Supporters gather nationwide to honor John Lewis’ legacy of ‘good trouble’

“Good trouble lives on.”

That’s the mantra for a national day of action today honoring Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia civil rights icon who died five years ago.

Organizers planned hundreds of events commemorating the longtime lawmaker’s legacy — and protesting President Donald Trump’s administration — from the tiny Maine town of Houlton to the San Francisco Bay area.

Thousands of demonstrators are expected at some of the larger gatherings, including Daley Plaza in Chicago, outside the Harlem State Office Building in New York and Liberty Mall in Boston.

There are about 20 Lewis events in Georgia, from Ellijay to Valdosta. The biggest might be a Good Trouble March from the famed Lewis mural on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park.

Credit: Jenni Girtman for John R. Lewis Legacy Institute

Credit: Jenni Girtman for John R. Lewis Legacy Institute

A coalition of civil rights groups, including the NAACP and League of Women Voters, are behind the Good Trouble Lives On demonstrations. They say they want to build on the momentum of last month’s “No Kings" protests that coincided with Trump’s birthday.

“This is more than a protest. It’s a moral reckoning,” organizers say. “A continuation of the movement Lewis helped lead, and a new front in the struggle for freedom.”

Lewis and Trump were no fans of one another. Lewis considered Trump an illegitimate president and boycotted his 2017 inauguration.

Trump infamously called Lewis’ Atlanta-based district a litany of insults in early 2017 and dismissed the Democrat as “all talk, talk, talk — no action or results.”

White House spokesman Liz Huston shrugged off the demonstrations.

“Nearly 80 million Americans gave President Trump a historic mandate to Make America Great Again,” she said, “and he is delivering on that promise in record time.”

Things to know

Good morning! The 2026 midterm elections are more than a year away. But candidates and the people who support them are already making moves. Keep up with the news by reading the AJC’s Live Elections Hub.

Here are three other things to know for today:

Distancing

Credit: Sophie Bates/AP

Credit: Sophie Bates/AP

Stacey Abrams didn’t close the door on a 2026 run for office during an interview on NPR this week. But she did nudge it a little.

“Politics is a tool, and it’s a very important one for getting good done, but it’s not the only one. And I am really focused right now on the other tools in my toolbox,” Abrams told “Fresh Air” host Tonya Mosely.

Abrams was on the show to promote her new novel, “Coded Justice,” about a Supreme Court clerk who investigates an artificial intelligence system that’s supposed to benefit veterans. But Mosely made sure to ask Abrams about politics.

“I’m not taking running for office off the table, but it’s not right now top of mind,” said Abrams, a Democrat who lost to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018 and 2022.

Abrams said she has “not made any decisions” when it comes to 2026 in part “because there’s an urgency to 2025 that we cannot ignore.”

“My focus right now is on, how do we ensure that we have free and fair elections in 2026?” she said.

Harper vs. Ossoff

Credit: AJC file photos

Credit: AJC file photos

Georgia farmers are still waiting for some federal hurricane relief, and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff wants to know what’s taking so long.

About $16 billion of the money is already available through the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program. The other $4 billion will be split among 14 states to fund block grant agreements.

It’s that $4 billion that is still in limbo. Ossoff wrote a letter to Republican Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins this week, asking for an update on what he said was “the failure” of their agencies to reach an agreement.

Ossoff noted that Rollins promised the block grants would move “very, very quickly.” She also said during a March event at the state Capitol the emergency package would soon start being disbursed to Georgia farmers.

It’s the second letter Ossoff has sent Harper. The first letter, back in May, prompted an angry response with Harper accusing Ossoff of politicizing the issue, calling it “beyond shameful.”

Harper wasn’t too happy with this latest letter, either. He told us that Ossoff “is desperate to distract from the fact” that he voted against President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, which he said included “a $60 billion investment to strengthen farm safety net and crop insurance programs.”

“He doesn’t need to use the Atlanta paper as a middleman to ask for an update on Georgia’s negotiations, he can pick up his phone and call me anytime,” Harper said.

Head start

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for President Donald Trump to begin dismantling the Department of Education, you can expect the administration to move quickly to disperse its myriad of functions to other parts of the government.

Student loans? That’ll head to the Treasury Department. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act? That could land at the Department of Health and Human Services. What about those billions of dollars in grants? The Department of Labor is already shifting to cover those.

State governments will have to move fast to adapt to this cascade of changes. Georgia has gotten a head start. Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law in May that updates all references to the Department of Education in Georgia’s code to include the line “or its successor.”

Republican state Sen. Bo Hatchett of Cornelia, the bill’s sponsor, believes that will be enough to prevent disruptions in the teacher licensing and higher education accreditation processes.

“We won’t have to go in and have a special session to redo the law because we’re already ready,” he said.

Hatchett said he was most proud about the law getting bipartisan support. Thirteen Democrats voted for it, including Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, who is running for governor.

But don’t confuse Esteves’ vote with support for Trump’s action.

“Just like he promised, Donald Trump is dismantling the Department of Education, and kids across Georgia are already paying the price,” Esteves said. “I’ve worked across the aisle to defend public education and expand resources for students, and I’ll continue that work as governor.”

Three billboards

Credit: Courtesy photo

Credit: Courtesy photo

An advocacy group billing itself as “building power for the working class” has paid for three billboards in Augusta criticizing U.S. billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg.

More Perfect Union says it spent more than $1 million on 50 billboards across eight states. They sent us a photo of one showing a picture of the Facebook founder with the words “we make, they take.”

More Perfect Union received a lot of attention last year when they produced a video of a couple outside of Atlanta who blamed one of Meta’s data centers for limiting their water supply. The New York Times reported on the couple this week.

The group says their goal is to “provoke conversations” about the imbalance between the people workers and “right-wing billionaires, plutocrats, and corporations that reap the rewards.”

Listen up

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast Greg Bluestein and Tia Mitchell discuss the political reverberations of the MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta. Then they dig into the first fundraising numbers for Georgia’s 2026 Senate contenders.

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.

Second day of drama

Credit: Anna Rose Layden/The New York Times

Credit: Anna Rose Layden/The New York Times

A vote on the U.S. House floor was held open for nearly 10 hours Wednesday, the longest ever in history, because Republicans remained split on how to advance cryptocurrency legislation.

Nearly all of the holdouts eventually reversed course and allowed the bill to move forward. That number included Georgia U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens.

But one Republican still voted “no” with Democrats: U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Initially, Greene was among a dozen Republicans who blocked the bill because they were unhappy that Speaker Mike Johnson did not allow an amendment to ban the federal government from creating its own digital currency. But the amendment was added onto the National Defense Authorization Act after negotiations with President Donald Trump.

But that wasn’t enough for Greene.

Today in Washington

Correction

In Wednesday’s newsletter, we told you how much money 9th Congressional District Republican candidate Sam Couvillon raised in the last three months. But we got it wrong. We should have said he raised $173,000 and has $298,000 in cash on hand.

Shoutouts

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC

Transition:

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Before you go

Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC

Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC

Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns and a bipartisan group of lawmakers led a prayer service for victims and survivors of the Texas floods at the state Capitol on Wednesday.

“We want Texans to know we care,” said Burns, a Republican from Newington.

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.