Amid political coverage heading into upcoming elections, officials and candidates also weigh in on an array of issues and events that could affect voters’ choices.
There’s more than a year to go until the 2026 midterm election. But in battleground Georgia, the races for U.S. Senate, governor and a host of other contests are already heating up. Georgia has played a critical role in recent elections, and it’s expected to again prove a bellwether.
At the state Capitol, there’s a wide-open race to replace Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is prevented by term limits from running for re-election.
In Washington, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, is seeking a second term and trying to prove that Georgia is still a swing state, despite backing Donald Trump for president in November.
Then there are a host of down-ballot races — from statewide constitutional officers to members of Congress to state legislators.
Meanwhile, candidates such as Ossoff are facing other political firestorms - such as the controversy over health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - that could also help shape their fates at the polls down the road.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't usually at a loss for words, but she struggled to find the right ones to mourn the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday.
"We're all so devastated over it," she said.
Greene said she first met Kirk early in his activism and watched his Turning Point USA political organization grow. She said she admired him for visiting college campuses to talk about traditional family values, his Christian faith and his opposition to abortion. Greene later became a fixture at TPUSA events.
The Rome Republican said she didn't know much about what occurred other than what was reported in the news, but felt confident Kirk was targeted because of his political beliefs. And she said it raises concerns about her own safety, because she has received threats and false emergency calls to her home often tracking back to people who disagree with her views.
"I have some of the most death threats in Congress, and they're always ongoing," she said. "But today, really, it's not about me. Today, it's about Charlie and his wife and his family and everyone that's mourning his loss."
Georgia lawmakers are offering their prayers for recovery after Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist, was shot at an event in Utah.
"We lift up Charlie Kirk in prayer. May he fully and swiftly recover," said U.S. Rep. Brian Jack, R-Peachtree City.
Others, including Gov. Brian Kemp and Sen. Jon Ossoff, condemned all political violence.
"We must all unequivocally condemn the political violence plaguing our nation," said U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, R-Evans.
Kirk has visited Georgia several times, including multiple events at college campuses last year, to support President Donald Trump's campaign.
Republican Senate hopeful Derek Dooley has landed a heavyweight backer. Executive Don Leebern III, a GOP megadonor, will serve as his campaign chair.
That gives the former football coach a well-connected financier with a national donor network and close ties to both President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, one of Dooley’s top rivals. It’s also another clear sign of Gov. Brian Kemp’s imprint on Dooley’s outsider campaign.
Kemp and Leebern are longtime allies. The governor has urged donors to go all-in for Dooley’s campaign to win the GOP nod against U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, the Democratic incumbent.
“Derek Dooley is the only political outsider in this race and the only candidate who can defeat Jon Ossoff next November,” Leebern said.
Leebern is the president of regional alcoholic beverage wholesaler Georgia Crown Distributing. He poured roughly $700,000 into Trump’s presidential campaigns over the past two cycles, plus more than $1 million to the Republican National Committee and various GOP causes.
He’s also dropped more than $20,000 to back Collins of Jackson since his first congressional run in 2014.
The fight to lock up donors is quickly escalating. In July, Collins tapped railroad executive Ben Tarbutton III, another Kemp ally, as his finance chair.
Meanwhile,U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter of St. Simons Island has said he’ll draw deeper into his own fortune to help bankroll his campaign.
Former Democratic state Rep. Mesha Mainor, who switched parties over private school vouchers, is running for state school superintendent as a Republican.
Democrats quickly disowned her following her switch to the Republican Party, and she lost her liberal Atlanta-based seat in November to Democrat Bryce Berry, who campaigned on his opposition to vouchers.
Now she’s challenging GOP incumbent Richard Woods, who recently filed paperwork to seek a fourth term.
Read more here.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s office is pushing back against a letter from Democratic leaders that warned his decision to deploy more than 300 Georgia National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., could strain the state’s budget.
Kemp spokesperson Carter Chapman said Tuesday the “grossly misleading claim that this mission is funded out of our state budget is completely false.”
“The federal government is fully covering the costs of this deployment, not hardworking Georgians,” read the statement.
The statement responds to a letter signed by more than 30 state Democratic legislators, who accused Kemp of showing “blind loyalty” to President Donald Trump and focused on the financial risks of sending troops to back his federal incursion.
"With looming federal budget cuts, the politically motivated move to spend our state tax dollars to invade other states without their consent is a costly endeavor and puts Georgia at even greater risk of not meeting the needs of our citizens as required in our state Constitution," the Democrats wrote.
State revenue has plateaued after years of tax cuts, new stats from Gov. Brian Kemp’s office show.
Georgia collected about $4.91 billion in revenue in the first two months of fiscal 2026, which began in July. That’s .1% more than the state collected during the same period last year, the governor’s office reported Tuesday.
The report is further evidence that revenue growth has flattened after years of post-pandemic growth that helped Georgia accumulate $16.5 billion in undesignated reserves and “rainy day” funds. Contributing to the leveling off of revenue: Kemp and the General Assembly have been reducing income tax rates in recent years. Despite the tax cuts, individual income tax receipts – the largest source of state revenue – are up about 1.2% over last year.
The report also comes as Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and other Republicans push to eliminate the income tax altogether. Supporters say the move will make Georgia more competitive with states that are cutting taxes or have no income tax. Critics say the move will force Georgia to drastically reduce government services or raise sales and other taxes to plug the budget hole.
Gabriel Sterling is running for Georgia secretary of state, instantly becoming the most well-known candidate in the race to oversee elections.
Sterling gained national fame when he called out President Donald Trump after the 2020 election, telling him to speak against threats to election workers.
Sterling also became the lead defender of Georgia's touchscreen-based voting equipment after it came under fire from Trump's supporters.
“Georgia elections are the safest in the nation and I will fight everyday to keep it that way,” Sterling said Thursday.
He'll face at least two challengers in the 2026 Republican primary, former U.S. Senate candidate Kelvin King and state Rep. Tim Fleming, the chairman of an elections study committee.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., called on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, to resign and said he is a hazard to the “health of the American people” during a Senate Finance Committee meeting on Thursday.
Warnock also peppered Kennedy with a series of questions about the ouster of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director, Susan Monarez, the vaccine advisory committee and other questions related to the CDC.
When Warnock asked whether Kennedy had visited the CDC’s Atlanta campus before the August shooting during his tenure as U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, Kennedy said no.
Kennedy described the CDC as the most corrupt agency in the HHS.
In a news conference outside of the U.S. Capitol, Sen. Jon Ossoff called on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign from his post following the cuts to the department and to the Georgia-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy was in a Senate Finance Committee hearing fielding questions concerning President Donald Trump's health agenda, including the secretary's views on vaccines. Watch the moment below. (Credits: AP)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended one of the most controversial new appointments to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Kennedy said that Dr. Robert Malone is one of the inventors of the mRNA vaccine. Malone did not invent it but did do early research on mRNA.
Malone has claimed mRNA causes a form of AIDS and can damage the brains of children.