ATLANTA — Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff powered to a second term Tuesday night, defending his seat against Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins.
Ossoff surged to an early lead after the polls closed and held it through the night, with a double digit percentage point advantage after all precincts had reported, according to the unofficial count by the Georgia secretary of state’s office.
Through much of the campaign, Collins had handed Ossoff a ready line of attack. Collins’ son-in-law, who lives on his property, shared a steady stream of white supremacist content on social media. Ossoff also seized on news reports about former staffers in Collins’ congressional office with ties to white supremacists.
Collins campaigned on his endorsement from President Donald Trump, and on legislation he introduced after nursing student Laken Riley was killed on the University of Georgia campus by a Venezuelan national in 2024. The bill, the first Trump signed into law after he was sworn in for his second term, requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain immigrants who are in the country illegally and are arrested for or charged with certain crimes.
Holding the seat was crucial to Democrats’ effort to retake control of the U.S. Senate during an election cycle that featured widespread frustration with rising prices. With Trump’s popularity sagging in the polls and Republicans in control of the Senate and the House, GOP candidates became a target for voter anger.
In his victory speech, Ossoff said voters had reacted to the indifference of the wealthy to their financial struggles and had “rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence” of Trump’s presidency.
ATLANTA — The price of everything has been rising, including the cost of becoming governor in Georgia.
Since Aug. 1, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and businessman Rick Jackson raised more than $150 million in their quests to lead the state.
Jackson, the Republican nominee, took in the vast majority of that total.
Between his two committees, after accounting for transfers between them, Jackson raised at least $120 million, about four times as much as Bottoms, the Democratic nominee, who gathered more than $30 million.
Those figures include the near daily reports of new money their committees filed after the last major disclosure period ended on Oct. 20, with Jackson raising more than $8 million since then and Bottoms more than $7 million.
Regular gubernatorial campaign committees can collect a maximum of $8,400 from each donor per election. But Bottoms and Jackson were able to blow well past that limit because of the special status Georgia lawmakers have given certain candidates.
Gubernatorial nominees can set up “leadership” committees, which can raise unlimited sums.
Since Aug. 1, the Democratic Governors Association has given Bottoms’ leadership committee more than $14 million.
Wealthy individuals also chipped in.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg gave her $4 million, more than half of it last week. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker sent her $1 million the week before that. Emmitt Perry, a self-employed filmmaker in Atlanta, gave her $250,000 in early October. (Tyler Perry is also known as Emmitt Perry Jr.) And Rory Gates, listed in Bottoms’ campaign finance report as a Senate analyst in Washington, D.C., gave her $100,000 in mid-October, using the address of a UPS store there. (One of Bill and Melinda Gates’ children is named Rory, who, according to Inside Political Money and The New York Times, has a history of supporting Democratic candidates.)
Since Aug. 1, the Republican Governors Association has given Jackson’s leadership committee more than $12 million, sending $1 million of it last week.
Jackson also got a boost from well-heeled individuals.
Jeffrey Sprecher, chairman of Intercontinental Exchange in Atlanta, gave Jackson’s leadership committee $150,000 in the past two months. (Greater Georgia Action, a political action committee founded by former Republican U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Sprecher’s wife, gave $50,000 last week.) Jim Walton, chairman of Arvest Bank Group in Arkansas and a son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, gave Jackson’s leadership committee $100,000 in September. And on Oct. 5, Jackson’s leadership committee received $25,000 apiece from Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the New York financial managers who attended Harvard with Mark Zuckerberg and sued, alleging that he stole the idea for Facebook from them. (That dispute inspired the 2010 movie “The Social Network.”)
The vast majority of Jackson’s campaign money came from his personal wealth. After spending more than $100 million of his own money to win the Republican primary, Jackson plowed another $88 million into his general election campaign by the end of the Oct. 20 reporting period. Then, on Oct. 21, he upped the ante with another $4.5 million.
Had Jackson not dug into his own pockets, his two committees would have raised about as much as Bottoms’ two.
Jackson’s money came from fewer donors.
From Aug. 1 through Oct. 20, he had 80 contributions of $10 or less.
Bottoms had more than 74,000 such contributions.
Jackson’s campaign finance reports fill more than 200 pages with itemized contributions. Bottoms’ reports fill nearly 2,000 pages.
Her reports would have run much longer had she itemized all of the contributions. Her campaign committee disclosure for the period ending Oct. 20 reported that 98,098 contributions were not itemized, meaning the donor names were not included because the total each donor gave fell beneath the disclosure threshold.
About three out of four of Bottoms’ small itemized donors were from other states.
Donors from various industries gave sums that would have seemed large years ago. Jackson collected more than $300,000 from executives, doctors and others in healthcare (including from his own company, Jackson Healthcare) while Bottoms took in more than $100,000 from that sector.
They each received a $50,000 contribution from gambling interests, Jackson from a Texas company called Bad Dog Games and Bottoms from the PCI Gaming Authority in Alabama, the gambling arm of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
Alcohol distributors gave Jackson more than $200,000, with Georgia Crown Distributing Co. giving $100,000 in August and a company employee giving another $100,000 in October. The chairman and CEO of United Distributors gave Jackson $25,000 in August.
Bottoms took in two $50,000 contributions in September from Loving Helping Hands Inc., which the Better Business Bureaucharacterizes as a home healthcare company. In October, Bottoms received $100,000 from the Working Families Advocacy Project in Washington, D.C. and $150,000 from the Augusta-based political action committee of the Southern Regional Council of Carpenters.
Both candidates drew money from educational groups. The Georgia Charter Action Fund PAC of Atlanta, which advocates for charter schools, gave Jackson’s leadership committee $100,000 in October. That month, the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education gave Bottoms’ leadership committee $200,000. The American Federation of Teachers gave her $50,000, last week.
Some donors gave to both candidates.
Altria Client Services in Virginia gave $100,000 to Jackson’s leadership committee on Sept. 17 and gave $25,000 to Bottoms’ leadership committee on Oct. 7.
Elevance Health Inc. in Ohio gave $50,000 to Jackson’s leadership committee on Sept. 9 and $25,000 to Bottoms’ leadership committee on Sept. 23.
Some smaller donors hedged their bets, too.
In September, The Southeast Permanente Medical Group in Atlanta gave the maximum $8,400 to the campaign committees for both Bottoms and Jackson. A 2nd Chance Bail Bonds in Marietta gave $5,000 to both campaigns that month.
And Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Air Lines, did not play favorites either.
On the same day, Oct. 5, he gave each campaign $2,500.
ATLANTA — Barack Obama traveled to Clayton County Wednesday night to promote the Georgia Democratic ticket less than a week before Election Day.
The visit came amid Republican efforts to energize their own voting base, including two visits to the state earlier this month by President Donald Trump.
Obama linked top Georgia Republican candidates to Trump and focused his criticisms on the president’s management of the country and on rising prices.
Obama blamed Trump for starting a war with Iran that has driven up prices, and he ridiculed the president’s tariffs.
He drew laughter when he said Trump had started a trade war with an “evil empire that is a sworn adversary of the United States — Canada.” He described Canadians as “the people who gave us maple syrup and Martin Short, the nicest people around.”
Former President Barack Obama speaks at a Democratic rally at The Arena at Southlake in Morrow, on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (Caroline Newbern/Capitol Beat)
Obama’s appearance at The Arena at Southlake in Morrow came after speeches earlier in the evening by Democratic U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee for governor, and several down-ballot Democrats also pitched their own campaigns.
Ossoff is defending his seat against Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins while Bottoms runs against Republican businessman Rick Jackson.
Obama asserted corruption in the White House and said a Republican-controlled Congress would do nothing about it, “certainly not Mike Collins.” Obama characterized Jackson as a Trump acolyte.
Jackson has spent more than $100 million of his own money on his campaign, and Warnock tried to use that against him.
“I need you to send Rick Jackson a clear message,” said Warnock, who is not up for reelection this year. “Georgia is not for sale.”
Bottoms and Ossoff attacked their respective opponents.
After labeling Trump a “wannabe dictator,” Bottoms called Jackson his “billionaire sidekick.” The other side has the money, she said, “but they will never overtake our movement.”
Ossoff called Trump a “draft-dodging” commander in chief who cannot figure out how to exit the “needless” war with Iran. Then, Ossoff faulted Collins for voting in lockstep with Trump on everything from the war to Trump’s tax and spending bill.
Hundreds of thousands lost access to healthcare as a result, Ossoff said, criticizing the decisions as “the cynical indifference of powerful people.”
Republicans lobbed their own criticisms ahead of Obama’s visit. Josh McKoon, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, claimed in a statement that Ossoff was “clearly going to run as the Socialist candidate for President in 2028,” adding, “it’s no wonder why President Obama is coming to campaign with Ossoff.”
Among the other speakers was Jamal Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, a large and influential Black institution in Stonecrest.
Bryant predicted a Democratic wave in this election.
Already, more than 2 million voters have cast an early ballot, a record for the state. “Somebody should check the weather forecast,” he said. “A blue tsunami is about to hit Georgia.”
Early voting ends Friday and Election Day is Tuesday. The results will show how well Bryant’s forecast holds up.
ATLANTA — Edwin Brant Frost IV will spend 15 years in federal prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that bilked more than 300 investors out of more than $76 million, federal prosecutors announced this week.
Frost, 69, ran the scheme through Newnan-based First Liberty Building and Loan. By 2021, First Liberty was not taking in enough revenue to meet its obligations, prosecutors said Monday. Then, instead of disclosing the shortfalls, Frost used new investors’ money to make payments to existing investors.
Frost held his company out as a politically conservative, Christian lender, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg likened Frost to a “false prophet” who exploited investors’ faith, adding that he “used religion, politics, and promises of profitable returns to lure investors into giving him their hard-earned money.”
Frost was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, and he was ordered to pay more than $76 million in restitution.
He was convicted of wire fraud on May 12 after he pleaded guilty.
ATLANTA — German automaker Audi’s decision to locate its first U.S. plant in Georgia was a trifecta for Gov. Brian Kemp, who sees it as a major part of his legacy as he prepares to leave office.
When campaigning the first time for governor eight years ago, Kemp pledged to bring more jobs to rural parts of the state.
He went on to assemble three “megasites” strategically located east and south of Atlanta.
First, Rivian jumped in, choosing the site near Social Circle. Then came Hyundai, picking the second site near Savannah.
Finally, on Saturday, Gernot Döllner, CEO and chairman of the Audi AG board, announced plans to build the company’s first U.S. plant at the third megasite, in Peach County, near Macon.
Audi said it wanted to be closer to customers in North America. Kemp’s office said the company would make as many as 200,000 vehicles a year at the facility by 2031, with SUVs tailored to the continent.
On Monday, the term-limited Kemp characterized the announcement as mission accomplished. The plant, in which Audi plans to invest about $4 billion, is expected to create about 4,500 jobs in the region.
“We will see this payoff for decades to come,” he said at the Capitol.
Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said the jobs will be high-tech, in a highly-automated plant, and will pay workers an average of more than $63,000 a year, pumping $283 million annually into the state economy.
“Those are quality jobs, high-skill jobs,” Wilson said.
Gov. Brian Kemp at the Capitol with Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, as Wilson answers questions with First Lady Marty Kemp watching, on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. (Ty Tagami/Capitol Beat)
The contracts have not been inked. Audi’s board of directors must still approve the deal.
But Kemp and Wilson said they were confident in sealing a deal that has been nearly two years in the making.
It came together in fits and starts after Kemp said he read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the company’s interest in making cars in the United States.
The Munich Security Conference was approaching in early 2025, and Kemp saw it as an opportunity to sell Georgia. He had been making trade trips abroad and would be speaking at the event.
The governor said he asked Wilson to arrange a meeting with Audi.
“It was really a cold call quite honestly,” Kemp said.
The company agreed to meet. They convened in a small room at a hotel. Georgia’s team showed Audi executives the megasite, and Audi responded with a poker face.
“They didn’t really say a whole lot to us best I remember,” Kemp said.
Later, the company expressed interest, and a deal seemed to be in the offing. Then Audi stopped talking to Georgia. Kemp said the state was planning to market the megasite to other companies, but Audi returned to the table.
The site’s location near Georgia’s rail lines, ports and automotive parts suppliers attracted Audi, Kemp said, adding that he thought access to a skilled workforce was the top selling point.
Kemp said Georgia competed with other states to land Audi. He would not detail any incentive package the company would receive but said that information would eventually become public.
Another major selling point, both Kemp and Wilson said, was the preparation at the megasites that would allow a company to quickly get a new plant up and running.
“Speed to market” was among the reasons that consultants who responded to Area Development magazine’s latest survey again ranked Georgia as the top state for business. The magazine’s announcement last month put Georgia at No. 1 for the 13th year in a row. Georgia also ranked first for cooperative and responsive state and local government.
Kemp and Wilson said government had to adapt to the fast pace of business these days.
“It couldn’t just be, you know, a piece of land,” Kemp said.
It had to be ready to go, or “shovel-ready.” Audi had to have confidence that Georgia could quickly issue environmental permits and provide the site with the water and power supply necessary to get a factory running at that scale — and quickly.
Kemp described Audi and the other automakers as magnets for related businesses that would contribute to economic growth long after he leaves office in January.
“You land these projects and they’re going to grow over time or bring suppliers,” he said.
