Restoring the State GOP
In June, Josh McKoon was in the car with his wife when Trump called to congratulate him on his re-election as chair of the Georgia Republican Party. Not long into the call, Trump says, “China’s calling me. I’ll call you…
Author: Brian Robinson
Get Energized About the PSC
Georgia Republicans and conservative-leaning independents should not underestimate the importance of next month’s statewide races for two of the five of the Public Service Commission seats. I fully understand that even by typing out “Public Service Commission” in the first…
Position Without Power?
Georgia’s last Democratic lieutenant governor, Mark Taylor of Albany, served two terms in that office. In his first term from 1999-2003 he wielded power over the state Senate, where his party still maintained a majority. At the start of Taylor’s…
It’s About Electability
"I love my home state of Georgia so much,” began U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s announcement in early May that she wouldn’t run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff. Georgians, she writes, “may not…
It’s Time to Reform Marijuana Laws in Georgia
In 2025, it remains illegal in Georgia to grow, possess or consume marijuana products. That’s a fact. It is also a fact that almost every Georgian reading these words either uses marijuana products themselves or knows someone who does. Anyone…
Ossoff’s Vulnerability
The political ad begins with a female swimmer at the starting block, poised for a race. Next to her is a young man in a women’s swimsuit. As he crouches into position, the male swimmer turns to the camera and…
Off to the Races
The 2026 political cycle that will usher in a new era in Georgia politics is well underway. Though he’s not on the ballot in Georgia next year, President Trump will loom large – perhaps more so than any individual candidate…
A Milestone Birthday
It was 50 years ago this month that the Vietnam War officially came to an end. The musical Miss Saigon immortalized the image of the last helicopter evacuating the U.S. Embassy on April 30, 1975. As that American misadventure came to…
The Rise of U.S. Rep. Brian Jack
When I sat with U.S. Rep. Brian Jack, it was late December in an office high-rise several weeks before he’d take the oath as the new congressman for Georgia’s 3rd District. He’d just returned to Georgia from Mar-A-Lago, where he’d…
Legalizing Sports Betting
College football fans recently packed Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for both the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the national championship game. Fans across the nation placed bets on the final score, total points and star players’ individual stats. Sports enthusiasts in…
Prioritizing School Safety
Every evening newscast has its fair share of reports on violent crimes. Victims, both random and targeted, die every day. As viewers, we can’t possibly absorb the gravity of these tragedies suffered by the victims’ loved ones. It’s beyond human…
Why We Need Tort Reform
The iconic Manuel’s Tavern on Atlanta’s eastside has long-served as a go-to for politicos, journalists and police, as well as neighborhood regulars, since longtime DeKalb leader Manuel Maloof opened it in 1956. It’s an Atlanta institution known for good food,…
Awaiting Kemp’s Next Moves
This month will answer many political questions for Georgians – and not just whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump will win our 16 electoral votes. No doubt, the presidential race is the big-ticket item, and Georgians…
The Challenge of Good Growth
Toward the end of Fintan O’Toole’s book We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland, the author tells the story of an Irish taoiseach (prime minister) marveling at the efficiency of China’s autocratic rule during a period when the Emerald…
Legalizing Medical Cannabis
It took around a decade for Allen Peake’s vision to become reality in Georgia, but because of his commitment to Georgians who have serious health conditions, patients now have legal access to medical cannabis. A conservative Republican and wildly successful…
Odds Not in Biden’s Favor
If Georgia is decisive in the 2024 election, the outlook for President Biden’s re-election appears dire. Biden has consistently trailed in Georgia surveys for the past year – in some polls by double digits – and we’re entering the season…
A Focus on Literacy
In 2006, Rhonda Mathieson of Atlanta needed lifesaving surgery. She later discovered that she shared something special in common with her neurosurgeon, Dr. Steven Wray. Mathieson, now retired as chief financial officer of the High Museum, serves as a board…
D-Day: Horrors and Heroes
Eighty years ago this month, around 160,000 Allied troops, including 73,000 Americans, stormed the beaches of Normandy in choppy waters. D-Day lives on as one of…
Gold Dome Needs a Shine
Let me start with the disclaimer that I love the Georgia Capitol, with its Indiana limestone exterior, the pink Georgia marble on its inner walls, and its dome gilded with Dahlonega gold. It’s where I worked for nearly five years…
Family Tradition Unlike Any Other
After 40 years, few memories from second grade linger, but I’ll never forget the April morning when my dad showed up in the doorway of my classroom to take me to a round at the Masters Tournament. Though all our…
A Focus on Competent Leadership
Leading up to the 2022 general election in Georgia, the rest of the nation had closely followed our politics for two full years. It began, of course, with the madness that followed our 2020…
A Win in Name Only
Georgia Democrats learned a painful lesson of “be careful what you wish for.” Plaintiffs aligned with Democratic groups successfully sued the state of Georgia on claims that the state legislative and congressional maps…
Investing the State’s Surplus
Whoever coined the inane phrase “more money, more problems” never met a legislator (or for that matter, anybody whatsoever). As we enter the bleakest part of Georgia’s calendar and the days are short, the temperatures are low and the skies…
Keep the Film Tax Credit
Fans of Netflix’s Ozark know about the dramatic performances of stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney in the thrilling series. They’ve probably never heard of Mike Neal, a small businessman in Savannah, but they’ve enjoyed his work too. As a marine…
Pride in the PSC
Tricia Pridemore talks about Georgia’s energy policy the way a grandmother talks about her grandchild or University of Georgia fans talk about their football team: It’s simply the best, and everyone else just needs to accept it. She’ll run for…
The Case for Public Charter Schools
In the fall of 2014, the approximately 200 students at Utopian Academy knew that then-Gov. Nathan Deal was coming for a visit as they gathered in the lunchroom of the school. They weren’t aware he was bringing a special guest.…
Find a Fix to Fiscal Debt
Tom Price, the former Republican congressman from Georgia’s 6th District and later secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump Administration, watched the 2023 State of the Union from his home in Roswell, shaking his head in disappointment as…
Fixing the Rift
When I first became aware of Josh McKoon, he was running unopposed for a Columbus area state Senate seat while my boss, Nathan Deal, was campaigning for governor. McKoon worked hard for our opponent in the primary, and once we…
A Bigger Voice for Georgia?
The day after the Georgia General Assembly session ends, legislators usually wake up from their late-night revelry and dart out of town. After three months of work in the Capitol, there’s an urgency about getting home to their businesses and…
The Georgia File: Good Bills, Bad Narratives
As a longtime communicator in Republican politics, I’ve often looked at my Democratic peers with a tinge of envy. Republicans put out a message and expect a hail of bullets from media shooting them down. Democrats are conditioned to expect…
The Georgia File: Issues of House and Home
After a gracious concession speech from Republican U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker in early December, Deomactic Sen. Raphael Warnock took the stage. The victorious and relieved incumbent declared what he called the best four words in the English language: “The…
The Georgia File: Swagger Justified
I swaggered up to the sports book at our Las Vegas casino the weekend before the College Football Playoff national championship game in January. That’s not totally true. A novice gambler, I didn’t really know how to place a bet,…
The Georgia File: Compensating the Innocent
Last year, Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law legislation that paid Dennis Perry $1.23 million. But don’t envy Perry. No one would trade places with him. Perry served 20 years in a Georgia prison for a double murder he didn’t…
The Georgia File: Why Do We Do This?
In the closing days of December’s runoff in the U.S. Senate race, the smiles from the nearly always cheery candidates had disappeared, erased by the gravity of an overly long, grueling campaign. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock gave TV interviews…
The Georgia File: What’s Next?
This month, Gov. Brian Kemp will kick off the first legislative session of his final term riding high. After the pomp and circumstance of his second inauguration, Kemp goes into the 2023 session with a mandate from voters and a…
The Georgia File: Changing Lives and Voters’ Minds
In the last month of this year’s general election, Republican candidates for statewide office targeted minority voters in ways we’ve rarely seen in the past. Gov. Brian Kemp in one week participated in a town hall at Clark Atlanta University,…
The Georgia File: Georgia’s Beloved First Lady
Former Gov. Nathan Deal has delivered on his wife’s dying wish. The love of his life and a beloved Georgia first lady, Sandra Deal asked her husband to write a children’s book. He finished the manuscript around the time of…
The Georgia File: The November Choice
Elections between two candidates are a choice, not a referendum. In a referendum on an issue, a voter who dislikes the proposal can vote no. In an election, there’s no “none of the above” option, but voters might cast their…
The Georgia File: Earning Respect and Trust
As this month’s Georgia Trend lands in mailboxes, the defending national champion Georgia Bulldogs will kick off their season, looking to show a national audience that they’re still the team to beat despite seeing a record-breaking number of defenders drafted…
The Georgia File: An Extraordinary Win
It’s rare that a secretary of state is well known by voters in his or her own state. For one to have his or her name recognized across the country, well, that’s almost unheard of. You’d have to go back…
The Georgia File: Medicaid Expansion?
Stacey Abrams likes to say that Georgia has a Democratic majority that would consistently elect her party to statewide offices if not for “voter suppression.” While the suppression narrative is as fictitious as her Selena Montgomery novels, the 2020 elections…
The Georgia File: Changing Lives
No one in Katie Watson Speed’s family had gone to college, but her Rabun County public school teachers knew she could become a first-generation graduate if she got the right support. She had fortuitous timing. When she was in eighth…
The Georgia File: Moving the Chess Pieces
It went largely unnoticed outside of Georgia political circles when a Democratic candidate for state attorney general suddenly switched to the lieutenant governor’s race in January. Charlie Bailey took on incumbent Attorney General Chris Carr in the 2018 General Election,…
The Georgia File: Sweet Redemption
I didn’t choose to become a Georgia Bulldog. I arrived in this world with that tribal identification embedded in my DNA. Two weeks after I was born, a friend of my grandfather asked how I was doing. Granddaddy told him…
The Georgia File: Relationship Builder
Former top staffers for the late Johnny Isakson say their old boss didn’t have many hobbies besides work. “A lot of people play golf, a lot people like to go fishing. Johnny Isakson wanted to get up and go to…
The Georgia File: High-stakes Gamble
Casinos remain illegal in Georgia, but that hasn’t stopped some prominent politicians from engaging in high-stakes gambling with their careers. The card table is now set for the most highly anticipated and highly covered governor’s race in the entire country.…
The Georgia File: Vision Pays Off
With the Braves’ World Series win, Tim Lee would have figuratively died and gone to heaven if he hadn’t literally done so already. The former Cobb County Commission chair lived long enough to see his vision – Truist Park and…
The Georgia File: No. 1 Political Battleground
The fierce political competition between the parties to win Georgia brings some benefits with it. The Biden administration has every reason to give special attention to the state where voters gave him the narrowest victory margin in the country and…
The Ga File: Anyone’s Game
A governor seeking reelection needs the solid support of his or her party. That’s always the case but particularly so in Georgia’s 2022 election, where a 50-50 electorate means this is anyone’s game. Republicans and Democrats must secure their own…
The Georgia File: Running on HOPE
You don’t know the name Bryan Miller, but you’ve probably heard of his grandfather, Zell. When Bryan announced his run as a Democratic candidate for Georgia lieutenant governor this summer, no story failed to mention his lineage. The first paragraph…
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