Barbara Rivera Holmes launches bid to keep her job as labor commissioner

Shortly after Gov. Brian Kemp appointed her as Georgia’s new labor commissioner, Barbara Rivera Holmes wanted to make something clear: she would, without a doubt, run for a full four-year term in 2026.

This morning, Rivera Holmes made it official by launching her bid for the statewide seat. She said she would continue to “build trust, foster collaboration, expand workforce development and empower small businesses and entrepreneurs across the state.”

Rivera Holmes was hardly known outside of business development circles when Kemp tapped her in March to fill the labor commissioner post that had sat empty for months after the death of Bruce Thompson.

A former head of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce in southwest Georgia, the appointment made Rivera Holmes the first Latina to hold statewide constitutional office in state history. Now she’s looking to earn the seat in her own right.

She enters the race a heavy favorite. Even as Democrats have flipped Republican-controlled U.S. Senate seats and inched closer to winning other statewide posts, down-ticket contests like the labor commissioner post have remained largely out of reach.

In 2022, Thompson beat Democrat William Boddie by 7 percentage points. Four years earlier, Republican Mark Butler won by a similar margin. Still, Democrats aim to field a strong contender, with plans to tie the GOP incumbent to President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Things to know

Credit: Christina Matacotta for the AJC

Credit: Christina Matacotta for the AJC

Good morning! Here are three things to know for today:

City Hall flex

Credit: AJC file photo

Credit: AJC file photo

Days after former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms entered the race for Georgia governor, her top Democratic rival unveiled a slate of endorsements from City Hall officials who are pointedly withholding their support from her campaign.

State Sen. Jason Esteves’ backers include City Council President Doug Shipman and Council members Eshé Collins, Jason Dozier and Amir Farokhi.

Dozier and Shipman were both elected in 2021 as Bottoms’ term ended. And Collins just took office last year after a special election. But Farokhi’s endorsement carries added weight: he was elected in 2017 and served alongside Bottoms for much of her tenure as mayor.

“Jason is the best of us. Georgians deserve a Governor of Jason’s caliber. His leadership will cement Georgia as a state with economic opportunity for all, no matter where we live,” said Farokhi, who isn’t seeking another term.

No camping

Credit: AJC file photo

Credit: AJC file photo

As Democrats’ political power has concentrated in and around big cities, it’s given the left a chance to try out progressive policies at the local level. But that political dynamic hasn’t worked on homelessness, as Democratic leaders have been confronted with a stubborn problem that transcends the partisan divide.

The latest example came last week in Chatham County, when the Democratic-dominated County Commission voted to ban people from sleeping on sidewalks, beneath bridges or other public property. The Savannah City Council is considering doing the same thing.

Opponents argue these laws criminalize homelessness, which they say is a nonsensical outcome given that few would choose to live on the streets. But local elected officials, frustrated with little progress on large homeless encampments, have been passing these laws in droves ever since the U.S. Supreme Court last year ruled they were legal.

Since June, about 160 cities and states have passed similar bans, plus another 93 have pending legislation, according to a review by the National Homelessness Law Center, which opposes these bans.

Jesse Rabinowitz, the group’s communications director, said that is likely an undercount. An AJC review last year found more than three dozen Georgia communities have laws that limit sleeping in public spaces.

“None of these cities have solved homelessness,” Rabinowitz said.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, a potential Democratic candidate for statewide office, agrees. But Johnson has framed the ordinance through a public safety lens, noting some homeless people have been committing crimes.

“We have to address those differently than those that are homeless that need opportunities to do better,” he said.

Campaign watch

Credit: AJC file photos

Credit: AJC file photos

Former Gwinnett County Board of Education Chair Everton Blair will officially launch his campaign for Georgia’s 13th Congressional District with a rally in Snellville on Saturday.

The rally will give Blair, a Democrat, a chance to mingle with voters and test out his campaign slogan: “Change can’t wait.”

It’s hard not to read that as a pointed critique of U.S. Rep. David Scott, an Atlanta Democrat who has held the seat for more than two decades. Scott has fended off primary challenges before. But he will turn 80 next month amid questions about his fitness to continue in Congress.

Those concerns will likely be harder to assuage in a political environment where Democrats are ruing their defense of former President Joe Biden amid similar concerns about his health.

Scott has dismissed those questions, and his aides have said he plans to run for reelection. Blair won’t be the only obstacle. State Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur, is also running for the seat.

Ad watch

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

We told you in March that Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s vote to stop a ban on transgender athletes could come back to haunt him. Now, Republican U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter is trying to make that happen.

The Republican Senate candidate launched a new ad this week mocking transgender women, featuring a character lamenting Carter’s vote to ban “people like me from competing in women’s sports.”

The legislation in question would have banned federal funding from K-12 schools that include transgender students in women’s athletic programs.

At the time, Ossoff called the bill an “overreach,” saying that schools can ensure fair competition “without subjecting the bodies of adolescent student athletes — children — to intrusive investigations by the federal government.”

Insurance Commissioner John King, another Republican Senate contender, also battered Ossoff over his stance as he launched his campaign.

Like other state and national Republicans, the two are leaning into transgender attacks for a reason.

A Republican poll from earlier this year showed Ossoff fared poorly against GOP candidates when voters were told Ossoff voted “to allow men to play in women’s sports if they claim to identify as a woman, taking away opportunities from our girls.”

But it’s not just transgender attacks. This morning, King is testing another line of attack — this one focused on President Joe Biden’s age and mental fitness.

“Jon Ossoff told us that President Biden was ‘sharp, focused, impressive, formidable, and effective,’” King said. “That wasn’t true and he misled Georgians. We deserve the truth from our elected officials and Senator Ossoff failed that simple and vital test.”

Ossoff’s camp didn’t immediately respond to the barb.

Listen up

Today on “Politically Georgia,” Washington-based reporter Michael Jones joins the show to explain the sharp divisions among Senate Republicans over the reconciliation bill that just passed the House. Then, policy expert Michelle Zamperini explains the bill’s changes to federal student loans and what it means for Georgia’s 1.7 million borrowers.

Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.

You can listen and subscribe to the show for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Musk’s lament

Credit: Alex Brandon/AP

Credit: Alex Brandon/AP

Georgia’s nine Republican members of Congress triumphantly voted for the “big beautiful bill” last week, praising the tax-slashing, Medicaid-cutting measure as a huge win for President Donald Trump’s agenda.

But the bill was panned Tuesday by an unexpected critic: Elon Musk.

Musk famously held a chain saw over his head earlier this year to illustrate his plans to chop federal spending. But he told CBS News that the 1,000-page reconciliation measure goes against everything he was trying to do as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

“I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said.

“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful,” he said, “but I don’t know if it can be both. My personal opinion.”

Begged for pardon

Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Reality TV star Savannah Chrisley’s pleas for President Donald Trump to pardon her parents, who are serving time after being convicted of fraud, appear to have paid off.

Trump communications manager Margo Martin posted a video on X Tuesday of the president calling the couple’s children from the White House to share the news, the AJC’s Shaddi Abusaid reports.

“Your parents are going to be free and clean, and I hope we can do it by tomorrow,” Trump said.

Todd and Julie Chrisley starred in “Chrisley Knows Best,” a reality show on the USA network for 10 seasons that was partially based in Georgia. An Atlanta jury later convicted them of defrauding banks of $36 million and hiding their assets to avoid paying taxes.

Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in prison while Julie Chrisley received a seven-year sentence. They entered separate prison facilities in 2023.

During a speech at last summer’s Republican National Convention, Savannah Chrisley said it was her parents’ political beliefs and celebrity, not their actions, that made them targets of a prosecutor who she said called them the “Trumps of the South.”

Today in Washington

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Before you go

Credit: John David Mercer/AP

Credit: John David Mercer/AP

Republican U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, perhaps better known to Georgia fans as the former head football coach at Auburn, is running for governor of Alabama.

That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.