Georgia Lawmakers Sign Off on New Congressional Maps

The Georgia House of Representatives passed revised congressional districts, capping the end of a special session that put partisan divides front and center.

The House voted 98-71 to send Senate Bill 3EX, which the state Senate passed on Tuesday, to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature. The revised districts ostensibly maintain the 9-5 Republican edge in the U.S. House.

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Gov. Brian Kemp Rejects Calls to Dismiss Fulton County DA Fani Willis

On Thursday, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) said at a press conference that he would not support efforts to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from office following her indictment of President Donald Trump.

As reported by Breitbart, Kemp referred to such efforts as “political theater,” after a Republican state senator had already vowed to take action against Willis. Willis’ indictment included 41 different charges against President Trump and 18 campaign surrogates, lawyers, and other prominent allies.

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Georgia State Senator Asks for Emergency Session to Investigate Fulton County DA Fani Willis

Georgia State Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) sent a letter to Governor Brian Kemp calling on him to convene an emergency session to investigate Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

“We, the undersigned, being duly elected members of the Georgia House of Representatives and Georgia Senate, and comprising 3/5 of each respective house, pursuant to Article IV, Section II, Paragraph VII(b), hereby certify to you, in writing, with a copy to the Secretary of State, that in our opinion an emergency exists in the affairs of the state, requiring a special session to be convened under that section, for all purposes, to include, without limitation, the review and response to the actions of Fani Willis,” Moore wrote in his letter on Thursday.

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Georgia Gov. Kemp Files Supreme Court Amicus Brief in Chevron Case

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has filed an amicus brief in a highly visible U.S. Supreme Court case that could overturn a standing practice that gives federal agencies the power to interpret statutes.

Kemp, a Republican, filed his brief in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which seeks to overturn the so-called Chevron deference established by the 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. It compels federal judges to defer to federal agencies’ interpretations in “ambiguous situations” as long as the interpretation is “reasonable.”

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Governor Kemp Appoints New Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation

Governor Brian Kemp appointed Chris Hosey to serve as Director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

“Chris has dedicated his career to protecting the people of our state as a proud member of law enforcement,” Kemp said in a Saturday statement. “With over 35 years of experience at the GBI, he brings a wealth of institutional knowledge and skill to this role. I’m confident he will bring the same level of commitment to the job that he has shown throughout his years of service.”

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Georgia’s Gov. Kemp Transfers Millions for Water Wars Fight, Public Safety

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has transferred more than $8.9 million from the Governor’s Emergency Fund to several state agencies, including millions for public safety and a decades-long fight over water.

As part of the allocation, Kemp, a Republican, is sending $5.7 million to cover costs — including counsel fees and litigation expenses — stemming from a long-standing dispute over water use in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River basins.

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Georgia Uses $83.5 Million in COVID Relief Money for Public Safety Grants

Georgia is giving out more than $83.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief money as grants to fund 118 public safety projects across the Peach State.

Departments can use the funds to augment law enforcement staffing and support violent crime reduction initiatives or intervention programs. They can also use the money to invest in technology and equipment to address the uptick in violence and personnel shortages stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Report Probes the Questions Policymakers Might Not Be Asking About EVs

Whether it’s higher vehicle costs for consumers or pressure on the electric grid, a consumer group hopes its new report gives politicians and policymakers a few questions to ponder.

The thought starters are included in Consumer Energy Alliance’s “Freedom to Fuel: Embracing Consumer Choice in the Automotive Marketplace” report, which noted it is “increasingly clear that policymakers are not fully considering all the implications of aggressively mandating EVs.”

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Georgia GOP Convention Replaces Mike Pence with Kari Lake

Kari Lake will be the keynote speaker at the Georgia Republican Party’s annual convention, replacing Mike Pence who was originally scheduled. Former President Donald Trump will also be speaking at the convention. The state party Chair David Shafer sent an email to delegates stating that Pence canceled “because of a televised national town hall at which he will be making an announcement regarding his future plans.”

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Georgia Gov. Kemp Bashes Washington Spending but Touts Federally Funded Grants

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp regularly blames Washington policies for causing inflation and hurting Georgians, but he doesn’t hesitate to announce grants — such as those for rural broadband projects — that rely on federal tax dollars.

“While failed policies coming out of Washington, D.C. are pushing us closer to a recession and forcing hardworking Georgians to endure sky-high inflation, we on the state level are doing what we can to return money back where it belongs – in taxpayers’ hands,” Kemp said in a statement earlier this month in announcing officials had issued the first round of “surplus tax refund checks” to Georgia taxpayers.

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Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Foils Democrats’ ‘Diverse’ Primary Plans

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has set the Peach State’s 2024 party primary elections for March 12, foiling the Democratic National Committee’s plans to move Georgia’s vote toward the front of the presidential nominating line.

Raffensperger says the DNC acted “unilaterally” in its bid to make their nominating process more “diverse” by bumping predominantly white states like Iowa and New Hampshire back and pushing more “racially inclusive” states like Georgia and Michigan to the front of the primary line. 

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Gov. Kemp Signs Bill to Allow Georgia Hospitals to Form Police Departments

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a measure to allow Peach State hospitals to form campus police departments.

Lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of House Bill 383, the Safer Hospitals Act, a measure that enhances criminal penalties for anyone who assaults a healthcare worker on a hospital campus, similar to the protections afforded to paramedics, transit drivers and law enforcement personnel.

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Georgia Legislature Signs Off on Bill to Ban TikTok

Georgia lawmakers have sent a measure to bar TikTok and other “national security software threats” on state-owned devices.

Lawmakers in both chambers unanimously signed off on Senate Bill 93, which they say would also bar Telegram and WeChat, and sent the measure to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. It would also prohibit these applications on state devices used in the legislative and judicial branches and in the state’s K-12 schools.

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Equity Consultant ‘Evil Salesman’ Explains Plan to Upend Georgia Law Banning Indoctrination with Critical Race Theory

A Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) consultant explained to an undercover Project Veritas journalist he is an “evil salesman” who plans to undermine a Georgia law banning the teaching of the concepts of Critical Race Theory (CRT).

“If you don’t say the words ‘Critical Race Theory,’ you can technically teach it,” Dr. Quintin Bostic, content manager at The Teaching Lab, is heard telling the Project Veritas (PV) journalist in the video.

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Critics Say Georgia’s Gas Tax Moratorium Helps, but Isn’t Good Long-Term Policy

Gas Station

Georgia hasn’t collected its gas tax since March, as Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a series of legislation and executive orders to place a moratorium on collections.

“Those prices have a huge impact on the economy as a whole,” National Federation of Independent Business Region Director Nathan Humphrey told The Center Square. “On top of all the other issues that small businesses were particularly struggling with from supply chain, inflation and [the] overall cost of doing business, the margins were just super tight, so when that hit, it really provided necessary relief.”

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VoterGA Reports ‘Serious’ 2022 Election Abnormalities, Over 20,000 Votes ‘Subtracted’ from Totals for Republican Senate Candidate Herschel Walker

Voters Organized for Trusted Election Results in Georgia (VoterGA) reports it has identified significant abnormalities in the 2022 Georgia general election, including results that show over 20,000 votes were “inexplicably subtracted” from the vote totals for U.S. Senate Republican candidate Herschel Walker.

The organization, a coalition of citizens seeking to restore voter integrity in Georgia, presented at a press conference Wednesday a sworn affidavit, corroborated by the Edison media line feed, showing the “subtracted” votes.

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Commentary: GOP Botched Early-Voting Ground Game

Two days before Brian Kemp bested Stacey Abrams by more than seven percentage points in their closely watched rematch, the Georgia governor did something unusual for a Republican candidate in the 2022 midterms: He expressed confidence about where he stood and cited early voting as a top reason.

“We’ve also had record turnout for early voting, which ended this Friday. It’s been an incredible turnout, and we feel good about things,” Kemp told Trey Gowdy, the former congressman and host of Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America.”

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Federal Judge Upholds Georgia Election Integrity Practices, Deals Blow to Stacey Abrams

A federal judge ruled Friday that Georgia’s election integrity practices requiring voter ID and citizenship checks are legal and constitutional, rejecting arguments of racism and voter suppression from the state’s Democrat nominee for governor, Stacey Abrams, just weeks before Election Day.

U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones, an Obama appointee, issued the ruling, after a lengthy trial, handing a major victory to Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who aggressively defended the state’s election integrity laws from a legal assault by Abrams voter group Fair Fight Inc. and other liberals.

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Georgia’s K-12 Education Spending Increases as Enrollment Grows at a Higher Rate

Georgia’s spending per pupil has grown over the past two decades, but its enrollment has increased at a higher rate, a new analysis found.

According to the Reason Foundation’s 2022 K-12 Education Spending Spotlight, Georgia’s inflation-adjusted per-pupil K-12 revenues grew by 6.2% — or $803 per student — between 2002 and 2020. During that same period, enrollment increased by 18%.

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Brian Kemp Accuses Stacey Abrams of Flip-Flopping on Key Issues

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) took his opponent, Stacey Abrams(D), to task, when he called her out for her inability to stick to a stance on political issues in a statement released on Tuesday. 

“Stacey Abrams opposed suspending the gas tax and returning $1 billion to taxpayers, but now she’s on my record. She can’t have it both ways. Abrams has embraced the policies of Joe Biden that have led to disaster at the border, high gas prices, and empty grocery shelves,” Governor Kemp said. 

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