Brian Kemp hoped to avoid a messy Senate primary. It might happen anyway.

Today’s newsletter highlights:

Democrats rush to take credit for restored education funding.
New ad defends U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Georgia expands program aimed at clearing large traffic accidents.

Senate skirmish

Credit: AJC file photos

Credit: AJC file photos

Gov. Brian Kemp desperately wanted to avoid another U.S. Senate race in Georgia that doubled as a proxy fight with President Donald Trump. But with U.S. Rep. Mike Collins’ campaign launch this morning, that fear is fast becoming reality.

On one side are Collins and U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, both pitching themselves as unapologetic MAGA warriors.

On the other is former college football coach Derek Dooley, a Kemp ally and political newcomer who’s expected to model his imminent campaign on the governor’s playbook — pro-Trump but aimed squarely at a more mainstream GOP audience.

A contentious primary isn’t what Kemp envisioned when he asked donors to hold their fire and quietly huddled with Trump in hopes of uniting behind a single contender.

He was determined to avoid the chaos of 2020, when the GOP infighting over Trump’s favor helped drag Republicans to the party’s extremes and ultimately cost them control of the Senate.

And for a while, his strategy seemed to work. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — perhaps the most polarizing GOP figure in Georgia — was swiftly discouraged from entering the race after behind-the-scenes pressure. And Insurance Commissioner John King quit the race last week shortly after some Kemp arm-twisting.

But Dooley’s promise of a fresh approach to the campaign has divided activists and failed to clear the field. And some party heavyweights are wondering why Kemp isn’t going with a better-known, battle-tested candidate.

Collins, in particular, presents a unique challenge. He’s a MAGA-aligned firebrand who checks many of the same boxes as Greene. But he could defy efforts to paint him as “MTG with a mullet.”

His résumé includes bills signed by both Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden. He’s a cultural brawler with viral memes and red-meat rhetoric, but also offers a pragmatic pitch to swing voters as a trucking executive who’s weathered hard times.

And he’s already framed the race as a battle for Trump’s agenda, practically daring Kemp’s allies to try to stop him.

When Kemp privately told Collins last week he wouldn’t support him against Dooley, the second-term congressman responded that he looks forward to eventually winning the governor’s endorsement — when he’s the nominee.

Things to know

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

Atlanta City Council member Jason Dozier was hit by a car last week while riding a bicycle with his 4-year-old daughter. Both are OK. Dozier said he hopes the incident “spurs more radical transformation in making our city a more bikeable city,” the AJC’s Riley Bunch reports.
The U.S. House begins its summer break this week, but many members will likely face fury from their conservative constituents about the Trump administration refusing to release files related to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the AJC’s Tia Mitchell reports.
Metro Atlanta jails are handling a growing number of foreign-born inmates who are in the custody of federal immigration officials, the AJC’s Lautaro Grinspan reports.

Taking credit

Credit: Mariam Zuhaib/AP

Democrats were quick to criticize the Trump administration for freezing nearly $7 billion in education funding. Now that the money has been released, the race is on to take credit for the reversal.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., was first out of the gate, sending a news release on Thursday declaring: “After pressure from Sen. Ossoff, Trump administration restores funding for Georgia After-School Programs.”

Not to be outdone, U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, followed with her own news release Friday after the Trump administration restored the rest of the spending by saying: “Trump Administration to Release Remaining Withheld Education Funding Following Pressure from McBath, Colleagues.”

The restoration means Georgia schools will get a total of nearly $224 million. Congress had already approved the funding in a law that President Donald Trump signed earlier this year. The Trump administration delayed releasing the funds because it wanted to review the spending over concerns it supported a “radical, left-wing agenda.”

Ad watch

Credit: Jason Allen/AJC

Duty and Honor, a nonprofit affiliated with Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC, recently launched a $1.5 million ad campaign in Georgia to defend U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff for voting against President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law.

“They could’ve voted to lower prices, but instead, Washington politicians voted to cut health care and give tax cuts to billionaires. Not Jon Ossoff,” a narrator declares during the 30-second ad appearing on broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.

The ad appears to be a response to attacks from One Nation, the public policy organization aligned with Senate Republican Leader John Thune that spent $5 million on ads criticizing Ossoff for his vote.

The dueling ads are an example of how Democrats and Republicans are fighting over how to frame the tax and spending bill ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Caught on camera

School officials across the country have been battling with artificial intelligence as students often turn to the technology to complete assignments without doing the work on their own. But now some officials are turning to AI themselves to bolster security on school campuses.

Some Atlanta public schools have started using AI to assess their security camera footage, prompting automatic alerts if the system detects a gun or other security threats. It’s not just weapons, either. Some principals have experimented with technology that can detect vaping, Atlanta Public Schools Police Chief Ronald Applin said during an interview on today’s “Politically Georgia” podcast.

“We are doing any and everything we can to create a deterrence for any type of criminal activity on our school property,” Applin said.

AI-enhanced security is an example of how schools are spending the extra money lawmakers gave them for school security grants. The state Legislature approved the funding earlier this year in response to the school shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County last year.

Most Georgia students return to class one week from today.

Making the TRIP

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Nothing snarls traffic quite like an semitruck accident. But the real delays are often caused by how long it takes to clean it up.

In 2008, Georgia started paying towing companies a bonus if they cleared a heavy commercial vehicle accident within 90 minutes. Before the program started, it would sometimes take more than three hours for a tow truck to arrive at the scene. Last year? The average was just 34 minutes, the lowest since 2020.

Now, Georgia Department of Transportation officials have expanded the Towing and Recovery Incentive Program, or TRIP, to include:

I-75 north all the way to the Tennessee state line.
I-85 north all the way to the South Carolina state line.
I-85 south all the way to the Alabama state line.

“It’s not just a metro Atlanta thing that’s going on. We want to make sure that we address these wrecks quickly and effectively across the state,” said Andrew Health, deputy commissioner of the Department of Transportation.

Listen up

Credit: AJC file photo

Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast AJC education reporter Martha Dalton joins the show for a conversation with Atlanta Public Schools Police Chief Ronald Applin on what parents need to know about school safety this year.

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.

MLK files

Credit: TNS

Thousands of documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice last week related to the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t include any new information or discoveries, the AJC’s Ernie Suggs and Charles Minshew report. But they did show the lengths the FBI went through to track and scrutinize the iconic civil rights leader.

The trove of more than 240,000 pages was organized into more than 6,000 PDFs and posted on the National Archives website last week. One historian said the information was “neither shocking nor revelatory,” even as it included more than 150,000 pages of memos from nearly 50 FBI field offices across the country.

The documents even include clippings from The Atlanta Constitution and The Atlanta Journal.

More King documents, including transcripts of FBI wiretaps, are scheduled to be unsealed in 2027. But the DOJ is pushing to release them sooner.

Today in Washington

Credit: Alastair Grant/AP

Happenings:

President Donald Trump is in Scotland, where he will meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The House is out until Sept. 2.
The Senate has evening votes scheduled on Trump nominations.

Correction

We told you on Friday that the U.S. House and Senate had both started their summer recesses. While the House is on break, senators have a few more working days before they leave.

Shoutouts

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Belated birthday:

State Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah (was Sunday)

Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that. Click here to submit the shoutouts. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.