Georgia Democrats want voters to remember 2020 when they vote in 2026
Today’s newsletter highlights
- Mike Collins urges Georgia to “move fast” to redraw its political maps.
- Early voting in Georgia increased 28% in the first week compared with 2022.
- Geoff Duncan, Nabilah Parkes launch new TV ads.
2020 redux
The fallout from Georgia’s 2020 election is back in the headlines. And now it’s in the TV ads, too.
Last night, we reported a federal grand jury subpoena is seeking personal information about thousands of Fulton County election workers and volunteers who helped administer the 2020 vote.
Today, the state Democratic Party launched a 30-second spot that puts Donald Trump’s pressure campaign front and center.
The ad backs Will Wooten, the Fulton County prosecutor who helped build the election interference case against Trump and is now challenging Georgia Court of Appeals Judge E. Trenton Brown III.
Brown wrote the 2-1 majority opinion that disqualified Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis from the Trump case, setting off the chain of events that led to its dismissal last year.
The new ad is blunt. Wooten says the justice system is letting Georgians down and threatening their rights. Then comes Trump’s voice from his January 2021 call to Brad Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes.”
Wooten’s next line: “I prosecuted him, too. As judge, I’ll make sure no one is above the law.”
Democrats are going all in for Supreme Court challengers Jen Jordan and Miracle Rankin, who are trying to unseat Justices Charlie Bethel and Sarah Warren. This spot is a reminder that they are also working down the judicial ballot as they try to turn Wooten’s Court of Appeals race against Brown into a referendum on Trump, abortion rights and 2020.
Things to know
Good morning! Here are three things to know for today:
- Republican leaders in the state Senate pledged to eliminate corporate tax breaks. Instead, they ended up approving a lot of new ones, the AJC’s David Wickert reports.
- The new AJC poll shows Georgia’s likely Republican primary voters are still all-in for Trump, the AJC’s Riley Bunch reports.
- DeKalb County officials used artificial intelligence to make a map of alleged arson incidents. The computer got it wrong, the AJC’s Taylor Croft reports.
Map mayhem
The fight over redistricting is quickly becoming a new dividing line in Georgia’s Republican race for U.S. Senate.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter chastised Gov. Brian Kemp over the weekend for closing the door on redrawing Georgia’s political maps for this year’s midterm elections. Today, Carter wrote an opinion essay in the AJC calling for Georgia to delay it’s congressional primaries so state lawmakers can redraw the maps.
Derek Dooley, the former football coach and Kemp’s hand-picked recruit for the seat, has backed the governor’s decision to wait.
And U.S. Rep. Mike Collins?
At a campaign stop in Acworth last night, we asked Collins whether Georgia lawmakers should act in time for this year’s midterm elections after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling weakened a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act.
“The Supreme Court got it right. We need to move on that as fast as we can,” he said.
This year?
“I think they can move as fast as they can this year.”
Turnout update
More than 214,000 people cast ballots in the first week of early voting for the primary, a 28% increase from the previous midterm primary elections four years ago.
Early voting started April 27 and continues through May 15. As of last night, more than 259,000 people have voted — or 3.5% of eligible voters.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger credited county election directors, calling them “the best in the business.”
“Georgians know it’s easy to vote and cast a ballot securely in the Peach State,” he said.
Democratic voters are still in the lead. The state has issued 141,757 ballots in the Democratic primary compared with 113,937 in the Republican primary. The nonpartisan primary has had just over 4,000 ballots cast.
Ad Watch
A pair of Democratic candidates are trying to break through with late TV buys as the May 19 primary nears.
Former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, running for governor as a Democrat, launched a new television ad backed by a six-figure buy focused primarily in the Atlanta media market.
It features Democratic state Rep. Michelle Au, former Georgia NAACP head James Woodall and influential activist Kenneth Walker among supporters singing his praises.
His campaign has also been running digital ads on YouTube, Hulu, Roku, Tubi, HBO Max, Facebook and Instagram.
And Nabilah Parkes, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, is going statewide with a pair of new TV ads backed by a $200,000 buy across Atlanta broadcast, cable and digital platforms.
Food fight
Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper is calling for the Trump administration to launch an antitrust investigation into food giant Sysco’s proposed acquisition of Restaurant Depot.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, Harper warned that allowing the country’s largest food distributor to take over the wholesale restaurant supplier would further consolidate the agriculture industry, drive up costs for consumers and restaurant owners, drive down margins for family farmers and “dramatically reshape America’s food supply chain.”
Harper also warned of the damage private equity firms have had on Georgia’s housing market. Just as Georgians have had to compete with deep-pocketed firms to buy a house, farmers can expect the same in their markets, he warned.
“America’s food supply chain is an essential part of our nation’s national security, not a profit center for private equity to ‘optimize,’” Harper wrote.
More fishing
The Trump administration last week extended Georgia’s red snapper fishing season for two months this summer, granting a wish from anglers more than a decade in the making.
For the past 15 years, Georgia anglers have only had a few days each year to catch red snapper — the coveted fish found in the warm waters off the Atlantic coast. That’s because data collected by the federal government said there weren’t enough fish in the sea to support the population.
Georgia anglers have been complaining that data is flawed. They’ve enlisted the help of Kemp and Georgia’s congressional delegation, who have written letters urging the federal government to let the state collect its own data.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued an extended fishing permit to Georgia and three other states. This year, Georgia’s red snapper season will be from July 1 through Aug. 31.
State officials will use the extra time to conduct surveys of anglers. The permit can be extended for another two years.
“Hopefully we will have three years where we can show NOAA we can do a better job at the state level than they can do at the federal level,” said Russell Kent, Georgia government relations advisory chair for the Coastal Conservation Association.
Meat-and-mea culpa?
We stand corrected. Sort of.
In yesterday’s newsletter, we wrote that guests at U.S. Rep. Mike Collins’ annual Surf & Turf event in Covington enjoyed barbecue and pecan pie.
Collins, never one to miss a chance to roast the AJC, quickly weighed in.
“Fake news,” he said on social media. “You don’t serve BBQ at a Surf & Turf. It was yard bird and catfish!”
Which raises the obvious question: Isn’t yardbird sometimes barbecue?
After all, chicken can be smoked, sauced, grilled, pulled, chopped, sandwiched with white bread or eaten straight off a paper plate. That feels at least barbecue-adjacent.
Still, Collins has a point. A proper Surf & Turf menu is a delicate culinary statement. Catfish handles the surf. Yardbird covers the turf.
The politics were still cooked to order.
Listen up
Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast we break down the latest AJC poll of Georgia’s 2026 Republican primaries for Governor and U.S. Senate.
You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on 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.
Campaign files
- UFCW Local 1996 has endorsed former state Sen. Jason Esteves’ Democratic campaign for governor. Eric Taylor, the union’s president, said Esteves’ message of “’health, wealth and opportunity’ resonates best with our 17,000 members.”
- Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff will be joined by three pastors at an event to bring attention to last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act.
Today in Washington
- President Donald Trump will host a dinner for allies and supporters at the White House.
- The U.S. House and Senate are out this week.
- U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, will host an event to highlight federal funding coming to Clark Atlanta University.
- U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Suwanee, will participate in an event with Americans for Prosperity-Georgia in Dawsonville to highlight a House-passed bill regarding permitting regulations.
Shoutouts
Today’s birthdays
- State Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta.
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
How did an affordable housing bill in the state Legislature end up being a tax break for the forestry industry? It’s a common trend in Georgia’s sometimes topsy-turvy legislative process.
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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