This photo was taken June 19, 2016 in Darien, Georgia, as Stephanie and I spent a week touring Georgia’s barrier islands.
Three months later, on September 23, 2016, at the Cleveland Clinic, she was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
By April 2017 her disability prevented her from working any more and by Christmas, she was bed-bound. Our last trip out as a couple was to the Christmas service at our church.
By the end of March of 2018, she was at Hospice Atlanta, paralyzed from the neck down and 100% non-verbal. She died on April 2, 2018, one month from tomorrow. On Monday, we would have celebrated 23 years of marriage.
I didn’t talk about her illness much except for our closest friends and family, because she valued her privacy and I respected her wishes. But May is ALS Awareness month, and I want you to know a little bit about the disease.
There is no treatment and no cure and ALS is always fatal. It took her life, but it never took her mind, her spirit, or her infectious laugh.
May is ALS Awareness month. I’ll probably mention it a couple times more this month. May 3d is National Widow’s Day.
On May 1, 1707, the Act of Union with England, passed by the Scottish Parliament brought together England and Scotland and made the Union Jack the official flag of Great Britain.
The Second Confederate National Flag was adopted on May 1, 1863.
General Nathan Bedford Forrest led troops who captured raiders near Rome, Georgia who were intent on disrupting the Western & Atlantic Railroad on May 3, 1863.
General William Tecumseh Sherman began the Atlanta Campaign on May 3, 1864 with troops marching from Tennessee toward Catoosa Springs, Georgia.
On May 1, 1886, Jefferson Davis visited the Benjamin Hill monument at Peachtree and West Peachtree Streets in Atlanta, having arrived the previous day. On May 2, 1886, Jefferson Davis left Atlanta, headed to Savannah.
Savannah officials had successfully solicited Davis to attend a variety of special ceremonies and events being planned in Savannah. On the way, the train stopped briefly in Forsyth and Macon, where the ex-Confederate president was greeted by crowds and spoke briefly from the back of his train. Although he didn’t leave the train, Davis would return to Macon the following year for a more formal visit.
On May 2, 1886, Jefferson Davis left Atlanta, headed to Savannah.
Savannah officials had successfully solicited Davis to attend a variety of special ceremonies and events being planned in Savannah. On the way, the train stopped briefly in Forsyth and Macon, where the ex-Confederate president was greeted by crowds and spoke briefly from the back of his train. Although he didn’t leave the train, Davis would return to Macon the following year for a more formal visit.
Margaret Mitchell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Gone With the Wind on May 3, 1937.
On May 2, 1939, Lou Gehrig benched himself as the Yankees took the field against the Detroit Tigers, ending his streak of 2,130 consecutive games. Gehrig died on June 2, 1941 of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also called “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”
On May 1, 1971, “Joy to the World,” by Three Dog Night was the #1 song in the nation.
Kennesaw, Georgia City Council adopted an ordinance on May 1, 1982 requiring each household to own a gun and ammunition.
(a) In order to provide for the emergency management of the city, and further in order to provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, every head of household residing in the city limits is required to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition therefore.
(b) Exempt from the effect of this section are those heads of households who suffer a physical or mental disability which would prohibit them from using such a firearm. Further exempt from the effect of this section are those heads of households who are paupers or who conscientiously oppose maintaining firearms as a result of beliefs or religious doctrine, or persons convicted of a felony.
The Weather Channel began broadcasting from Cobb County, Georgia on May 2, 1982.
On May 1, 1991, Rickey Henderson broke the major league baseball stolen base record on the same day that Nolan Ryan, the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball, recorded his seventh no-hitter.
The official state tartan of Georgia was designated on May 1, 1997.
United States forces killed Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
To date, 153,745 ballots have been cast in early voting ahead of the May 19, 2026 Primary Election, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
From the Savannah Morning News:
The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office is rolling out a new election data tracking tool as voters head to the polls.
Early voting in the midterm primaries started Monday in the Peach State and will continue until May 15 before election day on May 19.
Gubernatorial candidates hit the debate stage on the first day of early voting, and data from the Secretary of State’s Office shows voter turnout that day hit a record for the state.
In the new Election Data Hub, which reports unofficial turnout numbers, anyone in the state can see how many votes have been cast so far, what percentage of the total active voters have voted, what parties they have registered, voting turn out in specific counties and more.
According to the data, 115,365 early voting ballots have been cast for the midterm primary across the state. This is some of the highest turnout the state has seen in the early days of voting.
There are a total of 7,359,275 registered voters in the state, meaning just 1.6% have voted early as of Wednesday night.
You can also break that down on smaller levels.
In Fulton County, for example, about 12,000 people have early voted in the first three days among the roughly 740,000 eligible voters in the county. About 6,100 of them have been Black voters, 4,600 have been White voters and 1,200 voters did not specify.
On the turnout map, counties with darker colors had higher voter turnout in the first three days of early voting.
Although Georgia does not register voters by political party, the secretary of state’s office rolled out a new tool this week that keeps track of how many people have voted in each political party’s primary. (Voters can only vote in one.)
Here’s the tally as of last night:
Democratic ballots: 60,414
Republican ballots: 49,184
Nonpartisan ballots: 1,760
Former President Joe Biden (D-DE) endorsed Keisha Lance Bottoms for Governor, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Former President Joe Biden has endorsed Former Atlanta Mayor and Democratic Candidate for Governor, Keisha Lance Bottoms in a new video to voters Friday morning, his first endorsement in this cycle. The Georgia primary election is just 18 days away.
After completing her term as mayor, Bottoms served in the Biden Administration as senior advisor to the president and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. She also served as a member of the President’s Export Council.
“As mayor of Atlanta, Keisha faced every challenge a leader could face and then some,” Biden said. “Smart. Focused. Gets things done. Georgia, she’s ready. She’s been ready.”
Former Governor Nathan Deal (R-Demorest) endorsed Chris Carr for Governor, according to the AJC.
Deal endorsed Carr’s campaign for governor at a stop in Gainesville, giving Carr the backing of the Republican who helped launch him into statewide politics.
“Chris Carr is competent, he is capable of being a very good governor and, most importantly of all, he’s a good man. A good person,” Deal said. “Good people make good decisions.”
Whether Deal’s endorsement can move the needle is another question. Carr was the first major Republican to enter the race, launching his campaign in November 2024. But he’s struggled to gain traction in a field dominated by the slugfest between Jackson and Jones.
Some Georgia Republicans want to take another crack at redistricting after the Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais, according to the Savannah Morning News.
Following a landmark decision in the Supreme Court Wednesday, lawmakers across the country are scrambling to decide whether their state can redraw congressional lines before the midterms.
The decision in the case of Louisiana v. Callais weakens the 1965 Voting Rights Act that prevented racial gerrymandering, saying now redistricting done by party lines does not violate the protections of the act.
Georgia’s early voting in the midterm primaries has already begun (and with record turnout), but that hasn’t stopped high-profile Republicans from making a plea to change congressional districts in the state before November.
“The Louisiana decision, in many ways, clarified the short to medium term future of the Voting Rights Act and how the Voting Rights Act will shape redistricting,” Bernard Fraga, a political scientist, author and professor at Emory University in Atlanta told USA TODAY in an interview.
“Essentially, the justices seem to indicate that claims made about racial discrimination that are the result of districting that have a discriminatory effect are not going to be under as much scrutiny as they were before, so it will be more challenging for plaintiffs representing minority groups to demonstrate that there was harm caused,” Fraga said.
Georgia Republican Lieutenant Governor, Burt Jones, issued a statement of support shortly after the Supreme Court decision. Jones is running for governor in a heated primary race with Rick Jackson, a healthcare CEO who Jones is tied with in the polls.
“I commend the Supreme Court for its decision in the Louisiana redistricting case,” Jones wrote. “I agree that in a society built on the equal protection of law, no state should be directed to draw legislative maps on the basis of race. Given that Georgia was ordered to do so in its last round of redistricting, I fully support redrawing our state’s legislative maps in compliance with today’s decision.”
Jackson supported the sentiment, while taking a jab at his opponent.
“The legislature already needed a special session because Burt Jones put future Georgia elections at risk and failed to make our elections more secure. In light of today’s Supreme Court ruling, redrawing the maps must be added to the agenda,” Jackson wrote in an April 29 post on X. “Democrats nationally are trying to redistrict their way back to power, and what happened in Virginia is just the tip of the spear. There is no time to waste.”
Fraga said Republican lawmakers in Georgia may be hoping to take two of the five seats currently held by Democrats and change them to Republican districts.
“This is where it gets complicated with the ruling, and where it really exposes some of the contradictions in the last 20 years or so of Supreme Court decisions regarding the Voting Rights Act. It’s entirely possible that the districts that will be targeted to be reconfigured will essentially break apart majority black districts and districts that have long been used as a method of ensuring not proportional, but just meaningful representation for Black Georgians,” Fraga said.
Gov. Brian Kemp made clear Friday he won’t cancel Georgia’s May 19 primary or rush to impose new political maps on this year’s elections after the U.S. Supreme Court weakened a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act.
But Kemp also signaled he could still call lawmakers back to Atlanta to redraw Georgia’s congressional and legislative boundaries. The difference: Any new maps would be aimed at the 2028 elections, not the 2026 midterms already underway.
The governor told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais “restores fairness to our redistricting process and allows states to pass electoral maps that reflect the will of the voters, not the will of federal judges.”
“Voting is already underway for the 2026 elections,” Kemp said. “But it’s clear that Callais requires Georgia to adopt new electoral maps before the 2028 election cycle.”
“Make no mistake,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock said, “this ruling harkens back to the darkest days of the Jim Crow era.”
Lawmakers from both parties still expect Kemp to summon them back before his term ends in January for a simple reason: Conservatives want to lock in new maps while they still have a Republican governor to sign them. With every statewide office on the ballot this year, they know there is no guarantee the next governor will bless a GOP-drawn map.
From Atlanta News First via WTOC:
“Today, the United States Supreme Court delivered a historic and long-overdue victory for equal protection under the law by striking down key provisions of the Voting Rights Act that have long imposed artificial racial quotas and distorted our electoral maps,” said Georgia GOP chair Josh McKoon. “The Georgia Republican Party calls on the General Assembly to convene a special redistricting session as soon as practicable to redraw Georgia’s congressional, state house, and state senate districts.”
Meanwhile, former metro Atlanta state senator Jason Esteves — who is battling former, one-term Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and a score of other Democrats in their gubernatorial primary — said, “the fight for fair maps and equal representation in Georgia begins in this governor’s race, where it is essential that we elect a strong Democrat who will serve for two terms to oversee redistricting.
“The Supreme Court just advanced Donald Trump’s mission to gut voting rights and target Black voters across the country,” Esteves said. “Georgia Republicans are plotting to rig the system, with Rick Jackson already calling for a special session to continue gerrymandering our state.”
“This latest ruling is a devastating setback, taking a sledgehammer to the very protections that generations of civil rights leaders fought and bled to secure. It weakens our ability to challenge voting maps that are racially discriminatory — maps designed to dilute and diminish the voices of Black and Latino communities,“ [Democrat Keisha Lance] Bottoms said. “It’s already clear that Republican leaders in Georgia will use this devastating ruling as an excuse for further attacks on voting rights.”
Civil rights advocates warn the decision could make it harder to protect minority voting power, while some Republicans argue mapmaking should no longer be driven by race.
Ambassador and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, a civil rights leader who participated in the Selma movement and later helped draft the Voting Rights Act, said the moment should push supporters to organize rather than retreat.
“I don’t see this as a setback. I see this as a demand for us to step up,” Young said.
Young said the ruling changes the playing field, but he urged voters to respond strategically.
“They set the rules. We’ve got to play by those rules, and we can win,” he said.
In Georgia, state Sen. Greg Dolezal has publicly suggested the ruling is a signal to revisit maps, saying lawmakers should not be required to treat voters as a single racial bloc.
“It treated everyone as a race as a monolith, and we just know that’s not true,” Dolezal said.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones said the timing is concerning heading into November, arguing the decision could open the door to reshaping districts in ways that dilute Black voting power.
“It’s not based on just politics. A lot of these areas, are majority-minority areas,” said Jones.
Democrats are already framing the threat in stark terms. House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley warned of a GOP effort to “lock in one-party control.” Attorney General candidate Bob Trammell is using the moment to call for a new voting rights division in the state government. Others are trying to turn the ruling into a rallying cry for November.
State Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II said Democrats now have even more reason to flip the Governor’s Mansion this year.
“That’s how we stop the GOP from locking themselves in power for generations against our will,” he said.
U.S. Senate candidate Derek Dooley (R) joins Governor Brian Kemp on a South Georgia campaign swing, according to WALB.
WORTH COUNTY, Ga. (WALB) – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Derek Dooley is on the road across South Georgia with Governor Brian Kemp for a two-day, 13-county tour.
Gov. Kemp, who has endorsed Dooley, said they will show Dooley as the strongest Republican to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in the November general election.
At a meet-and-greet event in Worth County on Thursday, April 30, Dooley drew contrasts with the incumbent, pointing to Ossoff’s voting record under the Biden administration.
“A lot of Georgians don’t realize under the last administration he voted 98% for Joe Biden,” Dooley said. “And that includes things and a lot of the issues that we’re still dealing with. This 40-year high inflation he voted three times for. The open borders policy he supported. A lot of the woke stuff on our kids and the men and women’s sports.”
Governor Kemp said his endorsement comes down to winning and representing Georgia values. Kemp, whose term as governor ends this year, said Democrats failed to act on key issues.
“A lot of the things that Senator Ossoff complains about all the time — when Democrats had complete control of everything, the White House, the U.S. Senate and the Congress — my question is why didn’t you fix some of those problems? And now they’re blaming everything on everybody else.”
Dooley has outlined a set of pledges he’s calling his “Georgia First” Contract — a list of commitments he says will hold him accountable if elected:
Dooley has outlined a set of pledges he’s calling his “Georgia First” Contract — a list of commitments he says will hold him accountable if elected:
• Term Limits: Dooley pledges to serve no more than two terms in the U.S. Senate and says he will fight to force a vote on congressional term limits for all elected officials.
• No Stock or Crypto Trading: He will not trade individual stocks or digital assets while in office and will push to ban those trades for all members of Congress, their spouses, and senior staff.
• No Pay During Shutdowns: Dooley says he will not accept a taxpayer-funded paycheck during a government shutdown and will work to reform the system that allows Congress to get paid even when it fails to pass a budget.
• Accountability to All Georgians: He pledges to hold at least ten town halls across the state during his first term — including with constituents who didn’t vote for him.
Dooley is not the only Republican vying for the seat. He faces four other Republican candidates: U.S. Representatives Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, John Coyne and Jonathan McColumn.
Notably, Dooley has secured Gov. Kemp’s endorsement but has not received President Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Georgia State School Superintendent Richard Woods (R) faces GOP challengers, according to Georgia Recorder.
Fred “Bubba” Longgrear has big goals for Georgia’s public schools.
Longgrear is president of the Georgia School Superintendents Association, and he’s running as a Republican for state school superintendent.
In a phone interview, Longgrear said his top priorities include helping local districts deal with student discipline, boosting elementary school literacy rates and increasing the emphasis on career and technical school opportunities for graduating high schoolers in addition to promoting college attendance.
He said he’s the best candidate in the five-person race in part because of his 30-year education background and ability to work with others.
“I think the biggest thing is accessibility, relationships and being willing to listen to stakeholders, be it superintendents, teachers, students or families and find out what the biggest challenges are and let’s all pull in the same direction to accomplish the goals,” he said.
Early voting is already underway ahead of Election Day on May 19, and Longgrear has the endorsement of big Republican names in the world of Georgia education policy.
His list of endorsees includes House Speaker Jon Burns, Senate Majority Leader Jason Anavitarte, Senate Education Chairman Sen. Billy Hickman, House Education Chair Rep. Chris Erwin and Senate Higher Education Chairman Sen. Max Burns.
“Georgia deserves a State Superintendent who shows up to advocate for education and delivers on promises,” Burns said in a statement.
Longgrear said he was grateful for the endorsements, which he chalks up to putting in facetime at the Capitol to advocate for local districts.
“Things get done through strong relationships,” he said. “And I feel like as a constitutional officer, you need to make yourself available to all leaders throughout the state to advocate for and ensure that we’re doing everything we can in public education to provide the best service to our families and students.”
High-ranking legislators endorsing a candidate from their own party would not be unusual except for the fact that the Republican incumbent, State Superintendent Richard Woods, is also in the race.
Woods has been Georgia’s superintendent since 2015, following three decades working in public education. On the campaign trail, he has touted his record, including eliminating the Common Core standards from school curricula, boosting school safety budgets and increasing graduation rates.
In response to an interview request, Woods’ campaign sent the following statement attributed to an unnamed spokesperson:
“Richard is focused on meeting with and earning the votes of Georgians. In the last two elections, Richard was honored to receive more votes than any other statewide official, which is a testament to his track record and the faith that voters have in his experience and vision for our state. On Primary election night, results will show who Georgians endorse to keep education, moving forward in our state — that endorsement is the one that matters the most.”
It’s not just lawmakers seemingly ready for a change.
Even an influential evangelical conservative political group, Frontline Policy Action, sent out a note to supporters saying it would support nearly any other Republican candidate other than Woods.
“I firmly believe that the Superintendent is a good man and an ally… whose understanding of the times we live in has passed,” Cole Muzio, president of the group, wrote, citing parental rights, what he characterized as obscene materials in school libraries and low literacy rates.
In a phone interview, candidate Randall Trammell, founder of the Georgia Center for Civic Engagement, an education nonprofit, said he’s worked in education for more than 20 years and has three children in public elementary schools. He said he was inspired to run in large part as a reaction to Georgia’s low elementary literacy scores.
Trammell offered praise for Georgia’s new literacy overhaul bill, saying he hopes it will be as effective as a recent childhood literacy push in Mississippi, but he said it shouldn’t have been lawmakers’ responsibility.
“I’m glad that the Legislature did that, but they only did that because there was no leadership from the Department of Education,” he said. “The difference between Mississippi and Georgia is their state school superintendent was leading the charge. In Georgia, we just got a bunch of crickets when it came to that.”
Trammel said his top priorities if elected will include improving literacy levels, prioritizing graduates’ readiness for college and careers, and incentivizing teacher retention, including by expanding the pay scale so that teachers can continue to receive raises past 21 years of service.
Former state Rep. Mesha Mainor served as a Democrat but switched parties after intense disagreements over school vouchers. She then lost her bid for reelection running in a deep blue Atlanta House district.
In a phone call, Mainor said her priorities if elected will include emphasizing fiscal accountability, student success and safety.
Mainor said she was proud to receive the endorsement of the Georgia Republican Assembly, a conservative group whose goal is to move the official Georgia Republican Party further right. But she also said she’s the Republican candidate who is best positioned to draw Democratic support in November, which could make the difference in a tight race.
“I had a lady yesterday come up to me and give me a donation,” Mainor said. “She said she’s a Democrat, she’s not going to pull a Republican ticket, but she hopes that I win the primary, because even though she’s a Democrat, she wants to vote for me in November.”
Business owner Nelva Lee will also appear on Republican ballots on May 19.
The winner of the GOP primary will go on to face the Democratic nominee in November.
Hancock County School Superintendent Anton Anthony, educator Lydia Powell and past president of the National PTA Otha Thornton are competing to be the Democratic nominee.
Six Democrats are seeking their party’s nomination in the Thirteenth Congressional District, according to WABE.
The six candidates highlighted their priorities during an Atlanta Press Club debate on April 27, expressing views on healthcare, public safety, and affordability.
Among the candidates is Everton Blair Jr., a former Gwinnett County School Board chairman who says that he wants to address housing affordability among young adults if elected.
The group’s stance on expanding healthcare was unified, with candidate Dr. Heavenly Kimes focusing on access to services.
“As a health care provider, the things that I would do to actually prevent the gaps are, of course, make sure that we have Medicaid for all. But we also have telemedicine,” Kimes said. “I think that we should actually make sure that we have hospitals close enough that we can, we don’t have to drive hours.”
During the debate, Rev. Jeff Fauntleroy Sr. took a chance to emphasize mental health resources in the district.
“We can’t look at mental health as something that’s bad. We can wait until something happens to address the problem,” Fauntleroy Sr. said. “ We have stigmatized it too much, and we have to make sure that it’s part of preventive care, because it is.”
On the topic of public safety, Dr. Joe Lester made it clear that he’d focus on the circumstances around shootings and gun violence.
“Gun violence is out of hand. All we do in Atlanta and all over the country is shoot, shoot, shoot,” he said. “I think the federal government has a role in making sure that we fund policies and folks. But for the most part, a lot of gun violence is tied directly to poverty. And you can’t really, really, really just police your way out of poverty. We need more jobs.”
In addition, State Sen. Emanuel Jones said he’d support research on the matter.
“The federal government does play a role because the federal government can provide resources so that we can do just as Texas has done, which has a smaller percentage of gun violence in our state by creating a study committee that’s within one of our universities,” Jones said.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jasmine Clark expressed her views on education, focusing on student debt solutions.
“I personally believe that the government doesn’t necessarily need to make money off of student loan debt. We could do 0% interest. Congress actually does have that authority. We have money for a lot of things. And I think investments in education are one of the things that help people have upward mobility and economic opportunities,” Clark said.
Marcye Scott, daughter of the late U.S. Rep. David Scott, is running in the Special Election to fill the remainder of his term, according to the AJC.
Marcye Scott said she was already considering a run for the seat this cycle before her father announced he would seek a 13th term. Now the local activist says she sees the campaign as a way to carry on his legacy.
“I would love to be able to fill in the gaps for him,” she said. “I’ve got the experience — I can tell you that I know everything about the 13th District, just like him.”
She added: “I think my father would come back to life and kick my butt if I didn’t.”
Kemp still hasn’t set a date for the special election, and some Democrats worry he could slow-walk the timing.
State Sen. Emanuel Jones, one of the top contenders for the seat, is running for the full term and said he’s also likely to seek the unexpired term. State Rep. Jasmine Clark and former Gwinnett School Board chair Everton Blair, both contenders for the full term, haven’t yet said whether they’ll run in the special election.
U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Athens) faces Primary election challengers, according to AccessWDUN.
Georgia’s 9th District U.S. Congressman Andrew Clyde is seeking his fourth term in office as the 2026 midterm elections approach, and he has two challengers in the Republican primary for the seat.
Clyde was first elected to the office in 2020 and won re-election bids in 2022 and 2024. The last time he faced Republican opposition was 2022, when he won that primary with over 76 percent of the vote.
His challengers this cycle will be two well-known Hall County figures: former Gainesville Mayor and Councilman Sam Couvillon and current Hall County Commissioner Gregg Poole. Both announced their intention to run for the District 9 seat in 2025.
The three candidates have spoken to AccessWDUN numerous times in the last year, expressing their views on several issues heading into the 2026 election.
Clyde on his congressional record:
Clyde has spent much of the campaign touting his record in his five-plus years in congress so far.
Among the accomplishments he’s spoken about are helping to stop the proposed renaming of Lake Sidney Lanier, limiting the draining of Lake Chatuge in Towns County and expediting the new city of Mulberry obtaining updated census data.
“I think I’ve been very, very effective as a member of Congress protecting the district from federal overreach,” Clyde said.
Clyde said that if re-elected, his goal will be to continue working to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, particularly on the issue of illegal immigration.
“Whether it has been the brutal murders of Laken Riley or of Mimi Rodriguez in Habersham County, or right there in Gainesville where you have that little 12-year-old girl that was kidnapped by an illegal alien, these are criminal acts that never should have been allowed to happen,” Clyde said. “Ensuring that we find these violent, criminal illegal aliens and deport them from our country so that our communities stay safer is absolutely critical.”
Couvillon, Poole levy criticism against Clyde:
Couvillon and Poole have both criticized Clyde, most frequently for what they described as a lack of transparency between Clyde’s office and the constituents and local governments of the district.
Poole expressed frustrations with the recent announcement that a warehouse in Oakwood was being purchased by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with the intent of converting it to a Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility. Poole claimed that the Hall County Government did not receive any communication from the federal government, including Clyde’s office, that those plans were in motion.
“Here we are, Hall County is the seat for the 9th District, and, which this is par for the course, we have no communication with our representative,” Poole said. “A lot of things could be asked, a lot of things should be asked, a lot of things should be talked about, but we don’t have those opportunities because we don’t have conversations with our Rep.”
In a recent debate in Flowery Branch, Couvillon said he also experienced a lack of communication with Clyde’s office during his time as Gainesville mayor, adding that he heard similar stories from other local government leaders in the district.
“I talked to other mayors and county commissioners, business leaders in the district, and I found the same common message that he’s non-responsive, doesn’t return calls, and it was something that I feel like we deserve better in the 9th District,” Couvillon said. “Andrew is a nice guy, I’ve had lunch with him, I’ve had breakfast with him. It’s not about that. For me, it’s about you, the people of the 9th District. Y’all deserve someone who’s going to represent you.”
The Savannah Morning News profiles the candidates for Bulloch County Commission.
District 2
James Fulwood served in the military and also spent 25 years in law enforcement.
Wade Price and Dave London, who are also running for District 2, did not respond to our request for comment.
District 4
Kaitlyn Hochgraber is the director of Fuel Supply at World Kinect Energy Services, according to her LinkedIn page.
Attorney Andrew Johnson is very familiar to many in Bryan County, having served as the chair of the Bryan County Board of Elections and with the Bryan County Chamber of Commerce.
James Reid, said if elected, he will bring a balanced approach to growth.
District 5
Incumbent Gene Wallace has served as county commissioner for seven years.
Jordan Given is no stranger to Bryan County, having previously served as the chairman for the Bryan County Republican Party and has been a strong advocate for protecting Georgia’s agricultural resources.
WALB spoke to the candidates for Tift County Commission District 1.
The race features incumbent Donnie Lee Hester (D) and challenger Angela Apell Haggins (D). Both candidates offered insight into their priorities and perspectives ahead of the election.
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