Geoff Duncan, Donald Trump trade jabs on social media after primary loss
Today’s newsletter highlights
- Test your knowledge with our weekly news quiz.
- After a primary win, Bentley Hudgins could make history in Georgia.
- A debate over debates looms in the GOP governor’s race.
No regrets
Former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan’s Democratic bid for governor ended in a distant fourth-place finish, roughly 50 percentage points behind nominee former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. But the former Republican says he has no regrets.
President Donald Trump mocked the former Republican on social media following the primary loss Tuesday.
“He has now failed in two Parties,” Trump wrote. “This guy was a LOSER from the first day I met him and now, we can call that official!”
Duncan fired back: “Oddly enough Trump, losing by 50% still feels better than supporting you. Doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing.”
Friday news quiz
Good morning! How closely did you follow the news this week? Find out by taking our news quiz. You’ll find the answers at the end of the newsletter.
Republican candidate for governor Burt Jones missed the final day of campaigning before the primary. Why?
- A) Bad weather grounded the plane his campaign had chartered for the day.
- B) He was called for jury duty in Butts County.
- C) His daughter was playing in a championship volleyball match in another state.
- D) His campaign bus broke down, stranding him and his staff in rural Georgia.
A new state law requires the release of all sexual harassment settlements involving state lawmakers dating back to 2019. How many settlement agreements were released to the public this week?
- A) Two
- B) Twelve
- C) None
- D) Seven
What international group announced this week that it will hold a big meeting in Atlanta this fall?
- A) United Nations Climate Change Conference
- B) G20 Foreign Ministers meeting
- C) World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference.
- D) Annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson urged people to protest state legislatures’ plans to redraw political maps. What method did he suggest?
- A) He called on athletes to not attend publicly funded universities in states that redistrict.
- B) He urged people to cancel travel plans to states that redistrict.
- C) He called for a boycott of businesses headquartered in states that redistrict.
- D) He urged Black lawmakers to resign in protest.
History maker?
Organizer and voting rights activist Bentley Hudgins could be on their way to becoming the first Japanese American and first openly nonbinary and transgender person elected to the Georgia General Assembly.
Hudgins, who uses they/them pronouns, jumped into the open primary race for Georgia House District 90 after former state Rep. Saira Draper opted to run for the state Senate.
Hudgins won the Democratic primary on Tuesday in the heavily left-leaning DeKalb County district. They’ll be the favorite against Republican Samantha Boston in November. If elected, Hudgins would be join the GOP-controlled Legislature after years of Republican-led efforts to restrict to gender-affirming care for transgender adults and children.
“Republicans have spent millions of dollars, election season after election season, demonizing us,” Hudgins told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They have introduced dozens of bills, session after session, trying to strip people like me and people like my friends and my family of our dignity and our human rights.”
“If they’re going to talk about the LGBTQ+ community and they’re going to attack us at every turn, we might as well be at the table,” they said.
Bella Bautista, a transgender woman, is also running for House District 14, a GOP-leaning district held by Republican state Rep. Mitchell Scoggins.
Debate talk
Get ready for a debate over debates in the GOP race for governor.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones kicked off the runoff cycle by challenging billionaire Rick Jackson to meet him onstage. On Thursday, Jones said he said he accepted an Atlanta Press Club debate for June 1 — and that he hopes Jackson “doesn’t continue to hide from his record.”
Jackson’s camp soon agreed to a debate of its own, but on his own terms: a June 14 showdown on Gray TV, just two days before the runoff. Jackson said it would “celebrate Flag Day and the President’s birthday.”
That timing quickly became part of the fight. Early voting will already be over by then, meaning many Georgians will have cast their ballots before seeing the debate.
Jones aides said they offered several earlier dates that Jackson hasn’t yet accepted. Democrats, meanwhile, poked fun at the Trump birthday line.
“Jackson cares more about celebrating Trump’s birthday than letting Georgians know where he stands on the issues,” said Democratic Party spokesman Jake Strickland. “Talk about a bootlicker!”
The Socialists aren’t all coming
A record number of Democratic Socialist candidates ran for state House and other offices in Georgia this year. But the results were decidedly mixed for the far-left candidates once the votes were counted on primary night.
Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta, trounced her Democratic Socialist challenger Jeremiah Olney, 85% to 15% in House District 57, while state Rep. Esther Panitch, D-Sandy Springs, held off her Democratic Socialists of America challenger, Aaron Baker, 57% to 43% in House District 51.
In a statement on election night, Panitch said voters chose, “experience over slogans, results over rhetoric and substance over stunts.”
It was better news for the DSA in the race to succeed outgoing state Rep. Park Cannon, where DSA-endorsed Mathewos Samson advanced to a runoff against Demetria Henderson. Samson got 29% of the vote, compared to Henderson’s 39%.
The first Democratic Socialist to join the General Assembly, state Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, easily won his primary, 82% to 18%, over Carlos Vilela in House District 42, while Democratic Socialist Kendra Clark fell short in the race to succeed state Rep. Edna Jackson in House District 165, with 35% of the vote.
Beyond legislative races, DSA-endorsed Tim Denson also advanced to a runoff in the Athens-Clark County mayor’s race, after Denson finished with 38% of the vote on election night. He will face Dexter Fisher, who won 27% of the vote. The winner between Denson and Fisher will succeed outgoing Mayor Kelly Girtz.
Greene’s doubts
Former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is predicting that whoever wins the Republican runoff for governor will defeat Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms. But she sounds far less confident about the race for U.S. Senate
“I’ve yet to see a poll where any Republican candidate edges out Jon Ossoff,” she told CBS News. “He’s an incumbent and incumbents have tremendous power in reelections. So I’m not sure how the chances are there.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley are battling for the GOP nomination to take on Ossoff, who enters the general election campaign with a unified base and a massive fundraising edge.
Endorsement watch
Fair Fight PAC, the political organization founded by Stacey Abrams, rolled out a slate of Democratic endorsements this week while warning that Georgia faces mounting threats to voting rights and election administration ahead of the 2026 cycle.
The endorsements include Josh McLaurin for lieutenant governor, Dana Barrett for secretary of state, DeAndre Mathis for insurance commissioner and Mo Ivory for Fulton County Commission chair.
Listen up
There is no “Politically Georgia” podcast today. We’ll be back on Monday.
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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.
Non-endorsement
Candidates who failed to advance to the runoff after Tuesday’s primary are deciding which of the two finalists to throw their support behind. But some have said they will choose no one.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, who placed third in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate race, told us he will not endorse fellow Rep. Mike Collins or Derek Dooley in the runoff.
In Georgia’s 11th Congressional District, Public Service Commissioner Tricia Pridemore landed in third place in that GOP primary. She announced on X that she also will not endorse either of the two candidates in the runoff: neurosurgeon John Cowan and congressional aide Rob Adkerson.
“Voters can take it from here,” Pridemore wrote.
Today in Washington
- Trump will swear in Kevin Warsh as chairman of the Federal Reserve then travel to Suffern, N.Y., for a campaign rally with U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler.
- The House and Senate are in recess until June 1.
Shoutouts
Upcoming birthdays
- State Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville (Saturday)
Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.
Before you go
Answers to this week’s news quiz
- B) He was called for jury duty in Butts County. A campaign spokesperson said, “Burt Jones shows up.”
- C) None. AJC Senior Data Editor Charles Minshew filed 372 open records requests, but state officials say no records exist.
- C) The G20 Foreign Ministers meeting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host the meeting on Oct. 30 and 31.
- A) He called on athletes to boycott college sports programs in states that redistrict. Georgia’s Republican-controlled Legislature will convene in a special session next month to redraw the state’s political boundaries.
That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider information 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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