Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for November 18, 2025

Abraham Lincoln traveled to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 18, 1863.

Carl Vinson was born on November 18, 1883 in Baldwin County, Georgia. At noon on that day, U.S. and Canadian railroads implemented four time zones for the first time.

Efficient rail transportation demanded a more uniform time-keeping system. Rather than turning to the federal governments of the United States and Canada to create a North American system of time zones, the powerful railroad companies took it upon themselves to create a new time code system. The companies agreed to divide the continent into four time zones; the dividing lines adopted were very close to the ones we still use today.

Most Americans and Canadians quickly embraced their new time zones, since railroads were often their lifeblood and main link with the rest of the world. However, it was not until 1918 that Congress officially adopted the railroad time zones and put them under the supervision of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Mickey Mouse debuted in a black-and-white film called “Steamboat Willie” on November 18, 1928.

On November 18, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled from Washington, DC to Savannah, Georgia by train for Georgia’s Bicentennial and delivered a speech at Municipal Stadium.

Carl Vinson was honored on his 81st birthday in Milledgeville, Georgia on November 18, 1964; Vinson did not run for reelection in 1964 and retired after 50 years in office.

President Richard M. Nixon flew into Robins Air Force Base for Carl Vinson’s 90th birthday on November 18, 1973; on the trip he announced the next American nuclear supercarrier would be named USS Carl Vinson.

President Richard Nixon, Secretary of the Navy John Warner, Carl Vinson, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird on November 18, 1973. John Warner would later be the namesake of USS John Warner, a Virginia-class nuclear submarine.

On November 18, 1989, Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey signed the Abortion Control Act, the first abortion restrictions enacted after Roe v. Wade.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Voters in State Senate District 35 (parts of Cobb and Fulton) are going to the polls in early voting to elect a successor to former State Rep. Jason Esteves (D), according to Atlanta News First via WTOC.

Six people are hoping to become Georgia’s newest state senator Tuesday, as voters in Cobb and Fulton counties’ District 35 are going to the polls after their former senator resigned to run for governor.

Democrat Jason Esteves was elected to the seat in November 2022, and he was elected to a second term in 2024. But earlier this year, Esteves became the first Democrat to announce a bid for governor in Georgia’s nationally watched 2026 midterms.

Here are the candidates in the Nov. 18, 2025, special election:

• Roger Bruce, former state representative; Democrat
• Jaha Howard, a former Cobb County school board; Democrat
• Erica-Denise Solomon, a Fulton County consultant and former journalist; Democrat
• John Daryl Williams; a mechanical engineer and community activist; Democrat
• Joshua Tolbert, an engineer; Republican
• Corenza Morris, a business owner and Georgia Army National Guard veteran; Independent

District 35 stretches from Dobbins Air Force Reserve Base southward through Vinings and into west Fulton County, including Fulton County Airport Brown Field.

Esteves is part of a (so far) field of seven Democrats who want to become the state’s first Democrat elected governor this century.

Esteves has picked up an impressive number of endorsements from metro Atlanta state lawmakers and local officials — most recently Jimmy Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, himself a former state senator and gubernatorial candidate, endorsed the former Atlanta school board member.

The sixteen-billion dollar question: how will the state replace lost revenues if the Senate eliminates the state income tax? From the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News:

A state legislative committee is eyeing cutbacks in $30 billion worth of tax credits and tax exemptions to offset the potential elimination of an income tax that generates $16 billion for state government.

“It is not a question of if we go to zero, it’s when and how we take our income tax to zero,” said Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, leader of the Special Committee on Eliminating Georgia’s Income Tax. “It’s an issue of competitiveness.”

Senators heard Monday from three invited speakers who advocated for eliminating the 5.19% income tax.

Patrice Onwuka, director of the Independent Women’s Center for Economic Opportunity, said half of the state’s residents live paycheck to paycheck and could use a tax break.

Arthur Laffer described consequences for population, productivity and tax revenue in states that adopted an income tax, and he pointed to gains in states that eliminated their income tax, including his home state of Tennessee.

He said it’s “really cool” not having to file an income tax return and that it is a form of taxation that undermines economies.

“The income tax is the single biggest major tax killer of growth,” said Laffer, a retired professor who advised President Ronald Reagan on economic policy and is associated with “supply-side” economics theory.

Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, noted that Georgia already has a thriving economy and that many of the states that eliminated their income tax subsequently raised their sales tax rate.

Economists have long held that a sales tax is more painful for low-income people than an income tax, and Orrock said retirees would be among those disproportionately affected.

But Tillery, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and is running for lieutenant governor, had delivered to the other senators more than 200 pages of documents detailing $30 billion in tax credits and tax exemptions in Georgia law. He said those could be eliminated to make up revenue lost by eliminating the income tax, instead of raising the sales tax rate.

The final speaker, Kyle Wingfield, president and CEO of the fiscally conservative Georgia Public Policy Foundation, offered two policy approaches to accompany income tax cuts.

First, Georgia could place some of its billions in reserves into an emergency fund to hedge against unexpected budget shortfalls. Second, lawmakers could set “revenue triggers” that would only allow income tax cuts if overall tax revenue grew.

From Atlanta News First via WTOC:

A special legislative study committee examining whether Georgia should eliminate its income tax held one of its final meetings on Monday, signaling that a draft proposal could be released before lawmakers return to the Capitol in January.

The committee, chaired by state Sen. Blake Tillery, has spent months weighing how to replace roughly $20 billion a year generated by Georgia’s income tax — more than half the state’s general fund.

One option discussed on Monday included scaling back or eliminating tax credits and exemptions, which the Department of Revenue says total $30 billion across income and sales tax categories.

Outside the hearing room, a packed agenda was taped to the door as lobbyists filled nearly every seat inside. Economist Arthur Laffer, a longtime advocate for income-tax repeal, urged lawmakers to follow income-tax-free states such as Tennessee.

“Making money is a lot more fun without an income tax,” Laffer told the panel.

“Telling special interests just because you have a lobbyist at the Capitol doesn’t mean it’s fair to you to have a tax break when everyday Georgians are paying more than 5% to the government,” Tillery said.

But Usha Rackliffe, an accounting professor at Emory University, cautioned lawmakers against focusing on the upside without examining the tradeoffs.

“It’s almost like a three-legged stool. You can’t just talk about one side of it without talking about the other two sides of it,” she said. “It’s an immediately attractive proposition, but I think what we want is for people to ask the question: Why? And where’s the money going? And what will I have to give up?”

Georgia already has the seventh-lowest tax burden in the country, with residents paying an average of $3,009 a year in state and local taxes, according to the Tax Foundation. That includes $1,102 in sales taxes and $1,433 in income taxes.

Replacing the income tax would require a dramatic shift. An analysis by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute found the state would need to impose a 12% state sales tax — tripling the current 4% rate — to generate the same amount of revenue. Combined with local taxes, the statewide average sales tax would rise to 15.4%.

The same report estimates that the change would raise taxes for the vast majority of Georgians. The lowest-income 20% of households — about 1 million filers making under $25,600 — would see an average tax increase of $800 a year. Households earning up to $153,000 would also see annual increases averaging $963. Only those earning above $153,000 would see a net tax cut, with the largest benefits going to the top 1% of earners.

Democrats on the committee sharply criticized the direction of the proposal.

“Here’s what we learned in today’s hearing. Republicans want to jack up taxes on the middle class to give rich people a massive handout,” said Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, in a statement. “Almost every Georgian would see their tax bill increase by a month’s worth of groceries. At the end of the day, they’re making the affordability crisis worse and saying they’re doing you a favor. Democrats on this committee are appalled by this wrongheaded, disastrous proposal.”

Lawmakers expect to release the committee’s final recommendations before the legislative session begins in January, setting up what could be one of the most consequential tax debates in recent state history.

From the AJC:

“Families in Georgia are having a hard time paying for gas, groceries and child care,” said state Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, following a meeting of a committee studying the issue. “Why would we not be trying to give them a 5% raise overnight?”

Opponents said the move would force Georgia to expand its sales tax — a move they say would benefit the wealthy at the expense of seniors and low- and middle-income residents.

“Republicans want to jack up taxes on the middle class to give rich people a massive handout,” Democratic state Sens. Ed Harbison and Nan Orrock said in a statement following the meeting. “This handout will make raising a family, buying a house or running a business more expensive.”

In the Senate, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones — another Republican gubernatorial candidate — is pushing the elimination of the income tax. And Tillery — a candidate for lieutenant governor — is leading the charge as chairman of the committee.

The state’s personal income tax generates about $15.7 billion a year — by far the state’s largest source of income. The next-largest source of revenue is the sales tax, at $9.4 billion.

But removing tax incentives for business interests is politically difficult and lawmakers would face fierce opposition from lobbyists hired to protect them.

The committee has already ruled out raising the sales tax on groceries. On Monday, Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, suggested he wouldn’t support eliminating sales tax breaks that benefit children, public safety or the military.

The committee is expected to unveil its recommendations by the end of the year.

Robotic agricultural equipment is becoming more important for Georgia farmers, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.

Agriculture companies incorporating robotics techniques in controlled environments are the fastest-growing sector of Georgia’s agribusiness, according to the state’s Department of Economic Development.

Todd Jones, a Republican state representative of south Forsyth who once was chair for K-12 appropriations, now chairs the Technology and Infrastructure Innovation Committee. He says his work has created more access for students in AI, agriculture and robotics by aiding in designating millions of the $14 billion Georgia state budget toward bridging computer science in rural Georgia. He was especially keen on doing this because in 2019, a new state law declared computer science would be a required course by 2025.

“We have a lot of rural parts that frankly don’t have a lot of STEM or computer science,” Jones told the Ledger-Enquirer.

A collaborative partnership between Jones and Georgia Tech created the Rural Computer Science Initiative, educating and training teachers across rural Georgia about computer science and robotics to train the workers of tomorrow in an interdisciplinary way.

“It sounds like a campaign slogan, but your birthplace should not determine your access and rigor,” Jones said. “Every child should have an opportunity no matter the county. You can’t dream it unless you’ve been exposed to it.”

In the 2025 fiscal year, $2.15 million has been allocated to the Rural Computer Science program, and each of the Farmbots cost around $3,000, according to the Principal Research Associate at Georgia Tech, Leigh McCook.

Precision farming and agricultural robotics is attractive because loss of agricultural land and a shifting climate are forcing farmers to be creative to improve productivity and efficiency. A study in April emphasized the importance of robotic automation in precision farming because of threats like climate change and a growing population.

Jones also thinks it’s important that Georgia families can continue practicing farming for generations to come.

“To go into tech doesn’t always mean Tesla or SpaceX, what about Agtech? You can stay true to what your family has been doing for 5 generations and change the yield perspective,” he said.

Jones said just a few weeks ago, he was in a six-hour meeting with the Department of Agriculture, University of Georgia and Georgia Tech, and Jones said the group posed the question: How do we take agtech and explode it? Jones’ response to the Ledger-Enquirer: Rural Computer Science and programs such as Farmbot.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by the men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, according to the Associated Press via WJBF.

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the hate crime convictions of three white men who chased Ahmaud Arbery through their Georgia subdivision with pickup trucks before one of them killed the running Black man with a shotgun.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals took well over a year to rule after attorneys for the defendants urged the judges in March 2024 to overturn the case, arguing the men’s history of racist text messages and social media posts failed to prove they targeted Arbery because of his race.

Federal prosecutors used those posts and messages in 2022 to persuade a jury that Arbery’s killing was motivated by “pent-up racial anger.”

The appellate panel’s opinion, written by Judge Elizabeth L. Branch, said prosecutors at the trial showed “that each of the defendants held longstanding prejudice,” and that evidence was sufficient for “a reasonable juror to find that Arbery’s race was the determinative factor” for the deadly neighborhood chase.

Even if the appeals judges had thrown out their hate-crime convictions, the trio faced no immediate reprieve from prison. That’s because they’re also serving life sentences for murder after being convicted in a Georgia state court.

All three men were convicted of murder by a state court in late 2021. After a second trial in U.S. District Court in early 2022, a jury found the trio guilty of hate crimes and attempted kidnapping.

Greg McMichael’s attorney in the hate crimes case, A.J. Balbo, declined to comment on the appellate ruling. Attorneys for Bryan and Travis McMichael did not immediately return phone and email messages.

Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) campaigned in Columbus, according to WTVM.

Georgia gubernatorial candidate and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms made a campaign stop in Columbus tonight as part of her “Standing Up for Georgia Tour.”

The meet and greet was held at Comer Recreation Center, where Bottoms said she hopes to hear directly from Georgians on what matters most to them and discuss her plans as governor to stand up for Georgians and make the state more affordable.

Bottoms has previously held events in Savannah, Albany and Augusta among other cities during the tour.tsan

Whitfield County property tax bills are expected to be mailed this week, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen.

“If everything goes according to plan, they should be sent out right around Nov. 20,” said Tax Commissioner Danny Sane. Dalton Public Schools was the last taxing authority in the county to approve a 2025 tax rate on Monday.

Now that he has all of the tax rates, Sane said he can take the numbers to the Georgia Department of Revenue to sign off on.

“The due date for payments will be Jan. 20, 2026,” Sane said. “The second 2024 bill and the 2025 bill will both be due that day.”

In 2024, local officials — including Sane, the Dalton City Council, and the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners — had raised concerns that the 2024 digest contained widespread inconsistencies and could not be certified in time for tax collection. All local Superior Court judges recused themselves, forcing the case to be heard by a senior judge from Floyd County.

In October 2024, the judge issued a temporary order allowing Whitfield County to collect property taxes based on the 2023 digest plus a 10% across-the-board increase. That temporary measure stayed in effect until the 2024 digest was finalized earlier this year. The Board of Assessors was also working on the 2025 digest during that period.

Thousands of property owners will owe taxes beyond what they originally paid in their 2024 taxes under the final digest.

“This is going to be a really terrible time for a lot of people in this county,” Sane said. “Within a 13-month period, some people are going to be getting three tax bills.”

Sane says he has the revised 2024 tax bills on his computer system ready to send out but decided to send them at the same time as the 2025 bill rather than send them several weeks apart.

Tariffs impacted Georgia Ports this year, according to the AJC.

Georgia’s bustling Savannah port wasn’t so busy in October, with container volumes down 8.4% compared to the same month a year ago, as the effects of global tariffs continued.

But Georgia Ports Authority President and CEO Griff Lynch is optimistic that the second half of the fiscal year, starting in January, will see improvement at its Savannah and Brunswick ocean ports.

“October was generally just a soft month, and … we see this riding through the rest of the year,” Lynch told the authority board at a Monday meeting in Atlanta. “We’re hoping for a bounce back in the second half of the (fiscal) year.”

October’s slump reflected an earlier peak season after customers advanced their shipments to try to beat tariff dates, Lynch told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Whether an anticipated Supreme Court decision forces a backtrack on tariffs or more trade deals follow, “I really, truly believe things are settling down,” he said.

And they’re doing better than they had previously expected, Lynch said.

Customer forecasts in the spring for the year were “dire,” he recalled. “We have not seen that materialize.”

Board Chairman Alec Poitevint described his current mindset with two words: “cautious optimism.”

Trey McPhaul was sworn in to represent District 2 on the Gainesville City Board of Education, according to AccessWDUN.

McPhaul represents the system’s District 2 seat. He was elected into the role during a special election to replace Kris Nordholz, who resigned in June as he planned to move out of the school district. McPhaul narrowly defeated Amy McKinney Kerr, winning 50.76% of the vote, just an 11-vote margin.

“Thank you so much to Gainesville–those who voted,” McPhaul said. “I know it’s a non-election year, you might not have felt like there wasn’t anything in it for you, but the better our schools are, the better our community can be. So I just appreciate everyone for showing up and voting.”