by Ty Tagami | Jun 11, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — With days to go before the final votes are cast in Georgia’s Republican gubernatorial runoff, President Donald Trump committed to another tele-rally to help his preferred candidate across the finish line.
Last month, Trump said, “I love you,” after Lt. Gov. Burt Jones introduced him during a public phone call.
Trump’s endorsement has been a core asset for Jones in his campaign against self-funded entrepreneur Rick Jackson.
Jackson has tried to complicate the narrative for Trump loyalists, calling the president an inspiration and a role model, saying he would govern like him. Jones has repeatedly noted that he is the only candidate in the race with the president’s endorsement.
Democrats countered Jones’ tele-rally announcement on X Wednesday, saying Jones had tied himself to a president whom they contend had raised costs for Georgians by imposing tariffs.
“Burt Jones has shown Georgians time and again that the only approval he’s looking for is Donald Trump’s,” a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Georgia said in a statement.
Jones and Jackson emerged from the May 19 Republican primary ahead of six other candidates.
Jones won just over 38% of the vote, about 6 percentage points ahead of Jackson.
Soon after, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who won about 12% of the vote, threw his support behind Jackson.
Given the margin in the first round, Carr’s endorsement could swing enough votes to influence the outcome Tuesday.
“In this runoff, you have a chance to choose a leader who will put Georgians first,” Carr said in a statement, “and Rick Jackson is that person.”
But Trump, who was scheduled to call into the tele-rally at 7 p.m. Thursday, has repeatedly shown an ability to influence primary outcomes.
by Ty Tagami | Jun 10, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and entrepreneur Rick Jackson have a few things in common.
Both are wealthy, but one is wealthier. Both say they are aligned with President Donald Trump, though Trump has endorsed only one of them.
Both are Republicans and want to become the GOP nominee for governor.
Yet only one can win the runoff Tuesday.
Republicans will make their choice after a bruising election campaign that cost the candidates tens of millions of dollars in advertising.
Both candidates have aired ads that allege the other is corrupt, another thing they have in common.
They share similar policy priorities, too.
Here is what they have said about the issues when queried at public events in recent months.
Both say they want to cut taxes
Jackson said during an Atlanta Press Club debate in April that he would cut the state income tax in half and freeze property taxes.
Jones had advocated for eliminating the income tax altogether, a goal that proved elusive during this year’s legislative session, when lawmakers approved more modest rate cuts.
Also, the Senate, which Jones leads, balked at the House’s goal of abolishing the property tax, agreeing instead only to an inflation-based cap on homestead value increases.
“Special interests pressured Burt. He did what was best for them and not you,” Rep. Brent Cox, R-Dawsonville, says in a new attack ad by the Jackson campaign.
Jones said at a Georgia Association of Manufacturers’ gubernatorial forum in April that he would continue trying to cut the income tax if he were to become governor.
“I’d like to see us go to zero,” he said.
They hold similar views on the environment
Asked about environmental regulations at the manufacturers’ forum, Jones said, “We’re regulated way too much as a country and even sometimes at the local and state level.”
Jackson said he “would keep protecting our natural resources” but only up to a point. “There has to be a balance between protecting the environment and actually making a good business decision,” he said.
He had a similar response to an audience question about litigation connected with PFAS, a pollutant that has been detected in rivers and the blood of residents in northwest Georgia, home to the carpet industry.
Jackson said, “there’s a balance between the health of the people … versus putting out of business one of the largest manufacturers in Georgia through class action litigation.”
Immigration policy got personal
Jones attacked Jackson on immigration at that Press Club debate in April, claiming Jackson was employing “illegals” in his backyard.
Jackson said he would deport “criminal illegals” as governor, but when Jones pressed him about whether he had employed undocumented workers, Jackson responded, “I don’t know.”
Jackson skipped the next Press Club debate in May, which was to be a runoff forum between the two of them. Jones, in a nod to the empty lectern for Jackson, said Jackson had skipped because Jones had “tripped him up” with that immigration question.
At the manufacturers’ forum in April, Jackson had offered his views on immigration.
“I’m not anti people coming in as long as they come here legally, but we need to do everything we can to make that possible because being here legally they pay taxes,” he said.
Competing for Trump supporters
Both say they are avid supporters of the president.
“President Trump’s business focus inspired me to run,” Jackson said at the April Press Club debate. ” Georgia needs business leadership, a focus on results, not politics. I’ll be just like him, with a Southern tone.”
But only Jones has Trump’s endorsement, a fact that Trump has repeatedly communicated for his chosen candidate.
“The biggest reason why President Trump is endorsing my candidacy for governor is because he knows me,” Jones said at that same debate. “We’ve got over a 10-year history together, and he knows me to be somebody who does what he says he’s going to do.”
Soon after Jackson ran his attack ad against Jones on the tax issue, Jones fired back with one of his own, repeating prior claims about Jackson being a political shapeshifter.
“Jackson donated to Stacey Abrams and donated to Liz Cheney after she impeached President Trump,” Jones’ ad says.
Jackson had addressed the issue at the Press Club debate, saying he did not know he had given money to a political action committee affiliated with Cheney but had given considerably more money to Trump’s campaign in December.
“I was late to the Trump train. I admit that,” Jackson said, adding that as a longtime conservative he had donated “to all Republicans, good and bad. … But there’s nobody that supports President Trump more than I do now.”
Money talks
Both men have considerable wealth at their disposal and have used it to promote their candidacies.
Jones talks about his stable family background, while Jackson shares his rags-to-riches story.
Jones describes himself as a sixth-generation Georgian, who helps operate his family’s petroleum business, with 2,500 employees.
Jackson says he was born to an alcoholic mother and raised in public housing and in foster homes. As a young man, he skipped college and went into business, ultimately growing a multibillion-dollar medical staffing business.
The candidates’ wealth invited an attack from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who failed to gather enough votes on May 19 to advance to the Republican runoff.
Carr could not match their ad-buying power, a point he drove home at the April Press Club debate.
“There’s one really rich guy and one guy’s rich daddy that are trying to buy your vote,” he said, “and one guy’s trying to earn it and that’s me.”
The week after he lost the primary, Carr threw his support behind the really rich guy, endorsing Jackson.
At that manufacturers’ forum, before the field was winnowed to two, Jones questioned whether anything the candidates were saying really mattered, noting that the Republicans had similar platforms.
“So, at the end of the day,” he said, “the voters have to decide who it is that they think can best execute on these promises.”
by Ty Tagami | Jun 9, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Metro Atlanta’s transit system unveiled its new phone app Tuesday, touting the technology’s utility for planning and safety.
The announcement came the same day that federal prosecutors described the defendant accused in a third violent attack on Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority property in nearly as many weeks.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Anthony Gresham, 42, of Lithia Springs, in connection with the shooting Friday of a 17-year-old boy on a MARTA train.
“Gresham was allegedly undeterred by decades of prosecution for robberies, drug trafficking, and other crimes, which compounds the need for federal intervention in this case,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement Tuesday.
Gresham is accused of pulling a handgun from his bag and firing three times at the boy, Hertzberg said.
The boy had entered the train at the Midtown station. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for gunshot wounds to his left hand and leg.
The violence comes as MARTA updates its trains, stations and systems in preparation for visitors from across the globe for the FIFA World Cup, with the first match in Atlanta on June 15.
Gresham was charged with committing an act of violence with intent to cause serious bodily injury on a mass transportation system, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Hertzberg said Gresham had prior felony convictions in at least three different counties that would have precluded him from legally carrying a gun. The convictions included armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, burglary, theft, and robbery by force.
Many will probably ride a MARTA train from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, heading the same direction as Margaret Swan, 66, who was stabbed to death on May 30 as her train approached the Oakland City station on Atlanta’s south side.
John Elijah Matthews, 25, of Decatur, was arrested at that stop. He also was charged in federal court, in his case on June 2.
Hertzberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said the U.S. Attorney General would decide whether to seek the death penalty.
After Matthews was charged, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy ordered the Federal Transit Administration to investigate safety protocols and security spending because of the recent violence.
Prior to Swan’s death, a 40-year-old man survived being stabbed in an Atlanta MARTA station on May 24.
The transit agency said on Tuesday that its new app, available on phones running on Apple’s App Store and on the Google Play store, offers live train and bus tracking, trip planning and system alerts. It also allows riders to report safety concerns and incidents to MARTA police, and it works in several languages.
“MARTA is committed to improving the customer experience, whether it’s on our buses and trains, or when riders use our website or apps,” MARTA Interim General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt said.
The app was designed by the company Reflexions, which is also working on an update to the transit system’s website, itsmarta.com.
by Ty Tagami | Jun 8, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Thousands of students at Georgia’s public colleges will have new leadership when they return this fall after the University System of Georgia named new campus leaders.
On Monday, the system named three new presidents: Greg Tanner at South Georgia State College, Russell Crutchfield at Gordon State College and Kerry J. Palmer at Georgia Southwestern State University.
Tanner is not entirely new to the role: he has served as interim president at South Georgia State since February 2023.
Chancellor Sonny Perdue said Tanner “hasn’t missed a beat over the past three years” there, helping to increase enrollment as the campus recovered from Hurricane Helene.
Crutchfield moves from Gov. Brian Kemp’s office, where he has been chief operating officer, to lead Gordon State effective Aug. 1.
Perdue praised Crutchfield’s roots in the university system and his work for Kemp, saying Crutchfield knows how to develop a skilled workforce for Georgia’s economy.
Crutchfield has been with Kemp since January 2024. Previously he served in executive leadership at the University of West Georgia as chief of staff and associate vice president. He also held leadership roles at several state agencies.
Palmer will become president of Georgia Southwestern on Aug. 1 after nearly three decades in education at the university and K-12 levels. As chief academic officer at Troy University in Alabama, he oversaw an $80 million budget. Perdue called him a results-driven leader who understands the role universities play in communities and in the workforce.
Palmer succeeds President Michelle Johnston, who is departing to lead the University of Montevallo in Alabama. Crutchfield follows Donald J. Green, who was tapped last month to lead Valdosta State University.
by Ty Tagami | Jun 8, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Drivers are paying the 33-cent-per-gallon excise tax at Georgia gas pumps again, but the suspension that ended Tuesday saved them nearly $200 million in May.
Motor fuel tax collections fell by $199.6 million, or 99.5%, compared to May 2025, according to the Georgia Department of Revenue.
Georgia lawmakers approved a gas tax suspension from late March through May 19, the date of the primary election. But Gov. Brian Kemp, using his authority to declare a state of emergency, extended the suspension by two weeks, into June.
Last week, he amended his call for a special session to begin June 17, asking the Legislature to approve his emergency tax suspension retroactively. In May, Kemp had ordered the special session to redraw district lines.
Tax revenues for May would have fallen even without the gas tax suspension. Collections were down 12.6%, or $339.1 million, from a year earlier, for a total of $2.35 billion.
However, the year-over-year comparison is complicated by the lingering effects of Hurricane Helene, which delayed tax filings last year and shifted collections from April to May.
Kemp’s office noted that, taken together, collections from April and May this year were down 1.9% from a year ago but were up 2.5% when excluding changes to motor fuel taxes.
