Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for November 22, 2024

The only major battle on Sherman’s March to the Sea occurred at Griswoldsville on November 22, 1864; on the same day, federal troops marched into Milledgeville.

Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis died on November 22, 1963.

President John F. Kennedy became the fourth President of the United States to be assassinated in office on November 22, 1963. The next day, Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, who had been arrested for shooting Kennedy.

On November 22, 1988, the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber was first unveiled publicly at Palmdale, California.

Back to the Future II was released on November 22, 1989.

Construction on the Georgia Dome began on November 24, 1989.

On November 24, 1992, Republican Paul D. Coverdell defeated Democratic incumbent Wyche Fowler in the runoff election for United States Senate. We are thankful that Georgia has runoff elections, not something silly like drawing straws or instant runoff voting.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Governor Brian Kemp issued Executive Order #11.20.24.01, extending the State of Emergency for Flooding through Wednesday, November 27, 2024 at 11:59 PM for listed counties.

Governor Kemp was elected by his peers as the next chair of the Republican Governors Association, according to the AJC.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was elected the next chair of the Republican Governors Association on Wednesday, assuring that his influence in national GOP politics will grow as he enters the homestretch of his final term in office.

Kemp, who now serves as the organization’s vice chair, succeeds Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee as the RGA chair, and his one-year term begins immediately. Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte will serve as the RGA’s vice chair.

“Republican governors are making commonsense, conservative policies a reality, putting families and children first, and making our states the best places to run a business and raise a family,” Kemp said.

The RGA is a powerful organization that pours money and resources into defending vulnerable GOP governors, unseating Democratic incumbents and promoting Republicans in open races.

Only two governor races are on the ballot in 2025 — New Jersey and Virginia — but three dozen states, including Georgia, will elect governors in 2026.

Kemp knows firsthand the power of the RGA’s largesse. The group boosted his 2018 and 2022 campaigns against Democrat Stacey Abrams. But it also backed him in a tough 2022 primary against Republican David Perdue, who was endorsed by Donald Trump.

Those campaigns turned Kemp into a national political figure, as he won a commanding victory after battling both Trump’s MAGA forces and a Democratic star. He’s since reached a tentative truce with Trump and helped the president-elect flip Georgia back to the Republicans in this year’s election.

From the Associated Press:

“The voters of our state and nation gave Republicans a mandate to govern just two weeks ago,” said Cody Hall, a spokesperson of Kemp’s political organization. “The governor looks forward to working with the General Assembly to make Georgia an even better place to live, work, and raise a family this legislative session, and leading the Republican Governors Association to help the Trump administration and the Republican majorities in the U.S House and Senate save our country.”

As Republicans across the country gear up to run for offices in 2025 and 2026, Kemp is expected to make his way through the states to help, while at the same time boosting his own national profile as his final gubernatorial term comes to a close.

Kemp could run against Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia in 2026, but some speculate that the governor may launch a presidential campaign instead. Leading the Republican Governors Association will help Kemp maintain the national contacts he needs to raise money and win support for either of those races.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr (R-Cobb County) will seek the Republican nomination for Governor in 2026, according to the AJC.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, a Republican with deep ties to the mainstream wing of his party, announced Thursday that he will run for governor in 2026, setting up a potential showdown with other GOP rivals more closely aligned with Donald Trump.

Carr, 52, is the first prominent candidate from either major party to enter the wide-open race for governor and is seen as one of the strongest Republican hopefuls to succeed Gov. Brian Kemp, who cannot run for a third term.

He won two statewide elections for attorney general after he was appointed to the post in 2016, and he previously served as Georgia’s economic development commissioner and as the top aide to former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson.

But his Republican credentials were questioned following Trump’s narrow defeat in 2020, when Carr and other GOP incumbents came under fire by the then-president and his allies for rejecting calls to overturn Joe Biden’s win in Georgia.

Two years ago, Carr fended off a challenge by a Trump-backed attorney recruited by the former president, and then he defeated a Democratic rising star. Carr will now try to revive the same coalition in 2026 as a resurgent Trump readies to return to the White House.

From the Associated Press:

Carr is portraying himself as the best candidate to continue steady Republican leadership in the mold of the late U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, former Gov. Nathan Deal and Kemp.

“I’ve seen what it takes to be successful,” Carr told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “And I want to run as the proven conservative who will create jobs for hardworking Georgians, keep our families and neighborhoods safe and vigorously defend our Constitution and freedoms.”

Carr has aligned closely with Kemp but could face opposition from President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters in a primary election. Jones has been close to Trump and would likely angle for his endorsement. By contrast, Trump endorsed primary opponents who ultimately lost to both Carr and Raffensperger in 2022, fueled by his displeasure that neither Carr nor Raffensperger backed Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss in Georgia.

Carr said he was confident that he could win on issues and appeal to enough voters to win a Republican primary, despite his past differences with Trump.

“This race isn’t going to be about how loud somebody yells or screams, it’s going to be about a conservative record,” he said. “And I’m the one that has that.”

It’s exceptionally early to announce a 2026 political bid. Customarily, statewide candidates in Georgia would announce sometime after 2025’s legislative session. But Carr let it be known more than a year ago that he was lining up donors for a run. That’s in part because Jones and Raffensperger are much more wealthy than Carr.

Carr filed papers with the Georgia Ethics Commission Thursday creating a campaign committee to raise money for the governor’s race. Announcing now could help Carr lock down donors, especially because he won’t be able to raise money for his state campaign account during the three-month legislative session that convenes on Jan. 13.

The attorney general’s office in Georgia traditionally has been preoccupied with defending civil lawsuits brought against the state and could only aid in a prosecution if a local district attorney requested help. But Republican lawmakers have given Carr increasing powers to directly prosecute criminals.

In 2019, lawmakers gave Carr the authority to create a human trafficking prosecution unit. Carr’s office says the unit has convicted 50 people, participated in 325 investigations and assisted more than 200 victims.

In 2022, lawmakers directed Carr to create a statewide gang prosecution unit that now has offices in Atlanta, Albany, Augusta, Columbus, Macon and southeast Georgia. That unit has secured more than 40 convictions and indictments against more than 140 people.

After working as a lawyer and the vice president of the conservative Georgia Public Policy Foundation, Carr got his entry into politics when he joined U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s staff in 2004 and became Isakson’s chief of staff in 2007.

Gov. Nathan Deal picked Carr to become Commissioner of Economic Development in 2013 after another old Isakson hand, Chris Cummiskey, left to work for the Southern Co., the Atlanta-based utility giant. Deal put a major emphasis on economic development as Georgia tried to dig out from the wreckage of the Great Recession, and Carr helped facilitate projects worth more than $14 billion in investment that helped create more than 83,000 jobs.

Deal promoted Carr to attorney general in 2016 after Sam Olens resigned to become president of Kennesaw State University. Carr hadn’t earned a living practicing law for years and had never personally tried a case. But he wasn’t challenged in the Republican primary in 2018 and narrowly beat Democrat Charlie Bailey in the general election.

In 2022, Carr demolished right-wing primary challenger John Gordon despite Gordon getting Trump’s endorsement and then beat Democrat Jen Jordan in the narrowest victory of any Republican on the statewide ballot that year.

Georgia’s attorney general doesn’t face term limits, meaning Carr could have chosen to run for reelection in 2026.

Republicans have won six straight governor’s races in Georgia since Sonny Perdue became the first Republican to be elected in modern times in 2002. Democrats had hoped to break that streak under Stacey Abrams in 2022 after she narrowly lost to Kemp in 2018, but Kemp defeated her by a comfortable margin in their rematch.

From the Capitol Beat News Service:

Mr. Carr, 52, is the first candidate of either major party to declare his candidacy for statewide office in Georgia in 2026. In his campaign announcement, he said he would govern in the mold of Georgia’s past conservative governors, including Nathan Deal and Sonny Perdue, as well as Gov. Brian Kemp, who will be subject to term limits once he completes his second term in 2026.

“I’m running to create jobs for hardworking Georgians, keep our families and our neighborhoods safe, and vigorously defend our constitution and our freedoms,” Mr. Carr said in a post on X. “Together, we will fight to keep Georgia red.”

Mr. Carr was appointed Georgia’s attorney general in 2016 by Mr. Deal and twice won re-election. One question for Mr. Carr will be how — or even if — he will vie for support from President-elect Donald J. Trump. In his 2022 Republican primary race, Mr. Carr defeated a Trump-backed challenger, though he supported the former president’s campaign this year. His allusion to governors like Mr. Kemp, a staunch conservative who has appealed to both Trump loyalists and moderate Republicans, suggests his campaign will aim to build a similar coalition.

Mr. Carr is likely to be one of several high-profile Republicans to enter the primary for governor in Georgia. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a close Trump ally, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have been widely regarded as possible contenders.

The starting gun for 2026 goes off as Georgia Democrats work to recover from Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss in the state and build a slate of candidates who might be able to flip the governor’s mansion. Representative Lucy McBath; Michael Thurmond, the chief executive of DeKalb County; and the voting-rights advocate Stacey Abrams, who lost the Georgia governor’s race in 2018 and 2022, have all been floated as possible candidates.

A story in The New York Times carries these paragraphs , word-for-word identical to the Capitol Beat Story above:

Mr. Carr was appointed Georgia’s attorney general in 2016 by Mr. Deal and twice won re-election. One question for Mr. Carr will be how — or even if — he will vie for support from President-elect Donald J. Trump. In his 2022 Republican primary race, Mr. Carr defeated a Trump-backed challenger, though he supported the former president’s campaign this year. His allusion to governors like Mr. Kemp, a staunch conservative who has appealed to both Trump loyalists and moderate Republicans, suggests his campaign will aim to build a similar coalition.

Mr. Carr is likely to be one of several high-profile Republicans to enter the primary for governor in Georgia. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a close Trump ally, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have been widely regarded as possible contenders.

The starting gun for 2026 goes off as Georgia Democrats work to recover from Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss in the state and build a slate of candidates who might be able to flip the governor’s mansion. Representative Lucy McBath; Michael Thurmond, the chief executive of DeKalb County; and the voting-rights advocate Stacey Abrams, who lost the Georgia governor’s race in 2018 and 2022, have all been floated as possible candidates.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Extreme Northwest Georgia) will chair the House Oversight Committee’s DOGE Subcommittee, according to the AJC.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been tapped to lead a House subcommittee supporting the work of an agency created by President-elect Donald Trump to find ways to drastically reduce federal spending.

Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, created the panel to work alongside Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, and the Department of Government Efficiency that they will lead.

Fox News Digital was the first to report that Greene, a Republican from Rome, will lead the DOGE Subcommittee once the new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3. Comer told Fox the subcommittee “will align with the Trump administration’s priorities to eliminate government waste, streamline the federal government’s operations and cut red tape that’s stifling jobs and increasing costs for the American people.”
Greene later shared the report on X, with the caption “BIG NEWS” and red siren emoji.

Musk and Ramaswamy said in a Wednesday editorial for The Wall Street Journal that their goal is to reduce spending by $500 billion. That is about 7% of the roughly $7 trillion in federal spending, but much of that money consists of defense spending and entitlement programs that are popular with voters and have proved difficult to cut.

One of Trump’s most vocal and fiercest supporters in Congress, Greene said earlier in the year that she was interested in serving as the incoming president’s homeland security chief or filling another role in his Cabinet. After the election, she said the best way to support the president-elect would be to push his America First agenda by remaining in the House.

The City of Savannah is considering a proposed $601.6 million dollar budget for the next fiscal year, according to the Savannah Morning News.

The city of Savannah’s proposed 2025 budget is in, and it features nearly $41 million in added revenues. The budget clocks in at $601.6 million compared to last year’s $560 million.

Next year’s budget features increased investments in city of Savannah employees, including a 3% cost of living adjustment and an increase in the city’s minimum wage to $18 per hour. It also includes a doubling of the Savannah Police Department’s community resource officers, which will help address issues such as code infractions and public nuisances particularly during nighttime hours.

The bump in the city budget is bolstered by an 18% increase in “business activity” revenue from service payments such as water, sewer and parking. The city also received an increase in sales and property tax revenues. The city expects these revenue gains to continue; the 5-year general fund forecast predicts revenues to outpace expenses.