by Mark Niesse | Jan 21, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A Democrat received the most votes in a special election for an open Middle Georgia state Senate seat on Tuesday but failed to avoid a runoff as five other candidates split the Republican vote.
LeMario Brown, a Democrat and former Fort Valley councilman, advanced to the runoff against Steven McNeel, a Republican and trial attorney, according to unofficial results.
They’re running to replace former state Sen. John F. Kennedy, a Republican who resigned to run for lieutenant governor.
The Feb. 17 runoff, required in Georgia because no candidate won a majority of votes, will fill one of four vacant seats in the General Assembly, which began its annual legislative session last week.
Brown was the only Democrat in the race for Senate District 18, which includes Crawford, Monroe, Peach and Upson counties along with parts of Bibb and Houston counties. He gained 37% of the vote while the remaining 63% was divided among the five Republican competitors.
“LeMario’s performance is yet another testament to the momentum that Democrats are building as working Georgians across the state grow tired of 22 years of failed Republican leadership,” said Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey.
Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon said Democrats failed to make significant gains in the Republican-leaning district.
“Democrats threw everything they had at this race — pouring in money from California and New York and even calling in national figures like Sen. Mark Kelly — but in the end, they still couldn’t close the deal,” McKoon said. “Republicans stepped up, overcame the noise, and now we’re heading into the runoff ready for the final round.”
Special elections will also be held to fill other vacant seats in the General Assembly.
Former state Rep. Karen Bennett, D-Stone Mountain, resigned days before she was charged with fraudulently obtaining unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, former state Rep. Lynn Heffner, D-Augusta, moved out of her district after her home was damaged by Hurricane Helene, and former Republican Sen. Colton Moore, R-Trenton, stepped down last week to run for Congress.
Special elections for the state House seats are scheduled for March 10. An election date for the state Senate seat hasn’t yet been set.
by Ty Tagami | Jan 20, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgians now have another way to give away money and get it all back when they support private school students in Georgia after Gov. Brian Kemp signed onto a federal tax credit program.
The credit, established under President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, gives federal taxpayers up to $1,700 back for each dollar they give to authorized K-12 scholarship-granting organizations.
Kemp announced at the state Capitol Tuesday that he had signed the necessary IRS form to opt Georgia into the federal program.
“That’s probably the happiest I’ve ever been signing an IRS document,” he quipped.
His action means people and companies will “be able to donate more of their hard-earned dollars” toward private education in Georgia, said Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican running for governor, who attended Kemp’s press conference.
Critics contend that such programs divert government funding available to support public education.
But House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, called Kemp’s decision a step towards “educational choice and freedom for students and families” and said “more resources will flow directly to students who need them the most.”
The federal program is limited to families earning under 300% of an area median income. The median income in metro Atlanta was about $82,000, according to U.S. Census data through 2023, which would have placed the qualifying threshold at under $246,000 in annual earnings.
The federal tax credits will augment a state tax credit program.
The Georgia Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit gives individuals up to $2,500 back on their state taxes for every dollar they contribute to an authorized student scholarship organization. The organizations then award scholarships to students.
Married couples can get up to $5,000 in state tax credits. Companies can contribute significantly more and get the money back in tax credits.
The total state credits are capped at $120 million per year. They cost the state $88.8 million in fiscal year 2025, according to a recent report by state auditors.
“The credit merely shifted education expenditures from public to private schools, with no impact on the state economy,” the auditors said in a summary.
The state and federal tax credit programs are not the only government-backed support for students who want to attend a Georgia private school.
State lawmakers established a direct taxpayer funded program called the Georgia Promise Scholarship in 2024, and students first started receiving money last fall.
Enrollment was far below anticipation, with about 7,700 students participating, Christopher Green, president of the Georgia Student Finance Commission, said at a budget hearing Tuesday.
His agency, which oversees the state tax credit program, traditionally referred to as a voucher, is slashing the budget request for the scholarships in the amended fiscal year 2026 budget.
Last year, the General Assembly and Kemp earmarked $141 million for the vouchers in the fiscal year 2026 budget, but Kemp now wants to return $86 million of that allocation to the general fund because demand amounted to only $55 million.
by Mark Niesse | Jan 20, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia Democrats blamed Republican U.S. Senate candidates for the expiration of Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies Tuesday, an opening 2026 salvo in the critical Senate race.
The Democratic attack targeted the three Republicans in the race — U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley — for opposing bills that would have renewed the subsidies and held down insurance prices. They’re trying to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in this fall’s election.
Republicans said the health subsidies are an expensive cost to taxpayers that support a broken health care system.
Georgia House Minority Whip Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, said the elimination of subsidies priced many families out of health insurance coverage. Enrollment in Georgia’s health exchange declined by more than 190,000 this year, according to the Georgia Office of the Commissioner of Insurance.
“Republicans like Buddy Carter and Mike Collins voted to end the tax credits that made health care coverage affordable, and every single day they fail to restore those credits, more Georgians are losing access to life saving health care because they can’t afford it,” said Park during a press conference at the state Democratic Party headquarters.
Average monthly premium costs rose $862, to a total of $1,307, in Georgia for a 60-year-old with a $62,800 income on a benchmark plan, according to the health research organization KFF.
Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon said Democrats approved temporary health insurance subsidies during the COVID-19 pandemic without a long-term plan.
“The subsidies are financially unsustainable and point to how broken Obamacare has been from the beginning,” McKoon said. “President Trump and Republicans have offered sustainable solutions to increase access and affordability for all Americans, but Democrats would rather play politics.”
The Democrats’ attack accompanied billboards purchased by the Democratic Party of Georgia highlighting votes by Carter and Collins against extending Affordable Care Act subsidies. The billboards also cite Dooley’s opposition to the subsidies.
Nora Pullen, a small business owner featured at the Democrats’ press conference, said the cost of her health plan would have nearly tripled. Instead of paying extra, she decided to invest in her business rather than paying so much more for health insurance.
“I realize I rolled the dice. My family realizes that. But what choice do most people have? We’re middle class,” said Pullen, who lives in Fayetteville and runs a wellness facility. “I truly hope that we can vote for people who have our interests.”
Georgia voters will decide on the Republican candidate during the primary election May 19. The winner will face Ossoff during the general election Nov. 3.
by Mark Niesse | Jan 20, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A proposed amendment to the Georgia Constitution would end sales taxes on timber, a major industry battered by mill closings and storms.
House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration said a bipartisan group of legislators want to help protect “a cornerstone of the state’s rural economy.”
“The timber tax cut is necessary because Georgia timber farmers are facing severe economic hardship following the closure of multiple sawmills in Georgia and significant losses in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene,” said Efstration, R-Mulberry, the sponsor of House Resolution 1000. “Georgia is a national leader in forestry, and I want to help this state’s rural economy and the livelihood of many Georgians.”
Georgia’s forestry industry was the largest in the nation in 2021 based on harvest volume and product export values of nearly $4 billion, according to a report by the Georgia Forestry Association.
But timber producers have suffered in recent years.
International Paper closed two pulp and paper mills in Savannah and Riceboro last year, soon after Georgia-Pacific shuttered a countainerboard mill in Cedar Springs.
Hurricane Helene damaged about 1.5 million acres of forested land in 2024, with a $1.28 billion impact to the industry, according to the Georgia Forestry Commission.
The timber tax elimination would cost the state government up to $18 million a year, Efstration said. The state government would compensate counties, municipalities and school districts for some or all of the loss of local tax revenue.
“In heavy-timber counties, that’s their major industry. They certainly don’t want their industry to go out of business,” said Clint Mueller, deputy director for Association County Commissions of Georgia, which advocates on behalf of county governments and hasn’t yet taken a position on HR 1000. “If the state fully pays for this, I don’t know why our members would be opposed to it.”
If approved by two-thirds of the state House and Senate, the constitutional amendment would be on voters’ ballots in November.
The timber industry could also receive additional support from state lawmakers this year.
Gov. Brian Kemp is seeking $14 million in his proposed budget, primarily to support adoption of technology that uses wood products in the auto industry and in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
by Ty Tagami | Jan 19, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Financially strapped college students in Georgia often must drop out for want of money for food and shelter, but their prospects could improve under a new initiative from Gov. Brian Kemp.
The Republican governor, nearing the end of his second and final term amid an uproar over rising costs, wants to put $325 million of taxpayer funds into a scholarship program for students with limited means.
Georgia’s HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships are generous but require students to earn high grades. Georgia is one of just two states that do not offer scholarships solely for financial need.
If the General Assembly adopts Kemp’s proposal, then New Hampshire will stand alone as the only state that does not offer need-based funding.
“I’m really excited about it,” said Sam Aleinikoff, a former math teacher who created and runs College AIM, an organization that helps metro Atlanta students access higher education. “I think it’s a huge step in the right direction.”
Kemp’s gesture comes after a Senate study committee recommended that Georgia spend $126 million a year on need-based financial aid for 98,000 students, potentially pulling money from the same source that funds the HOPE and Zell scholarships and pre-kindergarten. The committee noted that the funding source, the Georgia Lottery Corporation, had nearly $2 billion in reserves.
Students and other advocates who testified to the committee described the plight of poor students who had to hold jobs to pay their bills. The time away from studies undermined their grades, eventually making them ineligible for the HOPE money that got them to college. That loss led to even longer hours at work and an academic downward spiral until they dropped out.
“By the end of their freshman year, 40% of those young people are no longer qualified to get that HOPE scholarship,” said Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, who led the study committee. “In many cases that is tied to the fact that they are out working one or two — in some cases we had students testify that they had three jobs,” she said. “Surprise, surprise they are challenged on keeping their grades up.”
Meanwhile, other states have been attracting Georgia students with larger financial aid packages.
Georgia has the lowest home state college attendance in the region, according to testimony before the committee, with 78% of high school graduates staying here versus the 91% who stay in Mississippi, 86% in Florida and 85% in South Carolina.
The committee cited a 2019 report by the Selig Center for Economic Growth, a business think tank at the University of Georgia, that said Georgia could eventually suffer a shortage of skilled labor if it did not create a need-based financial aid program. Without one, “Georgia is leaving potential economic growth on the table and shortchanging its citizens,” the report said.
Orrock’s study committee was authorized by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican running for governor. The committee’s recommendations passed unanimously, with bipartisan support.
Orrock speculated that her Republican colleagues were compelled by the facts unearthed by her committee and by the upcoming elections “where voters are saying affordability is the issue of the day.”
Kemp’s proposal would pour money into the DREAMS Scholarship Program, which was founded recently by the University System of Georgia Foundation under the leadership of Chancellor Sonny Perdue.
It had $4 million in need-based scholarship funding to distribute last fall. Kemp’s proposal would expand that significantly, offering $25 million in scholarships initially. The remaining $300 million would be used as seed money to attract private donations.
While advocates are excited about the promise of the program, they have questions about some of its stipulations. The DREAMS (Dedicating Resources to Educationally Advance More Students) website says students must work part time to earn a scholarship.
That requirement could undermine the very purpose of helping them maintain high academic achievement, said Ashley Young, an analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, which promotes equitable access to higher education.
“We feel this eligibility factor could be more of a barrier than an access point for students who actually need the money the most,” she said. She and other advocates are also concerned by vague language about the distribution of the funding. The website says DREAMS money will be distributed to more than two dozen schools and that the amounts will “vary by institution.”
It does not say how.
Young and other advocates suggested that the money be allocated based on eligibility for federal Pell grants, which are income-based. Otherwise, students at highly ranked schools, such as Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, which already have a healthy alumni donor base, could wind up with more support than students at lower ranked colleges and universities that contend with a higher ratio of low-income students.
Some also said students attending private colleges and universities should be eligible.
However, the biggest concern initially is the funding.
Annual allocations must grow fivefold from that initial round of $25 million to meet the study committee’s $126 million goal. Yet Aleinikoff, the former teacher turned advocate, said the larger figure was offered as a “paired down” and more affordable target.
“The need far exceeds even that $126 million number,” he said. “The need is expansive.”
To produce $126 million a year using investment income, the endowment would have to grow to around $1.8 billion, estimated Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania. As a member of Orrock’s study committee, he advocated for the endowment idea.
Georgia’s lottery program has about that much in reserves, and the committee suggested tapping that fund for DREAMS. But that would be a non-starter for Burns, who as chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, was a key voice in Republican support for the study committee’s recommendations.
HOPE is a sacrosanct national model, Burns said, and the reserves are needed to keep it funded through economic rough patches.
Burns, who said he worked his way through college, rising to become president of Gordon State College in Barnesville until 2017, agrees with the work requirement so long as it is limited. He cited statistics that say students lose half a letter grade for each 15 hours per week of employment during college.
He also praised Kemp for the downpayment to the program and Perdue for setting it up in the first place. He said businesses and “community partners” need to donate to the fund, and he said he is confident that will happen since they stand to benefit from an educated workforce.
“This initiative will support thousands of Georgians — thousands of Georgians — in perpetuity if we do it correctly,” he said.
