Twelve days after he was pushed to the ground after attempting to enter the Georgia House chamber, state Sen. Colton Moore, a far-right Republican from Trenton, strolled in Tuesday without resistance to attend the State of the Judiciary speech.
“The guy with the biggest stick doesn’t get to bully and rule over everyone,” Moore said. “We all swore an oath to the Constitution, and that must be upheld.”
Moore was arrested earlier this month before Gov. Brian Kemp’s State of the State address when he refused to abide by House Speaker Jon Burns’ ban on his admittance to the House. The scuffle was rebuked by some of Moore’s supporters in the GOP’s more conservative wing and by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones.
“My obligation is to the 56 senators here in this room,” Jones said before the Senate chamber. “And I can tell you this moving forward: You have my word that this will not happen again under my watch because I will make sure that every senator has a voice in this building.”
The next day, the speaker announced he would allow Moore to attend future joint sessions of the General Assembly. Burns banned Moore after the senator criticized the late former House Speaker David Ralston, Burns’ predecessor.
Last year, the Senate considered a resolution urging the University of North Georgia to name a new building on its Blue Ridge campus after Ralston, a Blue Ridge resident who died in 2022.
Moore objected to the honor, calling Ralston “one of the most corrupt Georgians we’ve seen in our lives” as Ralston’s family watched from the Senate gallery. He was referencing a 2019 investigation from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that found Ralston, who was a defense attorney, appeared to use a policy called “legislative leave” to perpetually keep his clients’ cases off the docket, potentially thwarting justice and putting the public at risk.
In a statement the day after Moore’s arrest, Burns said, “Speaker Ralston’s first priority was always to serve the people of our great state, and he wouldn’t want that important work to be hindered,” but he still called Moore’s actions “despicable and hurtful.”
“For this reason, the Ralston family has expressed to their family here in the House that they desire for our chamber to resume business as normal — with all members of the General Assembly present — for any future joint sessions, with or without the apology they and the House deserve.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
On Monday, Burns reiterated that desire, telling the AJC he would “welcome the Senate to the floor” of the House but did not mention Moore by name.
Moore entered the House on Tuesday sandwiched between Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch and Lt. Gov. Jones, a sign of their support.
He also received support from a crowd of his constituents and others sympathetic to his efforts and flashed a thumbs-up as he walked in.
Jim Coles, 66, who lives in Ringgold, said he supported Moore in his first election and believes it’s “awful they subverted my representation” by preventing Moore from entering the House.
“How dare they say my voice doesn’t mean anything when I pay my taxes, and a lot at that?” he said. “Burns should step down.”
Moore said he spoke briefly with Burns on Tuesday but continued to call on Burns to resign as speaker, although a staffer in the speaker’s office said the two never spoke.
“He showed himself to be a tyrant. He showed himself to be a violator of the Constitution,” Moore said.
This story has been updated to provide additional details.
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