis develop in the coming years if marijuana becomes a Schedule III drug at the federal level. Though no lawmakers spoke against the bill on the floor, some voiced concerns about the lack of current medical evidence to support expanding the program.
“I’m for it, I just think that we need to do a little more (research) about it,” said Rep. Jason Ridley, a Chatsworth Republican who voted against the bill. “I’d just like to see a little more parameters put around that exactly what we’re dealing with.”
Bills related to medical cannabis and hemp beverages became a focal point during the 2025 session, which also marked the 10-year anniversary of Haleigh’s Hope Act. The law created the licensing commission, legalized possession of low-THC oil for the first time in Georgia and created a new research program dedicated to studying the drug’s impact.
Subsequent legislation enabled companies to produce and sell the oil in-state, but advocates have argued that Georgia’s current laws do not go far enough to help patients access medical cannabis in the forms that they need.
The bill now heads back to the Senate for another vote. The session is set to end April 2.
Some state legislatures are addressing rules for round-up or -down on penniless transactions, according to the Associated Press via WTVM.
Months after the last of the United States’ 1-cent coins were pressed, some states are beginning to offer their own 2 cents on the penny problem by setting rounding guidance for cash purchases.
President Donald Trump announced early last year an end to penny production, saying it was wasteful. It cost 3.7 cents to make each 1-cent coin in 2024, according to the U.S. Mint. The move led to a shortage of pennies in cash registers last summer, forcing consumers and businesses to confront a penniless future in which making exact change would be difficult.
The Treasury Department has said it will continue circulating the roughly 114 billion pennies that exist for “as long as possible.” Pennies must still be accepted as payment.
One solution to the penny problem is rounding to the nearest nickel, using a practice called symmetrical rounding. If the final price, after taxes, ends in one, two, six or seven cents, payment in cash rounds down. For example, $1.91 or $1.92 becomes $1.90. If the price ends in three, four, eight or nine, cash payment rounds up. For $1.98 or $1.99, the consumer pays $2.
A bill introduced last year in Congress and passed out of the House financial services committee would apply symmetrical rounding across the country. U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., said in an email the federal law is important to prevent a “confusing patchwork of state policies.”
The bill hasn’t been voted on in the House and would still need to move through the U.S. Senate before reaching Trump’s desk.
In the meantime, bills to deal with penniless cash transactions have passed both chambers and await the governor’s signature in Arizona, Florida, Oregon, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington. Some states are proposing to allow businesses to round cash purchases, while others consider requiring it.
In Indiana, a bill signed into law this month by Republican Gov. Mike Braun tells businesses they must round cash purchases for all transactions that do not end in a zero or five. Lawmakers revised that provision in a second bill that makes rounding optional, which would take effect Sunday if Braun signs it into law.
In both bills, Indiana businesses can choose to always round cash purchases up to the nearest nickel, always round down or round up or down depending on the amount.
In Republican-led Tennessee, legislation makes symmetrical rounding exempt from legal claims under a state consumer protection law but does not require rounding.
“It is to provide safe harbor for private businesses,” said Republican Rep. Charlie Baum, the bill sponsor in Tennessee, during floor debate.
Rounding bills have been introduced in about two dozen states since late last year, according to an Associated Press analysis using the bill-tracking service Plural.
Outside of lawmaking bodies, some state agencies have published guidelines to advise that rounding should happen after tax, and that businesses must make sure the full taxed amount still goes to the state.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins visited the Georgia Capitol to announce additional federal funding for Hurricane Helene recovery, according to WABE and The Grist via the Tifton Gazette.
Georgia farmers can soon apply for more than $500 million in federal funding to help recover from Hurricane Helene. Applications open next week.
“When you think of pecans, poultry, timber – we’re the number one producer in those commodity areas,” said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper. “They are a significantly important part of our agricultural industry.”
Other disaster relief funding also doesn’t pay for some critical infrastructure projects, like replacing irrigation systems that got torn up as the storm uprooted trees.
US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins visited the state Capitol Tuesday to announce the funding and discuss other agriculture issues.
“President Trump understands that farmers were so negatively impacted, and of course we have to continue to stand by them,” she told the state House of Representatives. “The only fault now would be us not doing our part to help Georgia’s great agricultural and forestry communities.”
Rollins addressed the delay in her appearance at the state Capitol, stressing that much of the funding went out within six months but that the block grants were “more complicated because you have to work state by state by state.”
USDA funded a similar program to help Georgia farmers recover after Hurricane Michael hit Southwest Georgia hard in 2018.
The Georgia General Assembly will see a lot of new faces after this year’s elections, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.
With legislators running for higher office, longtime lawmakers retiring, and many challenges to incumbents, the Georgia General Assembly is set for high turnover after this year’s elections.
Control of the state House and Senate is at stake as Republicans are defending the majorities they’ve held in both chambers for over 20 years.
Eighteen senators and representatives signed up to run for higher offices before candidate qualifying ended last week, leaving behind districts where they would have been incumbents seeking reelection. In the contest for lieutenant governor alone, five senators are competing against each other.
And many new challengers entered the fray. A total of 537 candidates are running for 236 seats in the General Assembly.
To take control of the House, Democrats need to flip 10 seats. Republicans currently hold a 99-77 advantage, with four Democratic-leaning seats vacant. Democrats have already secured two of those seats because no Republicans are running.
“The wave is building, and Georgia can feel it,” said House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus. “We are within striking distance of the majority, and this qualifying period has made one thing absolutely clear: House Democrats are not just competing — we are coming to win.”
Republicans hold firmer control of the Senate, where they have a 32-23 advantage, with one GOP-leaning seat vacant.
Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon said Georgia remains a center-right state, but no election can be taken for granted.
“Republicans have been great stewards of the public trust. When you look at the Republican record, it’s really striking how they’ve made Georgia such an engine of economic growth,” McKoon said. “Voters will continue to reward Republicans for that record.”
Despite the flood of candidates, some incumbents lack any challengers, especially in deeply conservative or liberal districts.
There are 54 seats where only one candidate filed to run for election, effectively winning their races before a vote is cast.
Besides candidates running for higher office, retirements and resignations also created openings.
The nine retiring legislators include House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, R-Milton; House Natural Resources Chair Lynn Smith, R-Newnan; Sen. Ed Harbison, D-Columbus; and Sen. Elena Parent, D-Decatur.
Three Democrats left the House after facing federal charges for COVID-19 unemployment fraud. Reps. Karen Bennett, D-Stone Mountain, and Dexter Sharper, D-Valdosta, resigned from office. Rep. Sharon Henderson, D-Covington, was suspended from the House by Gov. Brian Kemp, and she’s running for state Senate.
Speaking of former State Rep. Dexter Sharper, he pled guilty to pandemic fraud charges, according to the Georgia Recorder via the Valdosta Daily Times.
Former state Rep. Dexter Sharper, a Valdosta Democrat, pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in court Wednesday as part of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into pandemic-related fraud.
Prosecutors said Sharper, 54, fraudulently collected nearly $14,000 in unemployment benefits through a program aimed at helping those who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, though he was earning income from at least two jobs during that time. His income included at least $325 every week from the Georgia General Assembly as a state representative.
He faced one felony charge of making false statements in connection with the benefits, and could be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined up to $250,000. Assistant U.S. Attorney Garrett Bradford said his office is recommending that Sharper pay roughly $10,100 in restitution.
Sharper, a seven-term lawmaker who was first elected in 2012, resigned from his seat in the state House Monday. In an interview at the federal courthouse, he said that the community had been supportive of him throughout the process. “I love them, and they love me,” he said.
Two other Democrats, Rep. Karen Bennett of Stone Mountain and Rep. Sharon Henderson of Covington, were both accused of defrauding the same program earlier this year.
Bennett resigned days before authorities charged her in early January and has since pleaded guilty to making false statements to obtain the aid. Bennett’s sentencing is set for next month.
Henderson was suspended from office for the remainder of her term, though she later qualified to run for state Senate this year.
In an interview with WABE, U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said he expects to see more government officials indicted for similar charges.
“People in all occupations, at every level — and that includes government employees at the state level, at the local level, at the county level, at the federal level — took advantage of these programs, and so in the coming months, we’re going to see other public officials charged,” he said. “They may not be state reps, but they will be folks who were given public trust and either abused that trust or, not withstanding the fact that they had been given the public trust, sought to enrich themselves at the expense of the public.”
Sharper’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. on July 21. A special election to fill his House seat has not yet been set, though five Democrats have qualified to run for the seat later this year.
More on the results on Monday’s election in the 14th Congressional District and Dalton City Council Ward 2, from the Dalton Daily Citizen.
A total of 3,628 ballots were cast in the Ward 2 race, representing about 21.9% turnout among registered voters.
In Whitfield County’s portion of the congressional race, Democrat Shawn Harris led with 4,840 votes, followed by Republican Clay Fuller with 4,212, while Colton Moore received 1,622 votes and Nicky Lama 823. In the Dalton Ward 2 race, Julie Locke led with 1,808 votes, ahead of Rojelio “Roy” Alvarran with 1,096 and Zeucis “Z” Martinez with 527, with results listed as unofficial and incomplete by election officials.
More on the upcoming Runoff Election in House District 130, from the Augusta Chronicle.
A former Augusta state legislator and a leader of a local religious community appear headed for an April 7 runoff to fill a vacant seat in the Georgia legislature.
Democrat Sheila Clark Nelson and Republican Thomas D. McAdams won the top two vote totals Tuesday evening in a special election to replace Democratic state Rep. Lynn Heffner in Georgia House District 130, according to figures posted by the Richmond County Board of Elections.
Heffner resigned in early January after publicly disclosing that a change of address moved her outside her eastern Richmond County district, making her ineligible to serve.
Nelson, a retired postal employee, represented House District 125 for the Augusta area from 2017 to 2023, when it was redrawn as District 130 and won by Heffner.
McAdams is the chief administrative officer for the nonprofit Alleluia Christian Service Center, an ecumenical Christian community in Augusta.
AccessWDUN previews the three-candidate Republican Primary and two-candidate Democratic Primary for the open Tenth Congressional District seat.
Five Democratic candidates for Governor participated in a public forum in Columbus, according to WTVM.
The “Saving Our Democracy” forum gave Muscogee County voters an opportunity to hear from candidates in person. Those in attendance included former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms, former state Sen. Jason Esteves, state Rep. Derrick Jackson, former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond and Olu Brown.
“The reason why I’m doing this forum is to give people in Muscogee County an opportunity to get to know who they’re voting for and what their platforms are,” an organizer said.
Democratic candidates Amanda Duffy and former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan did not attend. Duncan switched political parties from Republican to Democrat last August.
Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Derek Dooley announced his “Georgia First Contract,” according to the AJC.
His contract lays out several commitments he says would guide his time in office:
• A two-term limit. Dooley pledges to serve no more than two terms and says he’ll push for a congressional vote on term limits.
• No stock trading. He says he would not trade individual stocks or digital assets while in office and would back a ban on lawmakers, spouses and senior staff doing so. It echoes a similar Ossoff pledge.
• No pay during shutdowns. He says he would refuse a paycheck during a government shutdown and would support halting congressional pay when budgets aren’t passed on time.
• Regular town halls. Dooley pledges to hold at least 10 town halls across Georgia during his first Senate term, if elected.
• A “Georgia first” voting pledge. He says decisions would be guided by what benefits the state rather than “political careers or media attention.”
A United Way analysis says more than 50% of workers in Augusta-Richmond County can’t afford basic necessities on their current pay level, according to WRDW.
More than half of all full-time workers in Augusta-Richmond County do not earn enough to cover basic living expenses, according to new research by the United Way.
The findings are part of the United Way’s ALICE report — an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.
Nationally, the organization says at least 42% of U.S. households are struggling to make ends meet.
In Augusta-Richmond County, that share exceeds half the local workforce.
Health care, retail, manufacturing and food service workers are among the most affected in the area.
According to the data, more than 5,000 health care workers in the region earn $12 an hour.
The United Way’s research indicates a worker needs to earn at least $24 an hour — twice that amount — to cover basic necessities in Augusta. Those basics include housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and technology.
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