by Ty Tagami | Jun 6, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Another football celebrity with ties to the University of Georgia could be headed for the state’s political big leagues, as former University of Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley weighs a run for U.S. Senate.
The son of legendary Bulldogs coach Vince Dooley is considering an effort to take down Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff next year.
Dooley said Friday he may run in the Republican primary, in news first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Georgia deserves stronger, common-sense leadership in the US Senate that represents all Georgians and focuses on results—not headlines,” Dooley said in a statement his spokesman shared with Capitol Beat News Service. “I believe our state needs a political outsider in Washington—not another career politician—to cut through the noise and partisanship and get back to real problem-solving.”
Dooley was the head coach for the University of Tennessee until he was fired over a decade ago after a losing streak. He continued coaching college and NFL football over the next decade.
He wouldn’t be the first football name to pursue a political career in Georgia, particularly in the U.S. Senate. In 2022, Donald Trump backed former Bulldog Herschel Walker’s bid for the Senate, leading to a sound defeat by Democrat Raphael Warnock.
The GOP lane to the Senate seat is wide open after Gov. Brian Kemp, who had been considering a run against Warnock, backed off last month.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons, was the first major political figure to jump into the race, followed a month later by John King, the elected state insurance and safety fire commissioner.
“This is going to be the most watched, most expensive race in the United States,” King said Friday of the contest against Ossoff, while speaking at the state Republican party convention in Dalton.
Dooley will decide whether to enter the race soon. “My family and I are continuing conversations,” he said, “and will make a decision in the coming weeks.”
by Ty Tagami | Jun 6, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
DALTON — John King, a Georgia Republican who hopes for the opportunity to try to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff next year, predicted that it will be the highest priority election in the nation.
King, Georgia’s insurance and safety fire commissioner, was among the speakers Friday as the state Republican Convention rumbled to a start in Dalton. Speaking to a crowd of several hundred in the local convention center, King said the stakes in the race are high, clearly implying to the delegates that that’s why they should back him during the primary.
“This is going to be the most watched, most expensive race in the United States,” said King, a former law enforcement officer and retired major general of the U.S. Army National Guard. “We can’t get this one wrong.”
King was a policeman in Atlanta, then worked his way up to police chief in Doraville. Gov. Brian Kemp ignited King’s political career by appointing him to fill a vacant seat as insurance commissioner in 2019, a post King later won by election in 2022.
King said he retired from the National Guard two years ago after 42 years of service. In a foreshadowing of the campaign he might employ if he wins the Republican primary, he told a story about what happened just before that, after President Joe Biden ordered the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021.
One of King’s Afghan sources contacted him, hoping for a way out of the country. So King said he tried to reach Ossoff’s office for help, but said he got none.
Finally, King said his Afghan source abandoned hope for himself and just asked to get his daughters out of the country.
“That still crushes me,” King said.
King accused Ossoff of being too “afraid” and “incompetent” to “take a stand” and help him and that “America paid a price for his weakness.”
King declared his candidacy after Kemp announced last month that he would not be running for Ossoff’s Senate seat. King’s announcement came days after U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter of St. Simons Island became the first high profile Republican to enter the race after Kemp said he was out.
Regan Box spoke too on Friday, saying she was the first Republican to declare for the race — two years ago. She said she’s driven over 100,000 miles to visit a hundred Georgia counties. She said she is against funding the war in Ukraine and she is for changes to Social Security and Medicaid. In the first quarter of this year, she raised over $10,000.
Others are expected to enter the race, too. Whoever emerges from the primary fight will have to face the most prolific fundraiser in the Senate.
Ossoff raised more than $11 million during the first quarter of the year, the most ever by a U.S. Senate incumbent in the first three months of an off-year.
by Ty Tagami | Jun 5, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s top elected school official announced plans to seek another four years in office Thursday, as others sign up to compete for the office against him.
If Richard Woods wins re-election to a fourth term next year, he will be sworn in in January 2027 to serve alongside a third governor.
Republican Gov. Nathan Deal was starting his second term when Woods, also a Republican, took the oath of office to lead the Georgia Department of Education in January 2015. Woods went on to serve during both of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s terms.
“As State School Superintendent, I have focused on transforming the Georgia Department of Education from a compliance-oriented agency to one centered on service and support for school districts,” Woods said in a statement issued by the education agency Thursday. “That vision will continue and, as I seek a fourth term, I am committed to expanding the resources and supports we provide directly to teachers.”
But at least two people so far are hoping to deprive Woods of that opportunity.
“He’s a nice guy, but I’ve got three children in the school system, my wife’s a schoolteacher,” said Randell E. Trammel, who lives in Cartersville and is planning to run against Woods in the GOP primary. “I don’t believe we’re offering excellence in education for every student across the state, and that comes with leadership.”
Trammell, CEO of the Center for Civic Engagement, registered on Monday to raise money for his own superintendent campaign.
Trammell is nearly a year behind Nelva M. Lee, a Locust Grove entrepreneur whom Kemp appointed to a two-year term on the state Board of Community Health in 2021. She filed to raise money last June for her run as a Republican in the superintendent’s race.
At the time, Lee was ending her run as CEO of a technical school for medical and court interpreters and translators. She said the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission shut it down for no good reason last year, “and I really would like to get rid of them.”
Lee, who now runs a tokenized real estate investment business, said she also wants to be superintendent to promote charter schools and to improve Georgia education overall, which she said is at “the bottom of the barrel.”
“For a state that touts itself as business-friendly, we need to do a better job,” Lee said.
Woods’ news about his candidacy was tucked into a statement that was mainly about a different topic. The news release from the education department led with the announcement that former state Teacher of the Year Christy Todd would be taking over operational control of the education agency as Woods’ new chief of staff.
Matt Jones, who had been in that role since 2015 and had navigated the department through COVID-19 and other crises, is departing the position.
“Matt will continue to be a valued thought partner for me and for the agency, and I wish him the very best as he moves forward in his career – one I know will always be shaped by his deep commitment to Georgia’s public schools and students,” Woods said.
Among the crises Jones faced was the controversy around Woods’ decision last year to withhold recommending an Advanced Placement African American studies course last summer, which was seen as a retreat from curriculum involving diversity, equity and inclusion. Woods reversed himself after numerous critics, including Kemp and the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, questioned his decision.
The appointment of Georgia’s 2024 teacher of the year to succeed Jones was promising news for Tracey Nance, who was Georgia Teacher of the Year in 2020 and 2021.
“Georgia Teachers of the Year are excited for Christy and look forward to her bringing a nuanced perspective of what teaching looks like today,” said Nance, who directs a fellowship for the National Network of State Teachers of the Year. “And we look forward to her being a cheerleader for all educators and for the rights of all students.”
by Ty Tagami | Jun 5, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The wide-open race for governor of Georgia in the next election will have Democrats assailing Republicans on access to health care and other quality of life issues, as a fourth liberal partisan enters the race.
State Rep. Derrick Jackson, a retired naval officer with a background in corporate marketing, cited hospital closures and Georgia’s refusal to expand Medicaid as top issues in an interview Wednesday, as the Democrat from Tyrone explained why he is contesting a fellow lawmaker, state Sen. Jason Esteves of Atlanta; former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and Pastor Olu Brown in the Democratic primary next year.
Jackson echoed other critics of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s alternative to Medicaid expansion. The Pathways to Coverage, rolled out in 2023, had enrolled about 6,500 Georgians by early this year despite an estimated 200,000 without health insurance. To qualify, adults must work, go to school, volunteer or do other qualifying activities for 80 hours a month.
“He’s just been a disaster, in my humble opinion, around health care,” Jackson said, citing a shortage of doctors, especially in rural Georgia.
Bottoms and Esteves also cited health care as a top priority when they announced their plans to run for governor earlier this year.
State Attorney General Chris Carr was the first candidate to enter the race. The Republican is expected to see a challenge from Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who has been piling money into his own campaign fund.
Carr cited jobs as a top priority late last year, when he announced his plan to run for the state’s highest office. He also focused on combating crime and “the left’s failed immigration policies.”
Jackson, who served 22 years in the U.S. Navy, called President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration “kidnapping” and said it is an affront to core American principles and the U.S. Constitution.
“You can’t just abduct a citizen … and then you just put them on a plane, and they end up in El Salvador or Venezuela or wherever else,” he said.
Another reason he gave for running: to raise the minimum wage and help more people cope with the rising cost of food, clothes and housing.
Jackson said his seven deployments and four combat missions instilled leadership skills that make him an ideal candidate for governor, especially when paired with his nine years of legislative experience.
He said he will be a more formidable candidate after learning from his unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor in 2022. Jackson finished sixth with 60,706 votes, less than 9% of the total, in a crowded primary against eight other Democrats.
by Ty Tagami | Jun 3, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Lack of access to cancer screening is costing Georgia heartache and money, especially in rural areas with fewer doctors and an aging population, state lawmakers learned Tuesday.
It was the second hearing of a study committee of the Georgia House of Representatives, which met in Albany at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital to hear from experts.
The members of the Study Committee on Cancer Care Access had already heard last week in Gainesville about the state’s relatively high rates of lung and colon cancer and the potential risk of exposure to polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, particularly in parts of North Georgia.
On Tuesday, they heard about the value of screening for cancer early enough to treat it successfully and at less cost. And they learned about the challenge of providing that screening within the U.S. health-care system in general and in rural Georgia in particular.
Fewer medical students are choosing primary care because of the low pay compared to specialty fields. Fewer primary care doctors means longer drives for patients, and these doctors serve as a key gateway to screening. Add the transportation challenges to inadequate insurance coverage, and many Georgians simply aren’t getting screened for cancer, said Robert Smith, senior vice president of Early Cancer Detection Science at the American Cancer Society.
Too often, patients get screened after experiencing symptoms and learn that they have advanced cancer. Then, they either suffer through distressing treatments or succumb to the disease, Smith said. The resulting pain, in human cost, ripples out to everyone around them, he added.
This inefficiency costs society a lot of money.
“Employers tell us that cancer is the top driver of their health-care costs,” Smith said, noting that two-thirds of cancer patients miss more than four weeks of work, and more than a third miss more than three months.
Smith said the U.S. health-care system relies on overworked primary care physicians and volunteer organizations to advocate for screening. He pointed to Europe, and Sweden in particular, as a model for establishing more deliberate screening systems. Georgia lawmakers could establish such a system, relieving primary care doctors of the responsibility, he said, when prompted for recommendations.
Nita Ham, executive director of the Georgia State Office of Rural Health in the Department of Community Health, painted what she called a “pretty bleak picture” of deteriorating conditions in rural Georgia.
That’s partly due to the flight of younger people, leaving an older and more cancer-prone population behind, Ham said. But the situation is compounded by inadequate insurance coverage and by hospital closures, forcing patients to drive farther for care, she said.
Eleven rural hospitals have closed since 2001, eight of them between 2013 and 2020, Ham said.
“We certainly are concerned that there may be one or two more in the near future,” she said.
Cancer costs hospitals a significant amount, said Caylee Noggle, president and CEO of the Georgia Hospital Association. She said hospitals lose tens of millions of dollars on uncompensated cancer care statewide.
Sarah Sessoms, chief operating officer of Community Health Works, which provides low-cost and mobile cancer screening, recommended that the legislature make nonprofit hospitals report the number of cancer screenings they do. She said lawmakers could establish a minimum number of indigent screenings as a condition of nonprofit status.
