Chris Carr backers target potential gubernatorial opponent Burt Jones in ad

Today’s newsletter highlights:

Two candidates enter U.S. House race on Georgia coast.
Savannah mayor rebuts Chris Carr’s “soft on crime” allegation.
U.S. Senate version of the “big, beautiful bill” loosens firearms laws.

Governor’s race broadsides

Credit: AJC file photo

Credit: AJC file photo

Lt. Gov. Burt Jones hasn’t officially launched his campaign for governor, but that hasn’t stopped his rivals from coming out swinging.

An outside group backing Attorney General Chris Carr’s candidacy launched a 60-second ad this morning that accuses Jones of casting “bad votes” and cutting “backroom deals” to benefit his family’s business — a swipe at his support for a hospital regulation overhaul. Carr entered the race last November.

“Jones is not serious. Not focused. Not ready,” a narrator for the ad, financed by Keep Georgia Strong, says over unflattering pictures of the lieutenant governor. “Jones beating the Democrat nominee? Not happening.”

The ad then pivots to Carr, who pledges to blend Gov. Brian Kemp’s governing style with President Donald Trump’s agenda.

“So if you want to maintain Kemp’s momentum, Trump’s law-and-order and beat the Democrats, Chris Carr is the clear choice for Georgia’s future,” the ad says.

The ad offers a glimpse of the attacks likely to come against Jones, targeting his voting record, ties to his family’s business and readiness for higher office. Jones’ camp said was unfazed.

“The lieutenant governor is not even in the race yet but it’s nice to see he’s living rent free in Chris Carr’s head,” said Kendyl Parker, a Jones aide.

Things to know

Credit: Special to the AJC

Good morning! Today is Juneteenth, commemorating the day in 1865 when word of the Emancipation Proclamation, which outlawed slavery two years earlier, reached the then-farthest reaches of the United States — Galveston, Texas. Juneteenth celebrations will take place in cities across the state today.

Here are four other things to know for today:

Georgia Public Broadcasting listeners are accustomed to quarterly pledge campaigns. But the state’s National Public Radio affiliate is now asking for a different kind of commitment — calls to congressional leaders urging them not to cut federal funding for the network. Our AJC colleague Savannah Sicurella has the story.
The results of the Public Service Commission primary elections are in. Keisha Sean Waites and Peter Hubbard were the top two finishers in the District 3 Democratic primary. But since neither cleared 50%, they will face off in a July 15 runoff. Incumbent Tim Echols won the District 2 GOP primary. He will face Democrat Alicia Johnson in November.
Mario Guevara, a Georgia-based Spanish-language reporter, is facing deportation after being arrested Saturday while filming a “No Kings” protest. Video of the arrest shows Guevara being respectful and responsive to officers before being taken into custody. Guevara, who is from El Salvador and has work authorization to be in the United States, has a son who is a U.S. citizen.
Starting July 1, judges in Georgia must consider a defendant’s history of abuse when handing down a prison sentence, the AJC’s Maya T. Prabhu reports.

Running for Congress

Credit: Adam Van Brimmer/AJC

The field for coastal Georgia’s U.S. House race is finally firming up, more than a month after the incumbent, Rep. Buddy Carter, announced he would run for the U.S. Senate in 2026.

Pat Farrell and Jim Kingston, two Savannah natives, launched campaigns in recent days. Farrell is a veteran Chatham County commissioner and hosted an introductory party on Tuesday. Kingston, an insurance agent and longtime behind-the-scenes political operative, issued a statement Wednesday morning saying he’d already raised $508,734 in campaign contributions ahead of a formal announcement later this month.

Farrell and Kingston join Kandiss Taylor as announced candidates for the 1st congressional district post. Taylor, who resides in Baxley, is the Republican Party’s former district chair and a 2022 gubernatorial candidate whose campaign motto was “Jesus, guns and babies.” She finished a distant third behind Gov. Brian Kemp and former Sen. David Perdue in that GOP primary.

Farrell spoke to about 100 supporters at his campaign launch party at Savannah’s Forest City Gun Club, a popular locale for GOP fundraisers. He outlined his platform — pro-MAGA, pro-life, pro-gun and pro-balanced budget — and said President Donald Trump needs more conservative votes like his in Congress to further his policy agenda.

Kingston plans to host a similar gathering to formally launch his campaign later this month. He’s the son of Jack Kingston, the long-time coastal Georgia congressman who left the House following a failed Senate bid in 2014. He’s since worked as a lobbyist and a cable news commentator while also serving as a Trump surrogate during the president’s three national campaigns.

Fractured faction

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Dozens of prominent Republican activists signed a letter Wednesday formally quitting the Georgia Republican Assembly. They include RNC Committeeman Jason Thompson, former Georgia GOP chair Sue Everhart and several party officers and founding GRA members.

“Those in control of the Georgia Republican Assembly have shown that they would rather appease those who scream the loudest than stand with those who fight the hardest,” read the note. “They have chosen weakness over leadership.”

The ultraconservative group has steadily gained clout within the state party, pushing resolutions sanctioning mainstream Republican officeholders and pushing to give GOP officials the power to block candidates from qualifying as Republicans if they’re deemed party “traitors.”

But internal tensions have boiled over. Critics say dissenters have been silenced and the movement has lost focus and momentum amid growing infighting.

GRA chair Alex Johnson, who calls the group the “Republican wing of the Republican Party,” recently pleaded with members to stay the course.

“We can’t let the establishment win,” he wrote in a dispatch to hundreds of activists. “We can’t give up and stop being involved.”

Test results

Credit: Miguel Martinez/ACJ

We told you earlier this week that the Public Service Commission primary elections were a key test for Democrats to measure both enthusiasm and turnout for their candidates in an off-year election.

The Democratic Party of Georgia thinks they passed their test. The numbers may back it up, with more than twice as many people voting in the Democratic primary as the Republican contest.

Overall, more than 142,000 people voted in the Democratic primaries, compared to just over 64,000 who voted in the Republican primaries.

One reason for the GOP drop-off: the Democratic ballot featured a competitive, three-way race. Republicans, on the other hand, had only one contested race featuring incumbent Commissioner Tim Echols, who was widely expected to cruise to a primary victory.

The real test, of course, comes in November when we see which party actually wins the races.

Retaliatory strike

Credit: Courtesy photo

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson has issued a rebuttal to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s opinion piece calling him “soft on crime.”

Johnson’s counter, published Wednesday, two days after Carr’s commentary, outlines the steps the Savannah city government has taken to curb violent crime, which is down 20% this year compared to 2024.

Johnson said Carr’s support for a 2022 state law allowing constitutional carry of firearms and the attorney general’s criticism of Savannah’s “lock up your gun” ordinance, a 2024 law which makes it illegal to leave guns in unlocked vehicles, complicates policing.

The mayor flashed his agitation with Carr during his weekly press briefing on Tuesday. He labeled Carr’s commentary “political stuff” tied to the attorney general’s 2026 gubernatorial bid.

“He should be trying to help cities, not criticize them,” Johnson said. “If that is showing what kind of governor he wants to be, we’ll pass.”

Protest politics

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

While the recent nationwide “No Kings” protests gave Democratic voters a way to turn their anger into action, some Republicans think the sight of demonstrations in American cities is good for their own politics, too, especially if those protests turn violent.

“It’s the visual images,” Insurance Commissioner John King told The Washington Post this week.

Earlier, King had posted a photo to social media of a man waving a Mexican flag in front of smoke-covered police cars. The GOP Senate hopeful, who was born in Mexico, captioned it “Jon Ossoff’s America.” Ossoff, an Atlanta Democrat who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2021, is up for reelection next year.

In response to King’s post, Ossoff spokeswoman Ellie Dougherty said Ossoff “calls on Americans to continue peacefully exercising their constitutional rights to speech and assembly.” She added that Ossoff “condemns political violence of all kinds.”

Listen up

Credit: Jenni Girtman for the AJC

Today on a special Juneteenth edition of “Politically Georgia,” the AJC’s Ernie Suggs explains the inspiration behind his recent AJC feature article on Black joy.

Then Shavon Arline-Bradley, president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women, talks about NCNW’s priorities and the faith and justice at play in her work.

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

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.

Clyde gets his way

Credit: Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

The U.S. Senate’s version of the “big, beautiful bill” that implements President Donald Trump’s tax and spending priorities goes even further in deregulating firearms than what was passed in the House.

The House bill eliminated a $200 tax on the purchase of gun silencers and removed silencers from being tracked or regulated by the federal government, provisions that Georgia U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens, fought for.

The Senate bill includes that language and expands it to include short-barrel rifles. Shotguns and other weapons would see the same deregulation and eliminated taxation.

Clyde sees these changes as preserving the Second Amendment, calling the Senate bill a “Major 2A win” in a post on X.

Democrats are likely to challenge the deregulation language during the “Byrd bath” process of asking the parliamentarian to ensure that all portions of the reconciliation bill are directly related to government spending.

Today in Washington

President Donald Trump will receive an intelligence briefing then participate in a ceremonial swearing in of the ambassador to Ireland.
The U.S. House and Senate are out for the rest of the week in honor of Juneteenth.

Fighting for C-SPAN

It’s the television channel that has reportedly become a new favorite of President Donald Trump because of its live feeds of all things Washington, including its famous “gavel-to-gavel” coverage of the U.S. House and Senate.

But C-SPAN is at a crossroads because of cord-cutting that has reduced its funding from major cable networks even as streamers, mainly Hulu and YouTube TV, decline to carry the network for their millions of subscribers.

The Washington Post reported that C-SPAN’s revenue, which is tied to the number of subscribers to the providers that carry its channels, dropped from nearly $64 million in 2019 to $45.4 million in 2023.

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution honoring the network’s decades of service and declaring that “all television providers, including streaming services, should make delivery of C-SPAN a priority so Americans can watch Congress in action, in real time.”

Our bad

Credit: Jason Getz /AJC

We told you Wednesday about Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff stumping for dollars for Georgia military base projects during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies. We mixed up our installations in the process. Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins is among the facilities Ossoff proposed for updates.

Shoutouts

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Before you go

Credit: AJC file photo

Former U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine, once the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta and South Georgia, has been tapped by President Donald Trump to serve as judge advocate general for the U.S. Army.

The appointment takes Christine out of the running for Georgia attorney general — a job he was rumored to be eyeing.

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.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.

AJC reporter Adam Van Brimmer contributed to this report.

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