Rick Jackson’s fortune will make Georgia governor’s race more expensive
Today’s newsletter highlights:
- Donald Trump endorses Clay Fuller to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene.
- Barry Loudermilk says he won’t run for reelection to Congress.
- Georgia House Republicans balk at Brian Kemp’s budget proposal.
Money race
Rick Jackson’s surprise bid for Georgia governor has turned the contest into a cash arms race. And the two front-runners are loading up.
Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones will report today that he’s raised more than $6 million since he launched his campaign in July, pushing his total cash on hand to more than $19 million.
It’s not yet clear how much of that total comes from loans. Jones jump-started his bid with a $10 million check of his own. He hopes to signal to Republicans he can keep pace with Jackson, who has pledged to spend at least $50 million.
On the Democratic side, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will report raising another $1.1 million between July and Jan. 31. She hasn’t disclosed how much cash she has on hand, but it marks her second straight fundraising period with a seven-figure total.
Both candidates are working to protect early polling advantages in races that are growing more crowded — and far more expensive.
Things to know
Good morning! President Donald Trump moved to impose order on a chaotic northwest Georgia special election last night by endorsing former Lookout Mountain District Attorney Clay Fuller in the race to succeed Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress. The endorsement followed private pleas from GOP leaders urging Trump to back Fuller over former state Sen. Colton Moore, whose scorched-earth political tactics were so extreme he was ousted from the Georgia Senate Republican Caucus.
Here are three other things to know for today:
- Gwinnett Commissioner Matthew Holtkamp, who boarded a county bus in 2024 to campaign against a proposed sales tax for transit expansion, has been cleared of accusations that he violated the county’s ethics code, the AJC’s Alia Pharr reports.
- Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson said during his annual State of the Judiciary speech that artificial intelligence could help people in rural counties who lack access to lawyers, the AJC’s Shaddi Abusaid reports.
- A judge has dismissed most of the claims in a long-running lawsuit that sought access to Fulton County’s 2020 ballots, one week after FBI agents seized most of the same material, the AJC’s David Wickert reports.
No king
It was likely a throwaway line.
Georgia Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson, near the end of his annual State of the Judiciary speech to state lawmakers, was talking about Thomas More, a patron saint of lawyers who served King Henry VIII of England but was later executed after his falling out with the king on moral matters.
“As we like to remind our British friends every July 4th,” Peterson said,” we don’t have a king.”
Lawmakers interrupted him with applause, which appeared to catch Peterson by surprise. He likely didn’t mean it as a reference to the “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump. But some in the room took the opportunity to applaud the sentiment anyway, including a few Democrats such as state Sen. Josh McLaurin, who responded with a standing ovation.
“The Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court doesn’t play partisan politics, and Democrats trying to interpret his speech as such should get the attention they deserve — none,” said House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, R-Mulberry.
Video shows most lawmakers in the room applauded the line. McLaurin, who is also running for lieutenant governor this year, said it was telling that lawmakers had an instinct to applaud something that should not be a partisan talking point. But he said Peterson didn’t mean it that way.
“If anybody in the room had the feeling that that line was political, I would submit to you that’s not the chief justice’s fault,” McLaurin said. “The chief justice is just articulating a centuries old principle of how democracy works.”
Critics have assailed the Trump administration for flouting federal court orders, perhaps most forcefully when it comes to immigration enforcement. Peterson didn’t mention Trump by name, but he urged all lawmakers to respect “the rule of law.”
“When you hear about judicial decisions whose outcomes you don’t like, don’t reflexively question the court’s legitimacy,” Peterson said. “It’s OK to disagree, even to protest. But the rule of law will not survive when the legitimacy of judicial decisions and those who make them is routinely questioned every time there is an unpopular outcome.”
Georgia 2026
U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s sudden announcement that he will not to seek reelection after six terms has prompted a wide-open race for his exurban Atlanta seat and sparked early maneuvering among would-be successors.
Among the potential contenders:
- U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, a former state legislator from Alpharetta.
- Woodstock Mayor Michael Caldwell, a former state legislator.
- Dr. John Cowan, a Rome neurosurgeon who finished second to Marjorie Taylor Greene in the 2020 primary for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
- Andrew Johnson, a health policy analyst and Trump administration appointee.
- Hannah Palmquist, head of Georgia’s human trafficking prosecution unit.
Pushing back
Gov. Brian Kemp told state lawmakers last month that anyone thinking he is a lame duck needs to remember his “big red pen.” But judging from the House budget proposal released Wednesday, that veto pen doesn’t wield as much fear as it used to.
House Republicans rejected Kemp’s signature tax rebate plan that called for sending up to $500 checks to Georgia taxpayers. Instead, they replaced it with a similar plan that would send up to $500 checks to homeowners who pay property taxes.
The House plan would presumably exclude renters, while Kemp’s plan would exclude people who don’t earn enough money to qualify for the rebate, including some retirees.
House lawmakers flexed their muscles in other ways, too. One of Kemp’s most prized proposals was spending $325 million to boost a needs-based college scholarship, which Georgia has never done in any meaningful way.
Under Kemp’s plan, $300 million would fund an endowment supporting the scholarships while $25 million would go directly to scholarship awards. The House approved the $300 million, but they withheld the $25 million because they still have questions about how it would be spent.
“We haven’t seen a final approved plan from the regents on how that was actually going to be funded,” House Appropriations Committee Chair Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, said. “We are supporting it. But we need to see a little more information.”
Under the Gold Dome
It’s Day 13 of the legislative session. Some happenings:
- 7 a.m.: Department of Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver testifies before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal Justice.
- 8 a.m.: House Banks and Banking Committee meets to discuss House Bill 934, which would transfer the regulation of securities and commodities from the secretary of state’s office to the Department of Banking and Finance.
- 10 a.m.: House and Senate convene.
- 1 p.m.: House Education Committee meets to discuss House Bill 1009, which would ban the use of cellphones in high school classrooms.
- 1:30 p.m.: House Budget and Fiscal Affairs Oversight Committee meets to discuss House Bill 1003, which would increase state lawmakers’ expense accounts to $10,000 from $7,000.
- 2 p.m.: Senate Judiciary Committee meets to discuss Senate Bill 398, which would ban people from using artificial intelligence to create obscene material of others without their permission.
Fulton County update
Democratic state Rep. Stacey Evans voiced on Wednesday what many Fulton County voters fear: now that the FBI has the 2020 ballots, does the federal government know how each person voted?
“We are all understandably nervous there will be vindictive action taken from our federal government when they are able to place our name next to our vote,” she said.
But even with the documents the FBI seized, it’s unlikely they can match ballots to individual voters. The machines that tabulate Georgia’s ballots do so in sequential order, so it could be possible to match time stamps of ballot scans with logs of when voters checked in at their polling place.
But doing so would be much more difficult in a high-turnout election in a populous place like Fulton County, where lots of people were voting at the same time.
Fulton County officials on Wednesday asked a judge to order the FBI to return the ballots they seized during a raid last week. But their court motion, like the case itself, is under seal, so they couldn’t say much else about it.
Listen up
Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast we discuss how faith shapes politics in Georgia, including Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s reflections on how his role as a pastor informs his policy choices. Then, Pastor Tom Gray, a Republican candidate for Congress, joins the show to argue conservative politics are rooted in biblical principles.
You can listen and subscribe to Politically Georgia for free an 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.
Today in Washington
- President Donald Trump will attend the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington and attend an intelligence briefing.
- The House is done for the week.
- The Senate will vote on more Trump nominations.
Shoutout
New arrival:
- Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition Executive Director Mack Parnell and his wife, Christiana, welcomed a new baby boy, their fourth child.
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.
Before you go
In their amended 2026 budget proposal, Georgia House lawmakers included $250,250 to Georgia Humanities for its initiative to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. We see what you did there.
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.
About the Authors
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
Tia Mitchell is the AJC’s Washington Bureau Chief and a co-host of the "Politically Georgia" podcast. She writes about Georgia’s congressional delegation, campaigns, elections and the impact that decisions made in D.C. have on residents of the Peach State.
Patricia Murphy is the AJC's senior political columnist. She was previously a nationally syndicated columnist for CQ Roll Call, national political reporter for the Daily Beast and Politics Daily, and wrote for The Washington Post and Garden & Gun. She graduated from Vanderbilt and holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
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