14th district race; Bibb County jail; AI mental health usage

Summary

Georgia Today – April 8, 2026
Host: Peter Biello | Georgia Public Broadcasting

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Episode Overview

This episode of Georgia Today covers a fast-shifting political landscape in Georgia’s 14th congressional district, the start of a long-awaited expansion for Bibb County’s overcrowded jail, and the limits of artificial intelligence in mental health care. Additional updates include rate hikes by Georgia electric cooperatives, developments in oyster harvesting, recognition for Savannah Tribune publisher Shirley James, upgrades at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Masters golf tournament festivities, and a brawl-turn-meme in Braves baseball.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Georgia’s 14th Congressional District: Closer Margins in a Deep Red Stronghold

(00:38-06:45)

• Republican Clay Fuller wins runoff to complete Marjorie Taylor Greene’s term, but Democrat Sean Harris narrows the gap to “well over 40%” of the vote, up from 35% in 2024.
  • Notable Voter Quote: “This country needs change. We need a big change.” (Mary Rainwater – 01:18)
• Both Fuller and Harris are set for their party primaries in May and could meet again in November.
• Analysis by Dr. Andre Gillespie (Emory University):
  • Shrinking Republican margins attributed to a “sour mood” on the GOP and effective Democratic campaigning.
  • Quote: “The mood is definitely sour on Republicans at this moment. There are many people who are dissatisfied with the Trump administration for various reasons.” (Andre Gillespie – 02:05)
  • Robust turnout bolsters the belief that voter engagement is high.
    • “...both campaigns did a good job of getting the word out. There were certainly television advertising, there was a lot of news coverage...” (Gillespie – 02:46)
  • Fuller is likely to face a rightward push in his primary, especially from supporters of former state senator Colton Moore.
    • Moore is “more pure MAGA,” but Gillespie questions electability: “Might have actually made him more of a turnoff to moderate and independent voters... to say that you need to be more right wing... strikes me more as wishful thinking.” (Gillespie – 04:11-05:21)
  • Harris, as a veteran and farmer, is seen as beneficial for Democrats looking to steadily increase their vote share.
    • “It does look like Harris is going to be in a really strong position to be able to do better than he did in 2024.” (Gillespie – 05:44)
  • Even so, Gillespie sets expectations for Democrats: “Perhaps hit a ceiling that's somewhere in the low 40s... maybe not 44%, but… 40, 41%.” (06:45)

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2. AI and Mental Health: Useful Tools, Human Empathy Still Needed

(07:05-07:53)

• AI chatbots and social media are increasingly used by young adults for mental health information (KFF polling).
• Dr. TJ Tripp (Serenity Mental Health Centers, Atlanta) warns AI chatbots cannot replace clinical evaluation—can agree with users but lack nuance.
  • Quote: “There's also just not that human empathy or ethical oversight.” (Tripp – 07:29)
  • Colleagues raise concerns: “You know, is this actually based in science?” — “The information they're getting versus it's the most popular trend?” (07:33-07:41)
• Over half of those consulting AI do not seek therapy afterward, underscoring risk of skipping real care.

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3. Bibb County Jail Expansion: First Steps to Address Overcrowding

(09:52-10:39)

• Severe overcrowding and safety incidents (including the tasing death of a mentally ill detainee) have plagued the jail.
• Macon-Bibb County has approved $1.2 million for phase one: demolition of an old building.
  • Mayor Lester Miller: “Phase two is going to be... interior work done there inside the jail, outside the mental health unit… converting some of that and remodeling the jail.” (10:18-10:23)
• Future expansions will add ~150 beds; total cost estimate is pending.

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4. Additional Georgia News Updates

Electric Rate Hikes Across the State

(07:53-08:37)

• Georgia Power and now electric membership cooperatives (EMCs) have raised rates by 16% on average (past four years).
• Chris Fettis (Coastal EMC): “The primary drivers for increasing the rates is really power supply costs and then you couple that with the material cost increases...” (08:17)

Modernizing Oyster Harvest

(09:07-09:52)

• Last year’s controlled summer harvesting saw no reported illnesses; public comment open for longer morning harvest hours.
• Dominic Guadagnoli (Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources):
  • “Mechanisms and processes... to be able to harvest oysters safely year round… individually assess their own risk.” (09:07)

Honoring Black Press Legacy

(10:39)

• Spelman College awards an honorary degree to Shirley James, publisher of the Savannah Tribune, for journalism and community leadership.

Hartsfield-Jackson Airport’s Plane Train Gets an Upgrade

(10:39+)

• Mitsubishi subsidiary to renovate the underground train system, which moved 95 million in 2025—triple MARTA’s rail numbers.

Masters Family Day and Golf Tournament

(10:39+)

• Family Day precedes the Masters; Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Tom Watson set for ceremonial openings.

Braves-Angels Brawl Makes Memes

(10:39+)

• Fight between Ronald Lopez and Jorge Soler leads to both being ejected; manager Walt Weiss becomes a viral sensation after tackling Soler.
  • Fan jokes: Statue of Weiss or “drafted by the Falcons”.
  • Weiss: “I was proud of our guys, the way we handled everything tonight.”
  • Context: Solaire hit by pitches after a home run; brawl followed.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Mary Rainwater, 14th District Voter:
  “This country needs change. We need a big change.” (01:18)
• Dr. Andre Gillespie:
  “The mood is definitely sour on Republicans at this moment. There are many people who are dissatisfied with the Trump administration for various reasons.” (02:05)
  “I would not be surprised to see Harris actually do well in the November general election and perhaps hit a ceiling that's somewhere in the low 40s.” (06:45)
• Dr. TJ Tripp on AI Therapy:
  “There's also just not that human empathy or ethical oversight.” (07:29)
• Chris Fettis on EMC Rate Hikes:
  “The primary drivers for increasing the rates is really power supply costs...” (08:17)
• Mayor Lester Miller (Bibb County):
  “...phase two is going to be the interior work done there inside the jail, outside the mental health unit, for lack of better words, converting some of that and remodeling the jail.” (10:18)
• Braves’ Walt Weiss (on brawl):
  “I was proud of our guys, the way we handled everything tonight.” (10:39+)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 14th Congressional District Election & Analysis: 00:38 – 06:45
• AI in Adolescent Mental Health: 07:05 – 07:53
• Electric Rate Hikes: 07:53 – 08:37
• Oyster Harvest Expansion: 09:07 – 09:52
• Bibb County Jail Expansion: 09:52 – 10:39
• Briefs (Spelman/James, Airport, Masters, Braves): 10:39 – end

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Tone and Style

The episode maintains a journalistic, informative, and community-oriented tone, balancing in-depth analysis with concise reporting and occasional wit (particularly in sports coverage). The interviews and expert opinions are delivered in a collegial, conversational style, aiming to draw clear insights for listeners interested in Georgia policy and current events.

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For more updates on these stories, visit GPB News online or tune in to the next episode of Georgia Today.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, a Democrat shrinks the margin in a loss in Georgia's deep red 14th congressional district. Officials in Macon Bibb county have approved funding to begin an expansion of the county's troubled jail. And AI therapists so far seem to lack what good therapists need.

[B]

There's also just not that human empathy or ethical oversight.

[C]

You know, is this actually based in science?

[B]

The information they're getting versus it's the most popular trend?

[A]

Today is Wednesday, April 8th. I'm Peter Biello and this is Georgia Today. Republican Clay Fuller will represent Georgia's 14th congressional district in Congress after winning a runoff election. GPB's Sarah Kalis has more.

[D]

While Democrat Sean Harris lost the race, he moved the needle in Georgia's most heavily Republican district with well over 40% of the vote. Harris and the Democrats saw a reduction in the margin of victory from 2024, when Harris ran against former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and came in with 35% of the vote. Some Harris voters, like Mary Rainwater, say

[A]

this country needs change. We need a big change.

[D]

Fuller has vowed to be an ally of President Donald Trump in Congress. He will finish out the remainder of Greene's term, which ends in January. Both Fuller and Harris have qualified to be on their respective parties ballots in the primary election in May. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kalis.

[A]

And for more on what the results of the 14th district race can tell us about how voters feel now and what it might mean for November's general election, let's turn to Andre Gillespie, political scientist with Emory University. Welcome to the program.

[C]

Thanks for having me.

[A]

So Democrat Sean Harris shrunk the margin quite a bit. What do you think we can attribute this to? Is this the overall mood of the country, the strength of his campaigning, a combination of those two things, or maybe something else?

[C]

It is probably a combination of both. The mood is definitely sour on Republicans at this moment. There are many people who are dissatisfied with the Trump administration for various reasons. And it's not unusual in a midterm election season for the incumbent party to lose seats in an election. So even though Republicans hold onto this seat, it's not surprising that Democrats could actually overperform how they typically perform in this district. As a barometer or an indicator of

[A]

that national mood, this is an unusual time to hold an election. How much do you think awareness of this election and turnout in the 14th district mattered in this case?

[C]

Well, I mean, I think it, you know, it does matter for special election runoff. There was actually pretty robust voter turnout in this particular race. So, you know, you're looking at upwards of 150,000 people casting ballots in this race. I usually don't expect that. So that suggests that both campaigns did a good job of getting the word out. There were certainly television advertising, there was a lot of news coverage. And I'm sure, though I wasn't witness to this as a non resident of that district, that there was a lot of active campaigning that was going on in the district.

[A]

Republican Clay Fuller will finish Marjorie Taylor Greene's term, but he and Sean Harris are gonna run in their party's primary next month. They may face each other again in the November election. So in a district where the margin is tightening, would you expect to see Clay Fuller modify his message to maybe widen it again?

[C]

One of the things that's actually been really interesting is that today there seems he's got, he's going to have a, a primary challenge. And so there's already text messages that are going out trying to make light of the fact that Fuller didn't win by a large enough margin, meaning a

[A]

primary might push him back farther towards the right again.

[C]

Possibly. But I think, you know, I think we also just need to look at kind of the logic behind this particular race. So for all intents and purposes, it's not clear, but because they mentioned Colton Moore's name, this seems like this is something that is somehow connected to Colton Moore.

[A]

Colton Moore, former state senator.

[C]

Former state senator. And you know, or whether or not it's somebody who supports him, we don't know. And Moore is trying to make the case that he would have been a stronger candidate last night. I actually think that that's highly questionable. So it's completely counterfactual. But Moore might make the case that he's more pure MAGA and could have excited more people. But he, with his profile of having been somewhat pugilistic and antagonizing even to Republicans in the General assembly, might have actually made him more of a turnoff to moderate and independent voters. And we cannot discount the national mood that suggests that Republicans are going to underperform this year. So to say that you need to be more right wing in order to do better in this particular election contest strikes me more as wishful thinking. So yes, I think that Clay Fuller is still going to have a harder primary contest than Sean Harris is going to have. I don't necessarily think that that's going to dim his prospects, nor does that actually fundamentally change, you know, what the race will actually look like in a general election contest, which is still a race that is his to lose.

[A]

Democrats running in the 14th district have always said they're trying to lay the groundwork for future success. That's kind of what Marcus flowers said in 2022 when he ran against and lost to Marjorie Taylor Greene. So how does Harris, a veteran and a farmer, play in that district? And to what extent can we say that Democrats are effectively doing that, laying the groundwork for smaller and smaller margins?

[C]

Well, I mean, if we look at Flowers performance and then Harris's performance, you see an incremental improvement of about a percentage point, I believe. And then if we look at this particular improvement, we're looking at about an 8 percentage point improvement from the special election. It's an apples to pears comparison. So, you know, I don't want to put much stock in that. That being said, it does look like Harris is going to be in a really strong position to be able to do better than he did in 2024. Also full he will be technically the incumbent won't have the same level of incumbency advantage that Marjorie Taylor Greene did when she ran in 2024. So I would not be surprised to see Harris actually do well in the November general election and perhaps hit a ceiling that's somewhere in the low 40s. So maybe not 44%, but we might be looking at something in the 40, 41%, kind of around where the first ballot was for the special election.

[A]

Andre Gillespie, political scientist at Emory University, thank you so much for speaking with me. Artificial intelligence can be used to help teenagers recognize patterns of thinking and how to better express feelings. But an Atlanta based psychiatrist warns that it cannot replace a clinical evaluation. GPB's Ellen Eldredge has more.

[E]

New polling from KFF shows people are using both AI and social media to find health information, especially younger adults who are more likely to seek mental health information online. Dr. TJ Tripp is a psychiatrist and co founder of Serenity Mental Health Centers in Atlanta. He says AI chatbots are excellent at agreeing with you, but they cannot replace an exam when symptoms are ongoing, worsening or unclear.

[B]

There's also just not that human empathy or ethical oversight.

[C]

You know, is this actually based in science?

[B]

The information they're getting versus it's the most popular trend.

[E]

Tripp says polling also shows more than half the people who consult AI for health do not follow up with a therapist. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldredge.

[A]

While Georgia's largest and only investor owned electric utility Georgia Power has raised its rates in recent years. Many of the state's smaller electric membership cooperatives have been following suit, and for many of the same reasons. Data from the Georgia Public Service Commission shows Georgia EMCs have raised their rates an average of 16% over the past four years. Chris Fettis of Coastal EMC says his company's 5.9% rate hike in May will be its first in more than a decade.

[C]

The primary drivers for increasing the rates is really power supply costs and then you couple that with the material cost increases, labor and workforce increased costs and then financing and capital costs. The existing rates just weren't recovering enough revenue.

[A]

Flint Energies in central west Georgia raised their rates about 4% this month. Georgia's nonprofit emcees serve nearly half of Georgia's population, mostly in rural areas. A small number of Georgia oyster growers began harvesting the salty bivalve over the summer for the first time last year. Now, state officials want to extend the morning hours they can be in the water. Dominic Guadagnoli oversees the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Coastal Resources Division shellfish program.

[C]

When it comes to oysters, we do have mechanisms and processes in place to be able to harvest oysters safely year round, but I do tell people to

[A]

individually assess their own risk. Warm temperatures can activate a harmful bacteria in oysters, but the new summer harvest takes place under controlled, well researched conditions, guadagnoli says. There were no reported illnesses last year. The agency is taking public comments on the proposal to extend harvest hours this month. Georgia currently leases oyster growing space and state estuaries to nine commercial harvesters. Officials in Macon Bibb county have approved funding to begin an expansion of the county's troubled jail. GPB's Grant Blankenship has more.

[B]

In recent years, the jail at the Bibb County Law Enforcement center has seen extreme overcrowding and some deaths among detainees, including the tasing death of a mentally ill man who jailers were trying to subdue. MACON Bibb Mayor Lester Miller says The newly approved $1.2 million is just for a phase one of a jail expansion. That's demolition of an older existing building at the jail site. Phase two is going to be the interior work done there inside the jail,

[A]

outside the mental health unit, for lack

[C]

of better words, converting some of that and remodeling the jail.

[B]

Subsequent phases will include the expansion itself, adding about 150 detention beds. Mayor Miller says the total price tag for the project will become clear later this spring. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon,

[A]

the publisher of one of America's oldest African American owned newspapers is being honored by her alma mater. Spelman College will present an honorary degree to Savannah Tribune publisher Shirley James this week. She's being recognized for her decades of work in journalism, education and public service. She spent more than 30 years at Savannah State University and helped revive the historic paper. She'll be honored during Spelman's Founders Day convocation tomorrow. The plane train at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport is set for major upgrades. A subsidiary of the Japanese firm Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said yesterday that it has signed a contract to renovate the system, including providing new trains and and replacing old ones. The nearly three mile underground system connects the concourses and terminals at the world's busiest airport. It moved 95 million passengers in 2025. That's according to its operator, Paris based Alstom. Those numbers would make it one of the busiest public transit systems in the country, serving about three times more rail passengers than metro Atlanta's public transit agency. MARTA the Masters golf tournament begins tomorrow, which means today is Family Day. That's when golfers bring their kids and spouses for what's billed as a relaxing, enjoy the moment kind of event in a nine hole competition, the children of the competitors stand in for their parent and put on the green, make sand angels in the sand traps and get cheered by the crowd. The children usually dress in custom white caddy bibs. And after today, the real competition begins. Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Tom Watson again are scheduled to hit the ceremonial tee shots at about 7:30 tomorrow morning before the opening round. Scotty Scheffler remains the betting favorite. Tiger woods said last week he is stepping away to seek treatment after his vehicle crashed in Florida and he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. He will miss the Masters for the second straight year. And in baseball news, the Braves face the Angels in Anaheim for the last of a three game series. Last night's win against the Angels came in the aftermath of a brawl that had stolen the spotlight. Braves starting pitcher Ronaldo Lopez had already given up a home run to Angels outfielder Jorge Soler in their first matchup and Lopez hit Solaire with a pitch on the second, the third time Soler stepped into the batter's box. Lopez threw a fastball up and inside. Soler and Lopez exchanged words and then Soler charged. The mound bench is cleared. Video shows Lopez striking Solaire in the face or helmet with a baseball in his fist and it also shows 62 year old manager Walt Weiss tackling Solaire at his knees. He in the end, both Solaire and Lopez were ejected from the game, and it was a sad moment for Braves fans who remember Solaire's towering home run that helped the Braves win the 2021 World Series. But it was also a memeable moment. Images of Walt Weiss tackling Solaire are now circulating on social media, with calls to build the statue of Weiss ASAP or maybe allow him to be drafted by the Falcons. For his part, Weis says he doesn't let his pitchers intentionally hit batters. And no, Lopez did not intend to intend to hit Solaire. But overall, Weiss says that he was, quote, proud of our guys, the way we handled everything tonight. And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. Thanks so much for tuning in. Come on back tomorrow. Subscribe to this podcast so you don't forget to come back. And check out gpb.org news for any updates to the stories you heard today. And if you've got feedback, we'd love to hear from you. And the best way to reach us is by email. When you email Georgia Today at gpb. Org, your note goes to the whole team. Again, that's Georgia Today at gpb. Org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We will see you tomorrow.