Two groups got answers they’d awaited last week, signaling what was to come for their future.
Catholics got their new pope. But Georgia Republicans are still waiting for their candidate.
No plume of smoke arose from the Governor’s Mansion when Brian Kemp announced he would not seek one of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats next year. Nor would voting have been canceled if
Kemp had decided otherwise.
But Kemp would have been the closest thing to an ordained selection in the GOP’s nominating process: a sure bet to face Democrat Jon Ossoff, leaving other ambitious Republicans to seek other races or stay put.
Instead, it’s looking like maximum political chaos.
The two plum jobs on the 2026 ballot are governor and senator. The former is open because Kemp is term-limited.
While the latter has an incumbent, Republicans in Georgia and nationally view the seat as a prime opportunity in what could be a tough year elsewhere – and perhaps their last, best chance to unseat Ossoff. One-term senators can be vulnerable, but two-term senators start to look permanent.
Without Kemp in the Senate race, more Republicans in statewide offices or Congress will start activating plans they’ve been quietly making as contingencies.
What will the 2026 elections look like in Georgia? We talk about that in this week’s commentary. We also have the latest news and analysis from the last week, including:
- Georgia’s unemployment rate holds steady at 3.6%
- Federal school choice legislation included in tax package
- Kemp says tax rebates coming soon
- Kemp signs bill removing taxes from military retirement income
Have a great weekend,
– Kyle Wingfield
Friday’s Freshest
Why are so many data centers popping up in Georgia?
Some of the most significant innovations in technology have become common to the point of monotony in only a few decades. It’s easy to take daily actions like texting, streaming movies and shows and using apps on our smartphones for granted, but almost all online activity taps into a vast infrastructure of data in order to operate the way consumers have come to expect. While this infrastructure is invisible, it does have a physical home.
‘Obscene Increase’: Savannah schools’ spending priorities seem lopsided
The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System is Georgia’s 10th largest, and over time its yearly budgets have increased … and so have the number of school administrators. As for the number of teachers and students, well, those numbers have actually decreased. Are you confused?
Despite bureaucracy and NIMBYs, Georgia’s infrastructure wins one
Between red tape piled to the sky and NIMBYs hunting down every proposal to build anything, anywhere, you’d be forgiven for thinking we simply can’t build things anymore. So, it’s worth noting successes when they happen — and Georgia has a very substantial success to celebrate.
Expanding student choices is one of the best things a state can do
Georgia’s Promise Scholarship just completed its initial application window, and interest was strong. While state officials are still reviewing applications, we know thousands of parents applied for $6,500 to help them move their children from public school to another educational setting that fits them better. While many wonder if this will help their children, a new study shows that these programs don’t just help those who leave public schools, they help those who remain in public school.
Southern tax reckoning: Georgia risks falling behind
Georgia is used to sitting at the top of the regional heap: the Empire State of the South, home to the unofficial capital of the South, even the “best state to do business” for umpteen years running. But when you occupy that perch, others try to dethrone you. Some of their efforts ought to jolt Georgia out of any complacency it may suffer.
WATCH: Georgia takes steps to curb lawsuit abuse
In this new video, we look at Senate Bills 68 and 69 — two major tort reform bills designed to make our legal system fairer, more transparent and less costly for everyday Georgians.
The Latest
Economy
Kemp touts Georgia’s financial stability in signing budget
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed the fiscal year 2026 spending plan and praised the state’s conservative budgeting. Lawmakers agreed not to add bonds in the $37.7 billion budget. The House of Representatives recommended $321 million in bonds for capital projects, but Kemp and the Senate opposed them.
Georgia’s unemployment rate holds at 3.6% for 11 consecutive months
The Georgia Department of Labor announced this week that Georgia’s April 2025 unemployment rate was 3.6%, unchanged from a revised 3.6% in March. The unemployment rate was six-tenths lower than the national unemployment rate. Jobs rose by 3,700 over the month to 4,983,200 and increased by 16,000 over the past 12 months.
Kemp signs workforce bills into law
Gov. Kemp signed a series of workforce development bills into law at the State Capitol this week. The bills Kemp signed codify the college admission initiative, or MATCH program, for students into law, extend the sunset date on the college completion grant, raise the loan repayment amount for some veterinarians in rural Georgia, and create a scholarship for former foster children.
Massive $5B Centennial Yards project reaches new milestone in downtown Atlanta
Downtown Atlanta’s skyline is starting to transform as the $5 billion Centennial Yards development continues to take shape. With two buildings already standing and many more planned, the project is quickly gaining momentum in what’s long been known as The Gulch.
Education
Federal school choice legislation included in tax package
The U.S. House Ways and Means Committee included a federal tax credit for private donations for K-12 scholarships, also known as the Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA), in the Committee’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill.” The ECCA is a federal tax credit scholarship bill that would help over a million students access a school or education service of their parents’ choice.
Schools prepare to ban cellphones through eighth grade
Schools across Georgia will have to figure out how to pry cell phones from students’ hands next year, now that a new ban will take effect. House Bill 340 prohibits personal communications devices in public school classrooms from kindergarten through eighth grade. The ban goes into effect in the summer of 2026. Gov. Brian Kemp signed the legislation last week after it passed the Georgia General Assembly with broad bipartisan support earlier this year.
Student loan delinquencies surge back after 5-year pause
Student loan delinquencies spiked in the first few months of this year after a pandemic-era pause in reporting late payments ended. Serious federal student loan delinquency, marked when someone fails to pay for 90 days, surged from below 1% in the first quarter last year, during the five-year reporting pause, to nearly 8% this year as reporting resumed, the New York Federal Reserve found.
Government accountability
Georgia cracks down on fentanyl trafficking, with new sentencing law
The penalty for trafficking fentanyl just got more serious in Georgia after Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation that seeks to suppress illicit sales of the dangerous drug. The Fentanyl Eradication and Removal Act imposes a range of mandatory minimum sentences on convicted traffickers of fentanyl. Four grams to 14 grams, the smallest amounts covered by the legislation – Senate Bill 79 — will result in at least five years behind bars.
Regulatory reform takes all three branches
Federal regulations alone cost the average household over $16,000 annually, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Ten Thousand Commandments 2025 report. The question is how to fix the problem. We need our leaders in all three branches of government to achieve deregulation. But, so far, only the executive branch has been working to deregulate, apart from both houses of Congress voting to overturn a few Biden-era rules.
Taxes
Kemp gives update on billion-dollar tax rebate
Money should be on the way to the pockets of Georgia families in the coming weeks, thanks to an estimated one billion dollar tax rebate. Each family could receive up to $500. Single individuals could be eligible for up to $250. Gov. Brian Kemp said those checks should be starting to hit people’s accounts soon.
Kemp signs bill removing taxes from military retirement income
Military retirees living in Georgia will no longer have to pay income taxes on their retirement income. Gov. Kemp signed House Bill 266 into law, which exempts the taxes beginning with the 2026 tax year. Previously, Georgia was one of just 12 states that tax military income.
Study: Georgians would have $2,680 tax increase if federal cuts expire
Georgians could have a $2,680 tax increase if Congress lets the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire by the end of the year, according to a study by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. The main issue facing Peach State businesses is a policy on full expensing, the authors of the report said.
Bonus
Want to soak the rich? Tax university endowments.
Republicans are searching for ways to “pay for” their tax cuts. Democrats want the rich to pay more in taxes. Here’s a solution that should make everyone happy. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith is suggesting a tax on the $840 billion college endowments. These endowments will soon eclipse $1 trillion in size — more money than the entire GDP of many countries.
Alligator that starred in ‘Happy Gilmore’ dies of old age
An alligator that appeared in numerous TV shows and films over three decades, most notably the 1996 Adam Sandler comedy “Happy Gilmore,” has died at a gator farm in southern Colorado. Based on his growth rate and tooth loss, Morris the alligator was at least 80 years old when he died, the Colorado Gator Farm said in a Facebook post. He was nearly 11 feet long and weighed 640 pounds.
Preliminary 4.1 magnitude earthquake jolts Tennessee, parts of Georgia and North Carolina
An earthquake of 4.1 preliminary magnitude jolted parts of the southern U.S. on Saturday morning. The quake hit about 13 miles from Greenback, Tennessee, which is about 30 miles south of Knoxville, the U.S. Geological Survey said, around 9 a.m. local time. Residents in Atlanta and parts of western North Carolina reported on social media feeling the tremors.
Quotes of Note
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
“Where I come from, deeds mean a lot more than words.” – Zell Miller
“If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.” – Bruce Lee