Georgia’s legislative session is done and dusted, leaving behind a slew of decisions for Gov. Brian Kemp and plenty of implications for the 2024 election and the brewing race for 2026.
The 40-day session played out against the backdrop of upcoming May primaries and a November election where all 180 House lawmakers and 56 members of the Senate are up for grabs, but only a handful are competitive.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
The session put on display the competing priorities of House and Senate Republicans, who clashed over red-meat proposals sought by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his allies.
But Republicans were able to unite over other long-sought wish-list items, including new tax cuts, pay hikes for teachers and public employees, an expanded school voucher program and new immigration policies.
Democrats, meanwhile, failed to push Republicans to embrace a Medicaid expansion, though they forced a first-ever vote on the proposal. Still, they also helped tank red-meat GOP measures targeting LGBTQ rights.
Here are a few of our takeaways:
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
1. The Senate’s agenda is a blueprint for a 2026 campaign. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones might as well have started his campaign for governor.
He and the chamber he leads were on the forefront of a litany of culture wars issues, including restrictions on treatments on transgender youth, a Clarence Thomas statue, a MAGA-inspired license plate and an aborted attempt to revive “religious liberty” legislation.
House Republicans blocked each one, along with funding that could have been used to fulfill his pledge to pay teachers to arm themselves in schools.
But that doesn’t mean Jones went home empty-handed. His push to rollback hospital regulations cleared both chambers this year after sparking controversy in 2023. So did measures he and his allies championed to expand school vouchers and require parents to confirm their kids’ social media accounts. And he signaled he wasn’t backing down from his 2024 agenda in 2025.
“These issues are a marathon, not a sprint, and we’ll continue to build on our accomplishments year after year to enact policies that lift up the middle class and fight back against radical Democrats’ insanity,” said Jones.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
2. The infighting is ratcheting up. The Senate-House divide burst to the forefront again when both chambers rejected or ignored entirely their counterpart’s priorities.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, had pointed words about putting policies over politics, while GOP lawmakers in the Senate groused over a House push to dub white shrimp the state’s official crustacean.
“The House is the place big ideas go to die,” vented one GOP Senate heavyweight. A House Republican official, meanwhile, fired back: “Must be nice not to have to worry about general elections in a swing state.”
Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain, lamented that the Republican rift seems “meaner than it used to be” after Jones’ election.
“With the changing of the guard and people in charge of the Senate, it makes a huge difference in their way of thinking,” she told the Politically Georgia podcast. “It’s supposed to be about the people and not about us. But it’s more about the members it seems and not about the people.”
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
3. Republicans still scored plenty of election-year wins. While red-meat bills went belly up, Republicans unified behind a host of other measures they hope will pay dividends in November.
The GOP got behind tax cuts, building projects and new requirements for law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration agents. And the House added a resolution to protect IVF treatment to the mix.
Democrats, meanwhile, failed to squeeze everything they could out of the GOP infighting, even after striking an apparent deal with Senate Republicans over a hospital regulation rollback in exchange for a vote to expand Medicaid.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
4. Medicaid expansion may have its moment in 2025. In private conversations and public statements, Republican lawmakers made clear they do not have limitless patience with Kemp’s limited Medicaid expansion.
And as the session ended, Burns was among the leaders who said lawmakers aim to study the Arkansas-style “private option” program as an alternative if Kemp’s program that ties eligibility to work and academic requirements doesn’t gain traction. (It counts roughly 3,500 recipients now.)
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
5. Sports gambling might finally have a path. The latest push to legalize sports betting ended in failure, again. But state Rep. Ron Stephens said the “closer than ever” coalition behind the initiative has learned valuable lessons.
The Savannah Republican thanked Senate and House leaders for rallying behind the measure even in an election year.
While House leadership ultimately decided against bringing it to the floor, the fact so many legislators were willing to take the vote shows there is a very clear path next year to revisit,” he said.
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Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
PASS/FAIL: Among the flurry of other bills you may have missed in lawmakers’ scramble for the doors on Sine Die:
- The General Assembly passed new regulations for hemp products like CBD and Delta-8. That includes a minimum age of 21 to buy hemp products in Georgia and a requirement that they are tested before they’re sold in stores.
- Lawmakers increased the standard deduction for dependents from $3,000 to $4,000 and sped up income tax cuts.
- State Rep. Lauren Daniel, R-Locust Grove, passed her bill to hike the fine for illegally passing a stopped school bus in Georgia to $1,000. Note to drivers near the yellow buses ferrying children — slow down.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
- A series of hot-button school measures failed to win final approval, including bills to target transgender students, pare back sex education, and take aim at the American Library Association, which some Republicans derided as Marxist.
- A bill to protect the Okefenokee Swamp with new mining limits never came to a vote in the state Senate. Georgia’s two U.S. senators are now asking Gov. Brian Kemp to intervene to stop new minting permits, which could be issued as soon as next week.
- We’ve got a full rundown of what passed, what failed and what never got a vote here.
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Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
40 DAYS AND NIGHTS. Gov. Brian Kemp has 40 days from the end of the legislative session to sign or veto the bills that won final approval from lawmakers.
He’s already signed measures to combat antisemitism and give a state commission power to discipline “rogue” prosecutors. We’ll keep you posted on what else gets the governor’s OK, veto, or instruction to “disregard.”
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Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
2020 REUNION TOUR. When we got word that former President Donald Trump will return to Georgia on April 10 for a high-dollar Atlanta fundraiser, two hosts’ names jumped out: former U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Both were on the ballot with Trump in the 2020 election, only to lose their Senate seats in the runoff election nine weeks later as Trump falsely claimed the November elections had been stolen and Georgia’s election process could not be trusted.
Since then, Loeffler has launched her own conservative grassroots organizations to give candidates the kind of ground operations she said she didn’t have when she lost her runoff to Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock.
In the same period of time, Perdue launched — and lost — an ill-fated run for governor against Gov. Brian Kemp in 2022 at Trump’s urging. The former senator then disappeared almost entirely from Georgia politicos’ radars, until he attended several Trump-related election events.
Also on the host committee for the Trump fundraiser next week: Bernie Marcus, the Home Depot co-founder and GOP megadonor; Don Leebern III, a Republican donor and president of a liquor distributor; Tommy Bagwell, the poultry industry billionaire; and Bill White, the former head of the Buckhead City Committee, who left Atlanta in 2023 to move to Palm Beach and, naturally, join Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
CLERK CONTROVERSY. Justice Clarence Thomas is back in the headlines of The New York Times, this time for his decision to hire Crystal Clanton for a prestigious position as one of his clerks for an upcoming session of the Supreme Court.
Clanton is such a close family friend of Thomas and his wife, Ginni, that they refer to her as their “nearly adopted daughter.” She was also at the center of complaints from Democratic members of Congress in 2021 when she was hired to clerk for Bill Pryor, chief judge of the federal appeals court in Atlanta, after she had earlier been accused of sending racist text messages as a staffer for Turning Point USA.
Pryor was cleared of any wrongdoing in the matter. But not before seven members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to investigate the matter.
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Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
LISTEN UP. Today on the “Politically Georgia” radio show, immigration attorney Chuck Kuck joins to discuss the immigration-related bills that passed the General Assembly this year. And professors Amy Steigerwalt from Georgia State University as well as Andra Gillespie and Alan Abramowitz, both from Emory University, will look at the political impact of the legislative session.
Listen live at 10 a.m. on 90.1 FM, at AJC.com and at WABE.org.
Friday’s show featured WABE’s Sam Gringlas, who helped us sort through the debris of the 2023-2024 legislative session, as well as AJC publisher Andrew Morse, who talked about his recent series of editorials pushing for protections for the Okefenokee Swamp.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
TODAY IN WASHINGTON:
- President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden host the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.
- The House and Senate are on a two-week Easter break.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
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DOG OF THE DAY. We noticed a distinct theme in conversations with lawmakers last week, many of whom had plans to hit the road for vacations today now that their schedules have been freed of the legislative session.
Here with tips on preparing for their travels is Hans Race, the best pal of AJC subscriber Janet Race from Inman Park. Hans likes to wear a jaunty French beret, perfect for a European getaway.
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
Being hairless, he’s ready to add layers in case the temperatures drop. Finally, with wide eyes like this, Hans wakes up every day ready for his next adventure.
Bon voyage, legislators! We, and Hans, look forward to your reports when you’re back.
Send us your dogs of any political persuasion, and cats on a cat-by-cat basis, to patricia.murphy@ajc.com, or DM us at @MurphyAJC.
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AS ALWAYS, Politically Georgia readers are some of our favorite tipsters. Send your best scoop, gossip and insider info to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.vanbrimmer@ajc.com.
