James_May-June_2026_web - Flipbook - Page 7
One-time GOP district attorney Clay Fuller, endorsed
by President Donald Trump, defeated a Democrat to
win northwest Georgia’s U.S. congressional seat vacated by Marjorie Taylor Greene. The former White House
fellow who served during Trump’s first term won the
April 7th special runoff election with 56 percent of the
vote. The self-described “MAGA warrior” will serve out
the balance of Greene’s term which ends in January.
And he will run for a full term during the regular May
19th GOP primary. His victory bolsters the slim Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, so
his boat is certainly RISING . . .
Feral hogs found themselves firmly in the General Assembly’s crosshairs during this legislative session. The
House put $900,000 towards eradication efforts in the
FY2027 budget. House Bill 946, which allows Georgians
to trap and kill hogs without any licenses or permits,
passed the Senate unanimously on its way to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk. Bad time to be a wild pig in Georgia.
Hopefully this effort has their numbers Sinking . . .
University System of Georgia Board of Regents Chair
Sonny Perdue has announced his retirement, marking
the end of one of the most storied political careers in
Peach State political history. A former state senator,
two-term governor, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in the
first Trump Administration and finally Board of Regents
chair, few Georgians have left such a lasting mark on
the state (and especially on his home Houston County).
Perdue’s legacy in retirement is RISING . . .
Coming into the session, improving the state’s early
childhood literacy rate was a key priority for Georgia
House Speaker Jon Burns. He scored a win when the
legislature passed the Georgia Early Literacy Act of
2026, which adds a literacy coach to every elementary
school, gives resources to teachers and streamlines
grade placements. All of that is designed to drive up
Georgia’s third grade reading level, the number one
predictor of future academic success. The bill’s passage
has Georgia’s young students RISING . .
In February Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shermela Williams was forced to resign following a series
of over 30 misconduct charges. They were highlighted
by an incident where she jailed a 21-year-old woman
who had been called to testify in her parents’ divorce
case. Now she’s got a new gig, hired as a prosecutor by
Fulton County DA Fani Willis. Bringing on the disgraced
former judge has the Fulton DA’s office Sinking . . . .
When NASA’s Artemis II mission sent astronauts
around the moon for the first time in more than 50
years, it brought some serious Georgia ties along with
it. Seventeen Peach State companies helped make the
launch possible, as well as several Georgia-based engineers including Georgia Tech Professor John Christian,
who helped design navigational launch algorithms. That
Georgia influence had the Artemis II launch RISING . . .
As the Trump Administration adds a new ballroom
addition to the east side of the White House, it’s relying
on a Georgian to ensure it’s done respectfully and in the
classical style of the rest of the National Mall. Rodney
Mims Cook, Jr., was named by Trump as the chairman
of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, leaning on
his decades of expertise as an architect (perhaps most
famously the Millennium Gate Museum in Midtown
Atlanta). If there are any additions to the West Wing
or the Kennedy Center, expect Cook to have his fingerprints all over those as well. Cook’s architectural influence in our nation’s capital is RISING . . .
The U.S. Court of Appeals granted the state of Alabama’s request to dismiss its lawsuit against Georgia
over water management within the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin. It’s the first time
since 1989 that there hasn’t been an active or pending
water lawsuit between Georgia and Alabama. This
marks the end of the water wars between the states (at
least for now), and we can get back to more important
rivalries between the states— like football. RISING . . .
M AY /J UNE 2026
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