by Ty Tagami | Aug 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
FLOVILLA — Lt. Gov. Burt Jones held his first gubernatorial campaign event Tuesday at a state park south of Atlanta, touting his endorsement by President Donald Trump, his record in the Senate of promoting conservative legislation and his background as a businessman.
The evening event at Indian Springs State Park in Butts County featured several Republican state senators, and a former senator — Brandon Beach. Trump plucked him from Georgia earlier this year and made him U.S. Treasurer.
Beach made it abundantly clear that Trump had endorsed Jones, whom he described as a job creator.
Jones “loves Georgia, he loves his family, he loves and respects law enforcement, but what he really loves is capitalism,” Beach said, which elicited whoops and cheering. “He wants you, your kids and your grandkids to pursue the American dream.”
Jones, who lives in Jackson with his wife Jan and their two teenaged children, said state government would have a business-oriented “Chick-fil-A type” service mentality under his leadership.
He said he started businesses inside his family’s Jones Petroleum company after college, before entering politics. He used that background to knock his competition, saying he was the only candidate who had risked money to make money and who had signed employee paychecks.
“They have all been at the government trough their entire careers,” he said.
Jones is campaigning for the GOP nomination against Chris Carr, the state attorney general, who is running on a tough-on-crime agenda.
Carr has aligned himself with Trump’s MAGA base and with traditional GOP orthodoxy, threatening the administration of then-President Joe Biden against any COVID vaccine mandate, joining other attorneys general from Republican-led states in challenging a Biden administration rule governing coal and gas plant emissions and siding with Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in a State Election Board dispute between Republicans and Democrats.
But Jones holds an ace card with the recent Trump endorsement, which seemed likely given Jones’ persistent support of the president and his assertions about election fraud. Jones was investigated for a possible criminal violation after he joined Beach and others as “alternate electors” after Trump’s 2020 loss, but a special investigator exonerated Jones.
Jones is also pursuing a traditional Republican line in vowing to eliminate Georgia’s income tax. He created a study committee that featured testimony this month from longtime GOP anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist.
Whoever wins the Republican primary next year will go on to face the Democratic nominee in the November election.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is running on a record of managing the city during the pandemic and is pitching Medicaid expansion. State Sen. Jason Esteves of Atlanta, a former Atlanta school board member, has made education, health care and housing top priorities. And former Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, the only Democrat in the race who has won statewide, is campaigning on his relationships with lawmakers from both parties as a former state representative, saying he also wants to expand Medicaid.
The Georgia Democratic Party issued a statement ahead of the event accusing Jones’ leadership of putting rural hospitals in financial jeopardy due to high insurance rates and a tax code “that rewards billionaires, big corporations, and whoever the latest lobbyist was to buy somebody a steak and a bourbon. … In Burt Jones’ Georgia, it’s Donald Trump and his billionaire friends first, Georgia families last.”
Jones countered at his event that bureaucratic rules make it difficult to open new hospitals, and he said he has worked against those rules as lieutenant governor.
Successful election campaigns cost money, and the Republicans came out of the gate with a major lead. Carr and Jones raised about $3 million apiece — three times what Bottoms and Esteves each raised as of the last reporting period in early July. (Thurmond had not entered the race yet.)
But Jones has a tremendous legal advantage that allows him to pull in unlimited funds, and he loaned himself another $10 million. Carr has made an issue of Jones’ use of his “leadership committee,” a special entity enjoyed by a handful of incumbents and primary winners under a 2021 state law.
As attorney general, Carr does not get a leadership committee, though he would if he were to win the Republican nomination. He recently sued Jones in federal court over the committee after losing a similar complaint to the State Ethics Commission.
by Dave Williams | Aug 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp announced two new appointments to his administration Tuesday.
Oscar “Bo” Fears will take over as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, moving up from his current role as the agency’s senior deputy commissioner.
Fran Dundore will serve as director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement after spending three years as the office’s director of school services.
Fears will succeed Kevin Hagler, who will retire at the end of this month as the second-longest serving banking commissioner in the department’s history. Dundore will succeed Ian Caraway, who will become director of policy and external affairs for the governor’s office after a brief stint as interim director of the Office of Student Achievement.
Fears joined the Department of Banking and Finance in 2013 as deputy commissioner for legal affairs. Before that, he worked at the state attorney general’s office for 16 years, including a stint as group leader of the Commercial Transaction and Litigation Division’s Business and Finance Section.
Dundore began her career as a high school English teacher in Stephens County and has spent the last 28 years serving public school students across Georgia as a principal, district curriculum leader, and assistant superintendent.
Both appointments take effect Sept. 1. Kemp announced the moves from São Paulo, Brazil, where he is leading a Georgia delegation on a trade mission to South America.
by Dave Williams | Aug 26, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Trade through Georgia’s ports supported 650,965 full- and part-time jobs across the state during the last fiscal year, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Tuesday.
The number of statewide jobs grew by 41,770 in fiscal 2024, up 7% from the previous fiscal year. Georgia ports now help sustain 12% of total state employment.
“Georgia has been recognized as the No.-1 state for business for over a decade in part because we’re also the best state for reliable infrastructure,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “As powerful economic drivers, the ports of Savannah and Brunswick are a key part of the pro-job creator environment we’ve fostered to ensure every part of our state can thrive.”
“Georgia’s ports are one of the strongest economic engines, fostering the development of virtually every industry,” added Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia, which conducted the economic impact study.
“The ports are especially supportive of other forms of transportation, logistics, wholesale/distribution centers, warehousing, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, and mining.”
According to the Selig Center study, Georgia’s two deep-water ports accounted for $174 billion in sales in the last fiscal year, up 2% from fiscal 2023, and contributed $77 billion to the state’s Gross Domestic Product, a 7% increase over the previous fiscal year. The ports also generated $43 billion in income, up 7.5% compared to fiscal 2023.
The top three exports were forest products, food, and automotive cargo. The top imports were machinery, retail goods, and furniture.
Activity at the ports also yields $10 billion in federal tax revenue each year, $3 billion in state taxes, and $3 billion in local taxes.
by Ty Tagami | Aug 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — An Army captain faces up to a decade in prison after pleading guilty to the theft of expensive equipment from Fort Stewart.
Jacob Suenkel, 32, of Richmond Hill, admitted in court that he stole skid-steer loaders, trailers, generators, a tractor and other valuable equipment from late 2024 through May, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia said Monday.
Suenkel then marketed the items for sale on social media, prosecutors said. The Richmond Hill Police Department assisted with the investigation.
“Suenkel betrayed not only the U.S. Army, but also the trust placed in him by the American people,” said Ryan O’Connor, special agent in charge of the Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division for the Southeast.
In addition to prison for theft and sale of government property, Suenkel’s sentence could include a quarter-million-dollar fine. He agreed to a discharge with an adverse characterization of service, which will result in a loss of veterans’ benefits.
Fort Stewart was the site of a mass shooting earlier this month, when Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28, allegedly opened fire with a personal handgun. No one was killed but five were injured before nearby soldiers tackled and subdued him.
by Dave Williams | Aug 25, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia National Guard will deploy about 75 soldiers and airmen to help support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations across the state, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday.
The request to support ICE in Georgia is not related to President Donald Trump’s recent decision to deploy National Guard troops in Washington, D.C.
Kemp also emphasized that assigning the Georgia National Guard to work with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies is nothing new. The governor sent Guard troops to the Texas border with Mexico early last year, accusing the Biden administration of failing to secure the border.
“Under the bad policies of the prior administration, every state became a border state,” he said. “I was one of the first to mobilize both personnel and policies to crack down on illegal immigration. … Georgia has led on this front for years and will continue to do so through this latest measure while still meeting all responsibilities and duties the Guard has to the state.”
The Georgia Guard troops will not conduct law enforcement functions or make arrests. Rather, they will be providing administrative and logistical support including appointment scheduling, biometric collection, data entry, and performing basic vehicle maintenance in order to free up ICE personnel for law enforcement activities.
Nonetheless, Democrats criticized the deployment decision as unconstitutional and unsustainable.
“As a retired naval officer, it goes against my core values and principles to use Georgia’s National Guard for purposes beyond its lawful duties,” said Georgia Rep. Derrick Jackson of Tyrone, one of several Democrats vying to succeed the term-limited Kemp as governor.
“I believe the brave men and women in uniform did not take an oath to use force against our citizens in the United States. Let me be crystal clear: the purpose of the Georgia National Guard is to defend against foreign threats and aid in natural disasters.”
The Guard members assigned to the mission are scheduled to receive training in mid-September be on duty shortly thereafter.
