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Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom on today's episode. After yesterday's primaries, it looks like we're headed into runoffs for several high profile races. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms wins the Democratic nomination for governor and voters chose to keep two incumbents on the Georgia Supreme Court.
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I'm gratified that the voters of Georgia reaffirmed their commitment to to an impartial judiciary and I look forward to continuing to serve.
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Today is Wednesday, May 20th.
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I'm Peter Biello and this is Georgia Today. Neither frontrunner in Georgia's high dollar campaign for the Republican nomination for governor secured enough votes yesterday to avoid a runoff. GPB Sophie Gratis reports. We're in for another month of campaigning between Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones and healthcare executive Rick Jackson south of Atlanta.
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Jones told supporters he'll lean heavily on President Trump's endorsement heading into the runoff and on them during his continuing campaign.
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You're the reason why we're gonna win and I don't care how much money they save.
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Meanwhile, Jackson promised to continue running as a, quote, outsider.
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I don't owe the lobbyist anything. I don't need the establishment's permission. I cannot be bought and I will not back down.
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However, if elected, Jackson said he would work closely with Trump on priority issues, including immigration and public safety. For GPB News, I'm Sophie Gradis in Atlanta.
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Jackson or Jones will face off against the Democratic nominee, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who won her primary in a crowded field handily. GPB's Amanda Andrews has more from her election night watch party.
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Bottoms won outright with over 50% of the vote and will not face a runoff ahead of the November election. Her platform is focused on health care, affordable housing and and protecting voting rights in Georgia. During her victory speech, Bottom said she will fight for votes in every corner of the state.
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I am going to spend every day through November talking about my plans to make sure every Georgian has an opportunity to succeed. It means stopping Donald Trump every time his policies hurt Georgia and also taking action here to make life better for people across the state.
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Bottoms will face off against the winner of the Republican nomination, which will be decided in a runoff election between current lieute Governor Burt Jones and businessman Rick Jackson. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.
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Turning now to the closely watched U.S. senate race, two Republicans will continue duking it out as their campaigns continue to another round. GPB Sara Kalis reports. The remaining candidates are taking aim at Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff and each other.
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U.S. representative Mike Collins was the first to qualify for the runoff. He emphasized his record in Congress and support for President Donald Trump.
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You don't beat Jon Ossoff with no record. You win by having a record of results.
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Former football coach Derek Dooley also qualified. He marketed himself as a political outsider.
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Beating Jon Ossoff is not going to be done by another D.C. politician.
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The runoff will be held June 16. Trump hasn't endorsed a candidate yet, but Georgia Governor Brian Camp has supported duly For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis in Jackson.
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The Republican primary for US Senate created two open seats in the US House seeking to succeed Collins in a Republican leaning district east of Atlanta. State Representative Houston Gaines is the top Republican. U.S. representative Buddy Carter also campaigned to take on Ossoff in the US Senate race, but his votes fell short of securing a place in the runoff. The Carter seaton a Republican leaning southeast Georgia district now could go to Jim Kingston, son of longtime Savannah Congressman Jack Kingston. Jim Kingston narrowly avoided a runoff in a crowded field. In other open U.S. house races, Democrat Jasmine Clark won her party's nomination to succeed U.S. representative David Scott, who died in April while he was seeking another term. Clark is now the odds on favorite to represent a heavily Democratic metro Atlanta district. Georgia voters also cast their ballots for state constitutional, state legislative and local office holders. And like many of the higher profile races that we've been reporting on, many of those races will go to runoffs as well. But judicial races in Georgia have their general elections with the primaries in May. That means two usual Georgia Supreme Court races are now decided. GPB's Orlando Montoya reports. Two justices on the state's highest court successfully pushed back strong challengers to win re election.
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Judicial races are technically non partisan and rarely competitive. The last time voters ousted a Georgia Supreme Court justice was in 1922. But high profile Democrats believed Jen Jordan and Miracle Rankin could buck history and their campaigns against Republican backed incumbents. While Tuesday's results were closer than most judicial races, in the end voters stuck with incumbents Charlie Bethel and Sarah Warren. Bethel said the result won't change how he serves on the court.
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I'm gratified that the voters of Georgia reaffirmed their commitment to an impartial judiciary and I look forward to continuing to serve, warren said.
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The message Warren said. The result sends a message.
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We withstood partisan attacks from the outside. We withstood negativity and misleading ads from the outside. But I think the people of Georgia have now spoken and said that that is not the kind of campaign they want to see because they want judges the bench, not politicians.
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The challengers did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning, but Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey congratulated the challengers for what he called, quote, historic, courageous campaigns. A third Georgia Supreme Court race was decided before Tuesday. The incumbent, Justice Ben Land, faced no opposition for a six year term on the bench. For GPB News, I'm Orlando Montoya.
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For more on last night's election results, let's get some analysis from Zachary Peskowitz. He's professor of political science at Emory University. Welcome to the program.
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Thank you for having me.
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So let's start with those gubernatorial primaries. What do you make of the big win for Kesha Lance Bottoms in the Democratic primary?
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Yeah. So this is certainly an impressive performance by Bottoms to avoid the runoff. It's a pretty crowded field with some pretty experienced competitors and to be able to get more than 50% of the vote in the first round is difficult and impressive showing. And she gets to avoid the extended campaign and cost of running for another month.
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What do you think put her over the top?
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Name recognition experience as mayor of Atlanta was a big part of it. But it is still very impressive to avoid a runoff with such a crowded field of experienced candidates who have served in the General assembly, then county executives and the like.
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And for Republicans, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones and businessman Rick Jackson, both who have been aggressively advertising their campaigns, will face each other next month in the runoff.
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What do you make of that race?
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This is going to be a very interesting race to watch. So I think a lot of money has already been spent with these candidates trying to get to the runoff. And I think we're going to see a lot of money, a lot of advertising over the next month. It's going to be quite expensive. They're going to use some resources that they won't be able to use in the general election. As a result, based on the results yesterday, expect it to be very competitive and close. Going to come down to the wire, Most likely.
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President Trump has intervened in some GOP
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races across the country when he likes a particular candidate.
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To what extent do you think the president will get involved in this?
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Yes. So Donald Trump has endorsed Bert Jones. I think that's a real selling point of the Jones campaign. If you go to Bert Jones website, you see a big banner at the top of the website that says endorsed by President Donald J. Trump. That's a big differentiator compared to Rick Jackson. So I expect we're going to hear a Lot of that. I don't know how active President Trump plans to be in the campaign or whether he'll make a campaign appearance or the like. But, you know, certainly if that were to happen, that could have a big effect. You know, and these runoffs turnout is often quite low. You know, we just. We just had an election, and there's less attention to these runoffs. So tens of thousands of votes either way could really make the difference in determining who the Republican nominee in November is.
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What about the GOP Senate race? Mike Collins and Derek Dooley will face each other in a runoff.
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Yes. So this was another race where we had quite a few serious candidates, and not too surprising that it advanced to a runoff. Dooley was pretty close to Buddy Carter, so he kind of eked out the win there and gets to advance to the next round. You know, Dooley is Brian Kemp's preferred candidate. So I expect we'll see a lot of engagement from Governor Kemp, suspects of a lot of campaign events and rallies and the like.
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What does Derek Dooley's performance here say about Governor Brian Kemp's influence, given that he was, as you say, Kemp's preferred candidate? And Kemp has, of course, never been in lockstep with President Trump, whereas Mike Collins, who did get a higher percentage of the vote than Dooley, has been more closely aligned with the president.
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Yeah, I think this is quite an interesting dynamic to look at. So Dooley obviously has no prior political experience. This is all kind of uncharted territory for him. But Brian Kemp picked him, thought he would be a compelling statewide candidate in the general election against Jon Ossoff, who is now confirmed as the Democratic nominee. You know, I think that Kemp was able to take a politically inexperienced candidate and get him to the runoff. I think that's. That's certainly an accomplishment. And I think, you know, point points to Kemp's popularity in the state. We'll see if what happens to this runoff and whether or he's able to be competitive and win against a more experienced candidate in Mike Collins.
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Was there anything else about last night's primary race that surprised you or that you found interesting?
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An interesting result from last night was the Georgia State Supreme Court results. Although these are nonpartisan elections for the Georgia State Supreme Court, but a lot of national Democrats endorsed two of the challengers, and those challengers did not win. So I think that's certainly interesting, and to see that although Democrats turned out at very high rates, they were not able to win those nonpartisan state Supreme Court elections.
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What can you tell us about turnout and what that turnout says about how Georgians feel right now.
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For this primary, we had over 2 million votes cast, which is pretty good for a primary and a midterm election cycle. And I think there was a lot of excitement about these competitive statewide races. In particular, as we move to the runoff, a few things change. So it's obviously a quicker turnaround. You know, we have the runoff in four weeks. The early voting window is also shorter, so there are going to be fewer opportunities for citizens to do early in person voting. You know, I'd expect that turnout's going to decrease quite a bit relative to the first round of the primary.
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Zachary Peskowitz, professor of political science at Emory University, thank you so much for speaking with me.
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Thank you for having me.
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You know, Every day on Up First, NPR's Golden Globe nominated morning news podcast, we bring you three essential stories. the heart of each story are questions what really happened? What really mattered? What happens next? At npr, we stand for your right to be curious and to follow the facts. Follow up first wherever you get your podcasts and start your day knowing what matters and why.
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One of the state's largest philanthropic organizations will be looking for a new leader. The president of the Arthur M. Blank Family foundation announced her retirement yesterday. Faye Twersky joined the Atlanta based foundation in 2021. Since 1995, it has granted more than $1.5 billion to charities primarily in Georgia. The Georgia Ports Authority is reporting a 14% drop in cargo traffic for the month of April compared to the same month in 2025. Port officials yesterday attributed the decline to record volumes in 2025, when customers were front loading cargo ahead of expected tariffs. The agency forecasts 54% growth over 10 years with $5 billion in planned investments. Atlanta parks have climbed to 18th in a ranking by the National Trust for Public Lands. The organization's Park Score Index, released today, rates cities on the acreage, investment, amenities, access and equity of their parks. Atlanta was 49th five years ago when park and recreation spending was about half its current level. The trust says parks return $3 in economic benefits for every dollar invested. That is it for this edition of GEORGIA today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Remember, you can find more headlines@gpb.org news subscribing to this podcast is a good idea. We'll be back in your feed tomorrow afternoon, and your feedback and story ideas are welcome. And the best way to get them to us is by email. The address is Georgia Today at gpb, I'm Peter Biello. Thank you again for listening. We will see you tomorrow.