Ups, Downs and In-betweens
SOS Election: Gabriel Sterling, the former COO in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office who made news when he called on President Donald Trump to condemn threats to election workers in 2020, is seeking to take Raffensperger’s place. Sterling recently announced he will run in the 2026 Republican primary for Secretary of State. He has been a staunch defender of the integrity of Georgia’s elections.
Photo credit: Gabriel Sterling for Secretary of State
Raffensperger is not running for reelection as Secretary of State but plans to seek higher office; he is expected to announce a campaign for either governor or U.S. senator.
National Guard Mobilized: Gov. Brian Kemp is deploying 75 Georgia National Guard soldiers and airmen to support U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facilities across the state. The announcement was in response to a U.S. Homeland Security request for up to 1,700 National Guard troops in 19 states, including Georgia.
According to the governor’s office, the deployed Guard will not perform law enforcement functions or make arrests. Instead, they will help with appointment scheduling, data entry, biometric collection and vehicle maintenance, and ICE agents will focus on field-based enforcement. Training began in mid-September.
Some residents and immigration advocates have protested the move, calling it an attack on immigrant and civil rights and an inappropriate use of the Guard.
This is not the first time the governor has authorized members of Georgia’s National Guard to assist with immigration issues. In February 2024, he also sent members of the Georgia Guard to assist with Texas’s border operations.
Campaign Ruling: A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who is running for governor, claiming that fellow gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has an unfair advantage in campaign fundraising.
Under a 2021 Georgia law, Jones is able to raise and spend unlimited funds through a special leadership committee that allows Georgia’s governor, lieutenant governor and a small group of legislative leaders to raise money. Carr argued that the advantage violated his constitutional rights to free speech and equal protection.
The ruling stated that while “it is undisputed” that Jones has a fundraising advantage, he can continue raising unlimited campaign funds as it is “exactly what Georgia law allows” him to do. Carr, however, is limited by law to raising $8,400 from each primary donor plus $4,200 for any primary runoff through a regular campaign committee.
More Appointments: Kemp recently made several appointments, including naming Oscar “Bo” Fears as the new commissioner of Banking and Finance, and Fran Dundore as director of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement.
Fears first joined the Department of Banking and Finance in 2013 and most recently served as the senior deputy commissioner. He succeeds Kevin Hagler, who retired as the second-longest-serving commissioner in the department’s history.
Dundore has been a member of the GOSA team since 2022, overseeing the Governor’s Honors Program. She began her career as a high school English teacher before becoming a principal, district curriculum leader and assistant superintendent. Both appointments took effect Sept. 1.
Election Board Lawsuit: A Georgia Superior Court judge halted $10,000-a-day fines against Fulton County after finding the Board of Commissioners in contempt for failing to follow his order to appoint two Republican nominees to the county’s election board. The judge paused enforcement after the commissioners said they would appeal.
Democrats on the board voted in both May and August to not approve the appointments of the nominees, Julie Adams and Jason Frazier, arguing they are not bound to “rubber-stamp” what they consider controversial choices. Adams, who joined the board in 2024, abstained from certifying election results that year and Frazier has challenged the eligibility of thousands of voters.
Marci Collier Overstreet, left, and Rohit Malhotra, right. Photo credits: Contributed
A Full Slate: Atlanta municipal elections are heating up, with 59 people qualified to run for either mayor, City Council or the Board of Education. The City Council consists of the council president, 12 district representatives and three at-large seats. All council seats, including the president, are up for this year’s election, which will be held next month.
Of the people running, 15 are incumbents, including Mayor Andre Dickens. Just two are in the race for council president: Marci Collier Overstreet, who is currently the City Council member for District 11, and Rohit Malhotra, the founder and executive director of the Center for Civic Innovation in Atlanta.
