Georgia Supreme Court candidates ask to sue a state agency in secret
Today’s newsletter highlights
- Test your knowledge with our weekly news quiz.
- More voters are undecided in Georgia’s GOP U.S. Senate race.
- Georgia Republicans plan a rodeo in June.
Secret lawsuit
Georgia Supreme Court challengers Jen Jordan and Miracle Rankin are picking a fight with the state’s judicial watchdog. And they’re aiming to take it behind closed doors.
The two filed notice Thursday that they are seeking to bring a legal challenge against the Judicial Qualifications Commission under seal, warning in a public filing that they are trying to prevent irreparable harm to their campaigns.
The lawsuit itself remains under wraps, leaving the precise dispute unclear. But the move lands in the middle of one of the most intense Georgia Supreme Court election cycles in memory.
Jordan and Rankin are mounting Democratic-backed challenges to incumbent Justices Charlie Bethel and Sarah Warren in the nonpartisan May 19 contests. Among their attorneys is former Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes.
There is recent precedent for this kind of fight. In 2024, former U.S. Rep. John Barrow sued after he was accused of violating judicial ethics rules for signaling how he would vote on abortion rights issues likely to come before the court.
Barrow countered that the threat of discipline chilled his First Amendment rights. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, finding Barrow had not shown evidence that he had actually censored himself.
Now Jordan and Rankin appear to be opening a new front over how much judicial candidates can say on the campaign trail about issues that could come before them.
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 this newsletter.
The Atlanta Press Club held debates this week for multiple offices ahead of the May 19 primary. How many debates did they host?
- A) 19
- B) 7
- C) 11
- D) 4
A U.S. Supreme Court decision this week weakened the Voting Rights Act by overturning a majority Black congressional district in what state?
- A) Alabama
- B) Mississippi
- C) Louisiana
- D) South Carolina
Gov. Brian Kemp has yet to call a special election to fulfill the remainder of the late U.S. Rep. David Scott’s term. Who announced this week that they planned to run for that special election?
- A) His wife, Alfredia Scott.
- B) His daughter, Marcye Scott.
- C) His son-in-law, Kwame Vidal.
- D) His district director, Dylan Nurse.
A new AJC poll out this week showed Rick Jackson and Burt Jones in a dead heat for the Republican nomination for governor. How many likely Republican voters remain undecided?
- A) 30%
- B) 26%
- C) 17%
- D) 42%
Wrong direction
The number of Georgia Republican primary voters who don’t know who they plan to vote for in the U.S. Senate race has increased, according to the AJC’s latest poll.
This could be a sign that voters are tuning out of a race featuring the campaigns of U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley. The primary is May 19.
The poll found that Collins continues to receive the most support at 21.6%, compared with 12.5% for Carter and 11% for former football coach Derek Dooley.
But 53.6% of respondents said they are undecided. That is up from the previous AJC poll conducted in November where 38% of voters said they didn’t know who they would support.
At the time, 30% said they supported Collins, 20% backed Carter and about 12% of voters said they supported Dooley. That indicates support for Carter and Collins decreased between the two polls but did not transfer to Dooley.
Giddy up, GOP
Georgia Republicans are planning to celebrate America’s 250th birthday with a rodeo in Perry, turning Middle Georgia into the backdrop for a summertime show that mixes patriotism with political organizing.
The Georgia GOP’s Rodeo 250 is set for June 20 with a championship rodeo, family attractions, Georgia vendors and plenty of red-white-and-blue programming.
State GOP Chair Josh McKoon framed the event as a tribute to the families, farmers, veterans, business owners and volunteers who power the party’s grassroots base.
But the timing is no accident. The rodeo lands in the heart of a pivotal election year, just after Georgia’s June 16 runoffs and as Republicans look to rally activists heading into the fall campaign.
Study the wind
Hurricane Helene wiped out the harvests Georgia farmers had been counting on back in 2024. But many farmers were surprised to learn that, according to the federal government, they weren’t impacted by the storm.
The Hurricane Insurance Protection - Wind Index program relies on storm tracking data to determine eligibility. Critics say that data is often flawed. In February, U.S. Reps. Rick Allen, R-Augusta; Sanford Bishop, D-Albany; and Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island, teamed up to introduce legislation to overhaul the program.
That bill hasn’t passed yet. But the House included a provision in its version of the farm bill that orders the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to study the program.
“American farmers feed and clothe our nation and the world, and they deserve policies that support their success,” Carter said in a news release.
Lingering questions
The FBI showed up in Fulton County with a warrant and left with troves of 2020 election records. A federal judge is demanding the U.S. Department of Justice to explain how it got to that point.
U.S. District Court Judge J. P. Boulee ordered the Justice Department to respond today to three questions:
- When did Kurt Olsen, President Donald Trump’s director of elections security and integrity, refer the probe to the FBI?
- When did the FBI open its investigation?
- When did the FBI begin drafting the affidavit justifying its seizure of troves of Fulton’s 2020 election records?
“As an initial matter, the Court notes that these questions seek an extremely small amount of information and should be simple to answer,” Boulee wrote. “Indeed, the DOJ can answer these three questions by doing nothing more than providing dates on the calendar for events that it does not dispute occurred.”
The additional evidence sought by Fulton could aid the county’s effort to retrieve the hundreds of boxes that FBI agents seized in late January, which federal authorities say is part of a criminal investigation into what it called election irregularities. But Fulton’s recovery of its records could be a steeper hill to climb after it was revealed that the FBI provided the county with digital copies of the seized documents.
Boulee didn’t give the county everything it wanted. He rejected Fulton’s request for answers on potential deliberation among Justice Department officials about using a criminal search warrant as an end-run around the civil suit. Fulton has contended the timing of the extraordinary ballot seizure strongly implies the agency used it as an improper means to circumvent a lawsuit brought forward by the Civil Rights Division for many of the same records.
Debate fallout
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ campaign is trying to make Rick Jackson’s most awkward debate moment last far beyond the showdown itself.
A new Jones ad invokes Jackson’s stumble over whether he had employed workers in the country illegally at his mansion, then broadens the attack targeting the billionaire healthcare executive’s immigration record.
The spot closes with the exchange that produced one of the sharpest moments of the GOP governor’s debate, when Jones pressed Jackson directly.
“You don’t have any illegals working for you right now or in the past?” Jones asked.
“I don’t know,” Jackson responded.
In an interview at a Flowery Branch campaign stop last night, Jackson said he didn’t personally hire workers at his home and said those who oversee personnel decisions for him are expected to follow the law.
“I tell everybody that hires that they have to obey the law,” Jackson said. “And if they don’t, I would fire them.”
He dismissed Jones’ use of the issue in a campaign ad as predictable political hardball, comparing it to attacks on Trump.
“This happened to President Trump,” Jackson said. “He was accused of a lot of things just like this.”
Listen up
There is no “Politically Georgia” podcast today. We’ll be back on Monday.
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.
Noteworthy
Susan B. Anthony List Pro-Life America has endorsed state Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, in the GOP primary for Georgia Attorney General.
Today in Washington
- Trump will hold a rally in The Villages, a retirement community in Florida, to highlight tax cuts for seniors. Then he will speak at an event hosted by a civics group in Palm Beach.
- The U.S. House and Senate are in recess through May 11.
Capitol honor
The late U.S. Rep. David Scott will lie in state at the Georgia Capitol today.
Scott spent nearly three decades in the state Legislature, including stints in the House and the Senate.
A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at the state Capitol. Afterward, Scott will lie in state in the rotunda until 5 p.m.
Scott’s funeral is scheduled for Saturday at Elizabeth Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Shoutouts
Today’s birthday
- Stephen Lawson, Republican strategist and principal in Dentons’ regulatory, public policy and government affairs practice.
- Harris Wallace, a philosophy, politics and economics major at Mercer who will begin an internship in U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s office this month.
Upcoming birthdays
- Georgia House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus (Saturday).
- U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, a former Georgia state senator (Saturday).
- State Sen. Donzella James, D-Atlanta (Sunday).
Before you go
Answers to this week’s news quiz:
- A) 19. The debates included candidates for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, Congress and the Public Service Commission.
- C) Louisiana. State officials suspended their congressional primaries. The ruling won’t impact Georgia’s 2026 races. But it could prompt state lawmakers to redraw districts ahead for the 2028 elections.
- B) His daughter, Marcye Scott. She said if she didn’t run, she thinks “my father would come back to life and kick my butt.”
- A) 30%. Such a large number of undecided voters makes the race hard to predict.
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.
