Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Politics for April 10, 2026

Button Gwinnett, one of Georgia’s signers of the Declaration of Independence, was born on April 10, 1735 in Gloucester, England, though some authorities say it was his baptism that was recorded that day. Gwinnett also served in the Georgia legislature, where he wrote the first draft of the state Constitution and served as Speaker.

On April 11, 1768, Benjamin Franklin was named Georgia’s agent “to represent, solicit, and transact the affairs of this province in Great Britain.” Arguably, this makes Benjamin Franklin the first American lobbyist. This is what his lobbyist badge looked like:

Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, was exiled to Elba Island in the Mediterranean, on April 11, 1814.

On April 11, 1853, John Archibald Campbell was appointed Justice of the United States Supreme Court by President Franklin Pierce. After graduating from the University of Georgia at 14, he attended West Point, where his fellow cadets included Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. After the beginning of the Civil War, Campbell resigned from the Court and was appointed Assistant Secretary of War for the Confederacy by Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

On April 12, 1861, Confederates in Charleston, SC opened fire on Federal-held Fort Sumter opening the Civil War.

During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. On April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort. Two days later, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern “insurrection.”

On April 13, 1861, Union forces surrendered Fort Sumter after 33 hours of bombardment by Confederates.

Confederate troops surrendered Fort Pulaski, on Cockspur Island off Savannah, on April 11, 1862. Part of the construction of Fort Pulaski was overseen by a young Second Lieutenant in the United States Army named Robert E. Lee.

“The General” Locomotive was hijacked at Big Shanty (now Kennesaw), Georgia on April 12, 1862, leading to “The Great Locomotive Chase.” The locomotive is now housed in the Southern Museum in Kennesaw.

After two days of exchanging letters with his Union counterpart, Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee agreed to meet and make arrangements for the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. At 2 PM on April 9, 1865, Lee and Grant met in a private home owned by Wilmer McLean at Appomattox Court House, Virginia and Lee agreed to the surrender of his army.

Lee was resplendent in his dress uniform and a fine sword at his side. Grant arrived wearing a simple soldier’s coat that was muddy from his long ride. The great generals spoke of their service in the Mexican War, and then set about the business at hand. Grant offered generous terms. Officers could keep their side arms, and all men would be immediately released to return home. Any officers and enlisted men who owned horses could take them home, Grant said, to help put crops in the field and carry their families through the next winter. These terms, said Lee, would have “the best possible effect upon the men,” and “will do much toward conciliating our people.” The papers were signed and Lee prepared to return to his men.

From the account by Gen. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain:

“At such a time and under such conditions I thought it eminently fitting to show some token of our feeling, and I therefore instructed my subordinate officers to come to the position of ‘salute’ in the manual of arms as each body of the Confederates passed before us.”

“When General Gordon came opposite me I had the bugle blown and the entire line came to ‘attention,’ preparatory to executing this movement of the manual successively and by regiments as Gordon’s columns should pass before our front, each in turn.”

“The General was riding in advance of his troops, his chin drooped to his breast, downhearted and dejected in appearance almost beyond description. At the sound of that machine like snap of arms, however, General Gordon started, caught in a moment its significance, and instantly assumed the finest attitude of a soldier. He wheeled his horse facing me, touching him gently with the spur, so that the animal slightly reared, and as he wheeled, horse and rider made one motion, the horse’s head swung down with a graceful bow, and General Gordon dropped his swordpoint to his toe in salutation.”

“By word of mouth General Gordon sent back orders to the rear that his own troops take the same position of the manual in the march past as did our line. That was done, and a truly imposing sight was the mutual salutation and farewell.”

General Robert E. Lee gave his last address to the Army of Northern Virginia on April 10, 1865.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded on April 10, 1866.

The American Third Army liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany on April 11, 1945. Among the survivors of Buchenwald was Elie Wiesel; in 1986, Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia.

On April 12, 1961, Russian Commienaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to go to outer space and the first to orbit earth.

The triumph of the Soviet space program in putting the first man into space was a great blow to the United States, which had scheduled its first space flight for May 1961. Moreover, Gagarin had orbited Earth, a feat that eluded the U.S. space program until February 1962, when astronaut John Glenn made three orbits in Friendship 7.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama on April 12, 1963; while there he would write his famed, “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

The Braves played their first home game in Atlanta on April 12, 1966.

On April 9, 1968, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta held the funeral for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. More than 100,000 mourners reportedly showed up for the funeral, which could accomodate only 800; 200,000 mourners followed the mule-drawn hearse to Morehouse College.

Apollo 13 was launched on April 11, 1970.

The craft was launched on April 11, 1970, at 13:13 CST from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded two days later, crippling the Service Module (SM) upon which the Command Module (CM) depended. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water, and the critical need tojury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17.

On April 11, 1977, President Jimmy Carter hosted the Easter Egg Roll on the lawn of the White House. In the finest tradition of Georgia Democrats, Carter added a circus to the event.

The Space Shuttle Columbia became the first reusable orbital vehicle when it launched on April 12, 1981.

The Masters Tournament was won on April 9th by Gene Sarazen (1935), Jack Burke, Jr. (1956), Nick Faldo (2nd win – 1990), Tiger Woods (2nd win – 2001), and former University of Georgia player Bubba Watson in 2012. Winners of the Masters Tournament on April 10 include Sam Snead (1949), Gary Player (1961), Tom Watson (1977) and Tiger Woods (4th – 2005).

Congratulations to the following winners of the Masters Tournament who donned the green jacket on April 11: Seve Ballesteros (2d – 1983), Jack Nicklaus (2d in 1965; 3d in 1966), Ray Floyd (1976), Nick Faldo (1996), Jose Maria Olazabal (2d – 1999), Phil Mickelson (1st -2004; 3d – 2010), and Claude Harmon (1948), the first Georgian to win the Masters.

Winning the Green Jacket on April 12 were: Ben Hogan (1953) Sam Snead (1954), Arnold Palmer (1964), Tom Watson (1981), Augusta native Larry Mize (1987), Fred Couples (1992), Mark O’Meara (1998), Angel Cabrera (2009), and Jordan Spieth (2015).

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

Here’s my favorite new ad in the Governor’s race:

Do any of y’all shoot clays? Looks to me like the AG is shooting a Beretta 686.

Governor Brian Kemp’s Office released March state tax revenues, according to a Press Release.

The State of Georgia’s net tax collections in the month of March totaled $2.62 billion, for an increase of $120.4 million, or 4.8%, compared to March 2025, when net tax collections totaled $2.5 billion for the month.  Year-to-date, net tax revenue collections through three quarters totaled $24.5 billion, for an increase of 463.6 million, or 1.9%, compared to March FY 2025, when net tax collections totaled roughly $24.04 billion.

The changes within the following tax categories account for March’s overall net tax revenue increase:

Individual Income Tax: Individual Income Tax collections for March totaled slightly more than $1.13 billion, for an increase of $3.3 million, or 0.3%, compared to FY 2025, when net Individual Tax revenue totaled $1.13 billion.

The following notable components within Individual Income Tax combine for the net increase:

• Individual Income Tax refunds issued (net of voided checks) increased by $33.1 million or 4.7%.

• Income Tax Withholding payments were up by $19.6 million, or 1.2%, over March 2025.

• Individual Income Tax Return payments increased by $8.2 million, or 6.7%, from FY 2025.

• Individual Income Tax Estimated payments increased by $3.3 million, or 18.4%, over last year.

• All other Individual Tax categories, including Non-Resident Tax payments, were up a combined $5.3 million.

Sales and Use Tax: Gross Sales and Use Tax collections in March totaled $1.55 billion, for an increase of $110.8 million, or 7.7%, over last year.  Net Sales and Use Tax increased by $71.5 million, or 10.3%, from FY 2025, when net Sales Tax totaled $691.9 million. The adjusted Sales Tax distribution to local governments totaled $774.6 million, for an increase of $46.7 million, or 6.4%, while Sales Tax refunds declined by $7.4 million.

Corporate Income Tax: Corporate Income Tax collections for the month increased by $44.9 million, or 13.7%, compared to March FY 2025, when net Corporate Tax revenues totaled $327 million for the month.

The following notable components within Corporate Income Tax make up the net increase:

• Corporate Tax refunds issued (net of voided checks) were down $8.9 million or 16.3% from FY 2025.

• Corporate Income Tax Return payments increased by $12.1 million, or 7.9%, compared to FY 2025.

• All other Corporate Tax payments, including S-Corp Return payments, were up a combined $23.9 million.

Motor Fuel Taxes: Motor Fuel Tax collections during the month increased by $0.9 million, or 0.5%, from last year when motor fuel tax collections totaled $176.1 million in March of FY 2025.

Motor Vehicle – Tag, Title & Fees: Motor Vehicle Tag & Title Fee collections increased by $0.2 million, or 0.5%, while Title ad Valorem Tax (TAVT) collections decreased by $4 million or 5.8%.

Georgia may face an impending cluster with vote-counting after the General Assembly failed to address earlier legislation that mandates voting procedure changes, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.

When Georgia lawmakers went home on Friday, they left the state on a collision course with their own self-imposed deadline to change the way residents vote.

In 2024, they banned the use of QR codes to tally election results starting July 1. Despite lengthy hearings on the problem before the legislative session last year and during it this winter, they walked away without establishing a replacement system.

Election officials are equipped to use hand-marked ballots instead, but they say that system is only for isolated emergencies and they question the reliability for statewide use during the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

“We shouldn’t plan to have an emergency in November,” said Joseph Kirk, the election supervisor in Bartow County and the president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration & Election Officials.

Beyond the logistics, the use of the backup system outside of an emergency may not be legal.

State law says election officials must let voters use an electronic ballot-marking system like the one in use now unless conditions make that “impossible” or “impracticable.”

The Legislature has not defined those words, but election officials have been interpreting them to mean situations like a power outage or a computer bootup failure.

The State Election Board, which interprets election-related law, considered amending its rules in a way that would have effectively allowed the paper-based backup systems to be used in other kinds of emergencies, like a legal one.

Critics, including President Donald Trump, contend Georgia’s voting system violates federal and state law.

Reasons range from lack of required secrecy — the touchscreen kiosks voters use to enter their selections are barely private — to the inability of voters to confirm that their vote was accurately recorded by the “Quick Response” (QR) code on the ballot they turn in after making their selections.

The computer system spits out a record of the vote on paper, in human readable text as required by law. But the system relies on an included translation into a machine-readable data format — the QR code — to tabulate the official tally.

The state election board declined to write a definition of “impossible” or “impracticable” into its rules. During a vote in December, the members tied 2-2, with two Republicans in favor and a Democrat and a Republican opposed. The Republican who voted against the measure said it was the Legislature’s duty to define the words it had written into law.

With the legislative session over, it is too late for lawmakers to do that before this year’s midterm elections, unless Gov. Brian Kemp calls them back to the Capitol for a special session.

But lawmakers failed to address the issue during their legislative session last year and during the three months that they were in Atlanta this year.

“If they couldn’t do it in two years, how are they going to do it in a few weeks? I have no confidence left in the legislators that are trying to decide what to do with elections,” said Anne Dover, the election director in Cherokee County.

She said she is worried about the midterms like never before in her 18-year career.

The current computerized system automatically deals with a logistical headache in polling places where people converge from different neighborhoods represented by different combinations of districts for city council, county commission, school board, the Legislature and Congress.

There are 90 ballot “styles” in Cherokee alone, she said, with as many as five at one of her precincts.

Dover said her biggest fear is that a poll worker accidentally gives a voter the wrong paper ballot. She said the odds of that go up as her veteran poll workers, many in their mid-70s, throw up their hands and say they are done with the job due to the uncertainty and risk. She said some have expressed concern about prosecution by a State Election Board that has become more zealous about election integrity since Trump lost the presidency in 2020.

The prospect of November “is a little bit frightening,” Dover said.

Marilyn Marks, one of the many advocates for the use of hand-marked paper ballots, said such fears are overblown.

Marks is sympathetic with election officials’ concerns about being blamed for screwing up an election conducted with hand-marked paper ballots, but she said the bigger risk is that Trump uses questions about the legality of Georgia’s current system to seize voting machines after the November elections.

They would get blamed for issuing the wrong ballot, acknowledged Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, adding that they think they would be held blameless if the computerized system they were directed to use were deemed to be illegal.

“That’s kind of looking at things a little too myopically,” she said.

Marks said poll workers are already trained to pivot to paper in an emergency, so it is not a stretch to imagine them pulling off an entire election without the computerized voting machines. Election directors would just have to pre-print ballots and get them organized, she said. Counties with more ballot styles could also use on-demand printers, she added.

About 4 million Georgians voted in the last midterm elections, in November 2022.

“I have a lot of concerns about how heavy this lift is going to be for us,” said Kirk, the leader of the association for elections officials.

He said he has implemented new voting systems many times in his career. It takes a year to do it right, he said, and he and his colleagues will have less than half a year after the primary runoff elections in June.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not going to do our absolute best to try and serve our communities,” he said.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger oversees elections in Georgia.

He told lawmakers it would cost about $66 million to swap out election systems with three years remaining under the contract with the current vendor.

Some lawmakers said that was an exaggerated amount, and the General Assembly did not put it in the budget.

Even so, a spokesman for the secretary of state’s office said Raffensperger, who will appear on May 19 Republican primary election ballots as a candidate for governor, is confident that the state is ready for November.

“Georgia’s election directors will be ready to run an election, period,” the spokesman said in a text message.

The spokesman did not elaborate on why the office was so sanguine, but in November Raffensperger wrote a letter to the two state representatives leading a Blue Ribbon study committee on election procedures.

Raffensperger wrote that his office had successfully conducted a pilot program authorized by the Legislature to use optical character recognition technology, or OCR, to tally votes. The “double blind” count of the human-readable ballot printouts from the electronic ballot-marking devices produced 100% accurate results, Raffensperger told them.

In other words, the OCR count had matched the QR count.

Raffensperger concluded that the General Assembly should authorize and fund this method as a way around the 2024 ban, since that law only made the use of QR codes illegal for tabulation of the official vote. He said it would only cost $300,000 “and would save taxpayers $60 million or more for the cost of new system components.”

So, the Legislature left a loophole in 2024, and if the state opts to use it, voters will not notice anything different when they go to the polls in November.

Maybe the General Assembly should start voting with hand-marked paper ballots and see how that goes.

More on Senate Bill 406 by State Sen. Matt Brass (R-Newnan), to regulate HOAs, from the Capitol Beat News Service via the Valdosta Daily Times.

Among the more popular bills to pass out of the Georgia General Assembly last week was a measure that would make it more difficult for homeowners’ associations to foreclose on members’ homes over disputes about money.

Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, told fellow lawmakers during hearings on the bill that he had heard numerous anecdotes about associations that had abused their authority to levy fines, piling up bills that had led to liens on homes and then to foreclosure.

“You might have a rogue board member or a bad management company that wants a neighbor out or they want to try to get possession of that property,” he said at a hearing last month. “And they start fining and feeing people.”

Senate Bill 406 passed the Senate unanimously and it passed the state House by an overwhelming bipartisan margin. If Gov. Brian Kemp allows it to become law, it will put guardrails around the associations’ authority to fine residents and place liens against their properties.

It would require associations to register annually with the Georgia Secretary of State if they plan to collect fines and fees. It would limit the types of debt that associations could use to place a lien on a property. It would double the current $2,000 debt threshold for filing a lien provided owners are not in arrears for at least a year. It would require associations to upload certain records to the state and open their financial books to members. And it would establish a hearing process for disputes to be overseen by the Secretary of State.

Caroline Simmons has been in a long-running dispute with her Decatur-area condominium association over the cost of new water meters. She asserted that the meters were not needed and that the board had failed to follow protocol to contract for them. She then sued.

SB 406 would give her an alternative to the courts.

“It means I have someplace other than the court to go to be able to rectify everything that I believe that the board is doing in violation of not only our declaration but of Georgia law,” Simmons said in an interview this week.

She was among several homeowners who testified about aggressive association behavior at that hearing with Brass last month.

One man described a battle over the pavers he placed in the mud to give his pregnant wife safe passage through the yard. He said the association levied thousands of dollars in fines after ordering them removed.

Another man said he had spent $25,000 dealing with water runoff from a neighbor’s property. The association did not like the work he had done, which led to a costly legal fight. He called the associations “judge, jury and executioner.”

A real estate agent described how an owner was at risk of losing his home because he failed to respond to an association order to repaint his front door.

She said the man had been busy tending to his dying wife.

At a prior hearing in February, a representative for the associations argued that there was no need for SB 406. Julie Howard, a lawyer who said she was a volunteer for the Community Associations Institute, said there are over 11,300 associations for condominiums and homes in Georgia, representing over 2.5 million people — about a quarter of the state.

She said residents voluntarily chose to live under those associations and that Brass was hearing from a relatively small number with complaints. She said there were already processes to hold boards accountable, including board elections.

“We don’t think it’s good law to make law based on a few rogue actors,” Howard said.

But Brass said the existing processes had failed to protect the people who had come to him, and he described the protections in SB 406 as modest, with minimal burden on the associations. All they must do is spend $100 a year to register with the Secretary of State and upload some of their records, he said. He said the legislation scratches the surface of the problems but establishes a framework for additional regulation in the future.

Homeowners’ associations are effectively small cities, and require oversight, he said in an interview Thursday.

“I was trying to rein in the bad associations without punishing the good ones,” he said. “And I think that was as close as we could get it, for now anyway.”

Moultrie-area state legislators spoke about property tax reform legislation, according to the Moultrie Observer.

Property tax relief measures for residents had already been put into place last year.

“That everybody in Moultrie and Colquitt County has agreed to,” said Sen. Sam Watson, R-Moultrie.

“In our county, we already have got all that stuff in place. We’ve got the FLOST in place, which helps offset all types of property tax including homeowner properties,” said Rep. Chas Cannon, R-Moultrie.

“There were no changes for us. It was a neutral issue for Colquitt County because we already have a FLOST, our school system already has a pretty low millage rate…and the FLOST is gonna allow our county government, city government to lower their millage rates,” Watson also said.

Cannon said all the money currently being collected from the FLOST will be dedicated toward property tax offset.

“So, we’re ahead of the ball game in terms of being set-up for some property tax relief,” he added.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr joined an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold an Arizona state law requiring proof of citizenship to vote, according to Atlanta News First via WTOC.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has joined a 25-state coalition urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate parts of an Arizona election law that requires proof of citizenship for full voter registration, a move supporters call a common-sense safeguard and critics in Georgia describe as political posturing that could make voting harder.

Carr signed onto a Kansas-led amicus brief supporting Arizona’s 2022 election law after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked key provisions. The dispute is now before the Supreme Court in several related petitions.

“The right to vote is fundamental,” Carr said. “Everybody’s got to know that it’s safe, it’s secure, it’s accessible and transparent.”

Carr pointed to Georgia’s own voter-roll review as justification.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office has said a citizenship audit found 20 noncitizens on Georgia’s voter rolls and that nine had cast ballots in previous elections — most of them before Georgia strengthened citizenship verification through the Department of Driver Services in 2012.

The state referred the cases to local prosecutors for investigation, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

“As a voter, I want to know that my vote counts,” Carr said.

Voting-rights advocates argue the legal push targets a problem that is already rare while risking new barriers for eligible voters.

Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs said the focus should remain on access and ensuring qualified voters can cast ballots.

“Voter integrity means having access to the ballot, not limiting the people who can vote, Griggs said.

Democratic state Rep. Tanya Miller, who is running for attorney general, accused Carr of “playing politics” and catering to election deniers rather than focusing on issues Georgians face day-to-day.

“He knows that our elections are secure, but he is essentially doing a soft shoe to the election deniers,” Miller said.

Carr pushed back, saying Georgia already requires proof of citizenship during registration and that strengthening standards protects voters’ confidence in the outcome. He also said that during his 10 years as attorney general, his office has not received a criminal referral related to noncitizen voting, though he said he would pursue cases if they are referred.

“Knowing that your vote is secure, accessible, and transparent is priceless,” Carr said.

The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether it will take up the Arizona cases. If it does and the court sides with Arizona and the states supporting the law, the ruling could broaden what states can require at voter registration nationwide.

For now, election rules for Georgia voters remain the same, but the court fight could shape the next election cycle.

Results from the Fourteenth Congressional District Runoff Election this week are causing party leaders to consider turnout strategy, according to GPB.

While Democrats lost a race in Georgia’s 14th District Tuesday, they exceeded performance and tightened margins in the deeply Republican-red district.

Both political parties said the results of the election could inform their strategy this year.

Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey said the party was encouraged by Democrat Shawn Harris’ performance in the 14th District and will dedicate more resources to supporting down-ballot candidates in hopes of flipping seats.

“We are knocking doors, distributing literature and yard signs, investing in paid media for the first time ever in some of these races,” he said in a virtual meeting on Wednesday.

Republican Party of Georgia Chair Josh McKoon said while the special election won by Republican Clay Fuller saw a lower turnout among Republicans, the party will focus on boosting turnout among low-propensity voters for upcoming elections.

“We need to make sure that we’ve got the resources in place to contact these folks over and over again, because that’s what it takes to get them out there and to get the voting,” he said.

Fuller won with 56% of the vote on Tuesday, and Harris got about 44% of the vote. The 12 percentage point margin is significantly smaller than the nearly 30-point victory former U.S. Rep.  Marjorie Taylor Greene scored over Harris in 2024.

Republicans and Democrats will get to test the waters as voters elect two Georgia Supreme Court judges in May.

From the AJC:

We spoke to McKoon earlier in the week after Clay Fuller won the runoff in the 14th Congressional District, but with a closer margin than even some of his allies hoped for. McKoon told us that he isn’t reading anything into those results given the November midterms will be a much different ballgame.

“I certainly don’t think that it indicates that there’s going to be a lack of voter enthusiasm when the U.S. Senate is on the line and the governor’s office is on the line and the lieutenant governor’s office is on the line, and everything else that we have in November,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has endorsed Republican Jim Kingston for the First Congressional District, according to the Savannah Morning News.

Jim Kingston remembers when a random number with an Ohio area code flashed across his phone screen. He didn’t pick up, figuring it wasn’t one of the southeast Georgia voters he is vying for in the race for U.S. House District One, he told a room full of supporters Wednesday.

But when the voicemail hit, it was U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio, Four), a cofounder of the House Freedom Caucus known for its staunch support of President Donald Trump. Kingston and Jordan went on to have a phone conversation and now six months later rallied together for Kingston’s bid for Congress.

The event drew roughly 150 attendees and packed Captain Butler’s on Whitemarsh Island to mostly standing room only. Kingston touted his private sector experience as an insurance broker, his background growing up in coastal Georgia, and said he was running to help steer the country’s future.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am here today because I’m concerned about the future of the country. You’re here today because you are in the fight to save it. Let’s face it, our country is at a turning point,” Kingston said during a roughly five-minute stump speech.

Kingston’s rally comes as the Republican primary for the U.S. House District One seat on May 19 has drawn a crowded field of six candidates. It’s the first time the seat will be open since current Rep. Buddy Carter (R-St. Simons) won the seat in 2014; Carter is now running for U.S. Senate.

During the rally, Jordan recalled serving with Kingston’s father, Jack Kingston, who held the seat before Carter. Jordan added that once he met and got to know Jim Kingston, he knew he was a good man with the “right kind of heart” to serve.

“Jim Kingston’s the kind of guy you want in Congress, a guy who will go fight for you,” Jordan said.

The rally also drew appearances from local state officials, including state Sen. Blake Tillery (R-Vidalia), who is running for Lieutenant Governor, and state Sen. Ben Watson (R-Isle of Hope). Watson, who is also Kingston’s uncle, has formally endorsed the candidate.

Watson said it was a “conscious decision” to back Kingston, adding that Kingston was reliable and perseverant. Other supporters at the rally highlighted Kingston’s character, including JoJo Jones who said he has known Kingston for 10 years.

Former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Extreme NW GA) is calling for the removal from office of President Donald Trump, according to Gray News via WTOC.

Greene joins dozens of Democrats who came out to say that Trump should no longer serve in the White House, either through the impeachment process or the 25th Amendment, which allows the vice president and the Cabinet to declare that a president is no longer able to perform the job.

“It’s absolute madness,” Greene said. “How can any person that is mentally stable call for an entire civilization of people to be murdered, to be wiped out, to never come back again? That’s what the president called for, and that shows that there’s serious instability in his thinking that he would not only say that in a private room, perhaps with his advisers, but actually go to his megaphone, his Truth Social, and post that for the entire country and the entire world.”

Greene added, “I know that it’s a very difficult, hard stretch to see it actually coming through, but the conversation needs to be had, and he’s out of control, and people within the administration need to step up, take responsibility, and rein this in.”

Greene, a former staunch supporter of Trump, said she supported the policies he ran his presidential campaign on. But Greene said those policies have changed.

“I’ve always been a supporter of President Trump for the policies. That’s what I cared about. But once he became president, he changed his policies. What we campaigned on was no more foreign wars, and President Trump said he was going to be the peace president. Well, he’s gone from being the peace president to the war president,” Greene said.

Greene also said that Trump’s handling of the Epstein files played a large role in her decision to end her support for him.

“The president lost my support when he covered up the Epstein files and called me a traitor … because I supported women that were raped at 16 and 18 years old or 14 years old even, and I don’t support the president in going to war in Iran.”

Democrat Jason Esteves campaigned in Augusta, according to WRDW.

Democratic governor candidate Jason Esteves says he will focus on education, healthcare and economic empowerment if elected governor, positioning himself as a new generation of leadership in the 2026 race.

Esteves says addressing Georgia’s literacy crisis will be a top priority, citing a statistic that 70% of children across the state are not reading on grade level by fourth grade.

He says the state needs to shift to phonics-based curriculum and invest in early childhood education, including universal childcare. Esteves says the last 20 years of using memorization to teach reading is not aligned with the science of reading.

Esteves says he supports full Medicaid expansion and will work on it on day one if elected.

“The state of Georgia has lost out on $30 billion in federal funding,” Esteves says. “That’s about $7,500 per taxpayer in the state that could have gone to keep rural hospitals open, could have gone to open more clinics across the state.”

He says Republican colleagues in the legislature generally agree on Medicaid expansion but have not acted because of resistance from current leadership.

Esteves also outlined a maternal healthcare plan that includes reversing the state’s abortion ban, which he says has led to preventable deaths of multiple Black women.

“It is more dangerous for women to give birth in Georgia than in most of the country and in many third-world countries,” Esteves says.

He says insurance plans should cover doulas, lactation coaches, and birthing centers. He also says families need support after babies are born through paid leave and affordable childcare.

Esteves says data centers should meet three requirements to operate: pay their fair share of utility and infrastructure costs, receive no state tax credits or giveaways, and use the latest technology to minimize water use and pollution.

Esteves says he will sue the Trump administration to recover federal grants that have been pulled from Georgia, including a $30 million BRIC grant to Savannah for flood reduction.

“I’m going to speak up and speak out and call the administration out,” Esteves says. “There’s no reason that Savannah should stand on its own.”

Esteves says he brings a new generation of leadership to the Democratic primary field and has the lived experiences of average Georgians as a small business owner, parent of two young children, and former caregiver to his mother with Alzheimer’s.

“People are tired of the old politics and the politicians who got us here in the first place,” Esteves says. “I have a vision for the future of this state that gives people something to vote for, not just something to vote against.”

Georgia’s primary election will be held on Tuesday, May 19.

The Augusta Chronicle writes about endorsements in the race for Governor.

The closer race lies on the Republican side of the ticket, with Trump-endorsed Jones having to shift his strategy after the surprise late entry of Jackson to the gubernatorial race.

Jones was endorsed by the president long before Jackson announced his candidacy, and Jackson has since focused his campaign on Trump voters and parts of the MAGA base. Despite not having the endorsement, Jackson has also publicly supported the president and said he would be a friend to the president in Georgia. Jones has largely targeted Jackson in his campaign ads and social media posts, and regularly shares images of himself with the president to reinforce the political connection.

President Trump has had his focus on the state since the 2020 election when he claimed the race had been stolen in part because of voter fraud in Fulton County. The claims eventually led to an FBI raid of an election center in south Atlanta earlier this year. The legality of the raid is being disputed in court, and there has not been any evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Jones has received endorsements from U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde, Congressman Rick Allen, Majority Caucus Chairman Bruce Williamson, state senator Steven McNeel, state senator Matt Brass, a group of Georgia sheriff’s and country music star Jason Aldean, a Macon native, among others.

Jackson, on the other hand, is playing catch up trying to get big names to his cause, but it hasn’t slowed him down.

He has been endorsed by NFL Hall of Famer and former UGA player Fran Tarkenton, state insurance commissioner candidate John King, state representative Bethany Ballard, Georgia Public Service Commissioner Bubba McDonald, state representative Steven Sainz and others.

United States District Court Judge Tilman Self (MD-GA) presided over a ceremony for new citizens, according to the Macon Telegraph.

A Macon federal judge welcomed 17 new U.S. citizens on Wednesday, reminding them of “certain rights … so fundamental that they cannot be infringed upon.”

The petitioners represented 11 countries — Mexico, Peru, Honduras, China, Philippines, Nepal, India, South Korea, Thailand and France. Amidst the celebration, Judge Tilman Self III welcomed the petitioners into the U.S. and reminded them of their rights as American citizens.

He also acknowledged the political divide regarding immigration, but emphasized that people in the U.S. have the right to disagree. At the end of the day, Self said “all of us are created equal” with “basic rights that cannot be disturbed without due process of law.”

Petitioners heard from former Georgia State Sen. John F. Kennedy, who acknowledged the “effort, sacrifice and hope” they endured to gain American citizenship. Especially because they had the patience and the discipline to do it “the right way.”

“You come from different countries, different cultures, a different life experience,” Kennedy said. “Some of you have traveled great distances. Others may have overcome significant obstacles along the way to get here today. But despite those differences, you are united by something very powerful.”

Kennedy encouraged them to use their newfound citizenship to do “small, everyday acts that strengthen communities and bring people together.”

“Your contributions matter, I promise you that,” he said.

Candidates for Columbus City Council District 9 met in a forum, according to WTVM.

Candidates running for the City Council District 9 At-Large seat met face-to-face to answer voter questions.

Candidates include incumbent John Anker, Dr. Cathy Cook, Dr. John Van Doorn and Dr. Rocky Marsh. Since this council seat is at-large, the four are vying to represent everyone in the Fountain City, not just one specific neighborhood.

The forum, hosted by The Courier Eco Latino and Davis Broadcasting, Inc., gave voters the opportunity to learn where candidates stand on certain issues, including mass deportation.

“I’m going to support our law-enforcement, I’m going to support our citizens. If somebody’s doing something wrong and they get arrested I’m going to support the police doing that I don’t know if mass deportations is out of our city,” Anker said.

“I think that we have a responsibility to do everything we can to protect our citizens. Today it’s the marginalize of deportation of Hispanic people tomorrow it could be someone else,” Cook said.

“It’s not just everyone of Hispanic, Latino whatever it is a very diverse not just in nationally but in profession,” Marsh said.

“We can respect the stranger. We can respect people who are in our community. We can love our neighbors at the same time that we have public safety. It’s not an either or right it’s a both and,” Van Doorn said.

The deadline to register to vote is Monday, April 20. Election Day is Tuesday, May 19.

Savannah City Council is holding mobile workshops on affordable housing, according to WTOC.

City council rolled into Thursday’s meeting on a Chatham Area Transit bus.

That’s because they held a mobile workshop Thursday hosted by the Planning, Zoning and Urban Design team.

It was unorthodox, where council members put boots on the ground to see some housing and zoning initiatives they’ve put into action.

“All the permission slips have been signed,” said Jay Melder, Savannah City Manager.

City manager Jay Melder helped plan a 15-stop tour that focuses on affordable housing and development.

“It’s the most profound workshop that I’ve ever seen in six years on city council,” said Nick Palumbo, 4th District Alderman.

Alderman Nick Palumbo first brought up the idea at a workshop in December.

On Thursday, he and other city leaders went through all six districts, stopping at different places to check in with some of the people who are affected by their votes.

“Thanks to a little known sentence in the revenue ordinance that Bridget put in in 2025, the city was able to waive the building permit fees,” said Briana Paxton, Savannah developer and resident.

Hearing that, Alderwoman Alicia Miller Blakely’s ears perked up.

“A lot of our constituents don’t even know that type of opportunity that they can apply for in order to get to build housing,” said Blakely.

As they went through all the districts, other topics came up.

Redeveloping the Savannah mall, utilizing old shopping centers, create diverse housing development.

Each stop had a recommended action. Some, like in Alderwoman Bernetta Lanier’s 1st district, were about expanding successful programs.

“This was a good opportunity to see a policy that we supported, working and helping residents in the area,” said Lanier.

The city manager did say they plan to do this twice more.

Thursday was about housing and urban design, but the next two are focused on public safety and parks and recreation.

The Bulloch County Emergency Management Agency announced a new alert system, according to the Statesboro Herald.

“Our old alerting system, which was Code Red, we’re not allowed to send out warnings with that message since they had a security breach,” Bulloch County EMA director Corey Kemp said.

After going through bid proposals, the county has selected Everbridge as their new system.

“[Everbridge] has a lot more features that Code Red did not have,” Kemp said. “We’re very excited about it.”

“You can get alerts about anything,” Kemp said. “Weather, missing persons or even about sporting events that may take up one side of the town.”

Traffic alerts will be sent out for Firecracker Fest and Georgia Southern University football games, according to Kemp.

“There are multiple ways to sign it up,” Kemp said. “You can go to Facebook and look at the EMA Facebook page and you’ll see a QR code.” You’ll also see a website link.”

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is considering changing oyster season, according to WTOC.

Georgia DNR could approve a change letting oyster growers harvest commercially in warmer weather, as long as oysters are handled safely.

A study on floating gear found levels of vibrio, a harmful bacterium, stayed within safe limits when oysters were iced right away or kept shaded and placed in a walk-in cooler within two hours, before 10 a.m.

More research is underway to see if that two-hour window can be extended, giving growers more flexibility without compromising food safety.

“Last year, we had two growers that harvested oysters during the summer period. Harvesting went very well, and we did not have any reported illnesses from product that was harvested during that period,” said Dominic Guadagnoli, program manager for Georgia’s Shellfish & Water Quality Program.

The DNR is still seeking input on this. The public comment period will end April 23.