1: Georgia: The New Bellwether

Summary

What A Day: "Georgia: The New Bellwether" (Long Play Episode 1)

Date: August 1, 2026
Host: Jennifer Palmieri (with Erin Haynes, Mitch Landrieu)
Theme: Georgia’s emergence as the epicenter of American political change, shaping both regional and national futures—focusing on shifting demographics, political realignments, voting rights battles, outsider and insider perspectives, and how the South’s choices will direct the nation’s future.

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Overview

This episode, the first of Long Play's limited series, centers on Georgia as a national bellwether: a state profoundly changed over the past decade, now steering the trajectory of American politics. The hosts travel through Georgia—Atlanta and Athens—meeting political figures, organizers, and everyday citizens to examine why Georgia swings between red and blue, what motivates its voters, the ongoing fight over voting rights, the relationship between political parties and the electorate, and the forces making the South the new heart of national politics.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Georgia as America’s New Political Epicenter

• Demographic Shifts:
  • Jennifer Palmieri: “Just six years ago, it was roughly 3/4 white. Today it's majority minority state and the state is 30% black.” (03:39)
  • Erin Haynes: “You can see the south changing in front of people's eyes.” (03:55)
• If you can't win the South, you can't win America:
  • “The thing you can't do is ignore this region.” (04:08)

2. Georgia's Political Volatility and 2020-2024 Shakeup

• Swing State Trends:
  • Bluestein explains that Georgia shocked pundits by going blue in 2020, only to flip back in 2024—a sign of national political instability and hyper-competitiveness. (04:31-05:32)
• Purple, Not Red or Blue:
  • Greg Bluestein: “We could be called a purple state, a periwinkle state, a fuchsia state… but we're definitely not a red or blue state by any means.” (06:27)

3. Frontlines of Voting Rights and Civic Mobilization

• Fulton County’s Role:
  • As the “bluest bastion” and focal point of Trump’s 2020 fraud claims, Fulton is emblematic of battles over turnout, rights, and the future of elections. (04:55)
• Voter Suppression and Activism:
  • Latasha Brown shares how, post-2026 Supreme Court Voting Rights Act gutting (“Louisiana vs Calais”), the movement organized—camping out at the Capitol—forcing the state to backpedal on harsh redistricting. (16:43-17:11)
• Mobilization in Crisis:
  • Brown recalls creativity used during 2020/2021: “We had a collard green caucus. We set up tents where people could early vote and have their collard greens, their cornbread and their black eyed peas.” (16:13)

4. Inside Georgia’s Grassroots and Political Psyche

• Bitter Southerner & Changing Stereotypes:
  • Kyle Tibbs Jones: “We haven't heard liberal Southerners who say, y' all writing about serious issues and topics.” (12:05)
  • “There's a lot of progressive to liberal white women in the South…when Democrats win in Georgia, that's part of the recipe.” (13:04-13:26)
• Duality and Complexity:
  • Jones: “There's a duality to the South. There's a duality to the nation. But what's so interesting… any woman living anywhere across the south, if you are racking your brain for a way to use your voice to tell your truth… I took baby steps and then bigger steps.” (12:41-13:26)

5. The New Faces of Georgia Politics

• Jon Ossoff’s Perspective:
  • His story—shaped by the Black-Jewish alliance in Southern civil rights. (07:51)
  • On the stakes: “This will be the closest Senate race in the country. We have to build the most massive grassroots get out the vote effort in Georgia history.” (08:56)
  • About voting rights: “Their attacks on voting rights…galvanize a defiant determination to vote." (09:24)
  • Reflects on January 6th as not just a national crisis but a direct “attack on voting rights.” (10:09)
• Latasha Brown’s Reframings:
  • “We've reduced voting to kind of this individual act of power… That is so foreign to me. I. I never had the luxury of that. My people were the salt of the earth. They were the strength behind the movement.” (15:18)
• Marjorie Taylor Greene’s MAGA Schism:
  • On Trump: “He was supposed to drain the swamp. Now he's become king of the swamp.” (20:14)
  • “People that came out and voted for Donald Trump, they feel betrayed… disaffected MAGA Republican voters…don't have a party to turn to.” (20:40-21:05)
  • Georgia’s pragmatic independence: “If you look at Georgia's history, we are very used to conflict. We've been a Democrat state and we've been a Republican state. And it's also one of the things in Georgia that we're most proud of. We love to find something across the aisle that we can relate to with our neighbor. That's something Donald Trump could never understand his entire life.” (21:27-22:00)

6. What Matters to Georgia Voters

• Issues On The Ground:
  • Respondents raise universal income, health care, property taxes, climate, education, gun rights and crime as top issues. (18:09-18:28)
• Cultural Attachments:
  • Basketball, food, Southern hospitality, and diversity all cited as reasons to love Georgia, reflecting a new identity forming beneath the politics. (10:53-11:11)

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Erin Haynes (on shifting demographics):
  “You can see the South changing in front of people’s eyes.” (03:55)
• Kyle Tibbs Jones (on progressive voices in the South):
  “We haven’t heard liberal Southerners who say, y’all, writing about serious issues and topics.” (12:05)
• Jon Ossoff (about Black-Jewish southern civil rights legacy):
  “It’s something that I think echoes through the story of a young Jewish man and a black pastor from Ebenezer Baptist Church running together for the U.S. Senate.” (07:51)
• Latasha Brown (on voting as collective power):
  “We've reduced voting to kind of this individual act of power... That was so foreign to me. I never had the luxury of that. My people were the salt of the earth. They were the strength behind the movement.” (15:18)
• Marjorie Taylor Greene (breaking with Trump):
  “He was supposed to drain the swamp. Now he's become king of the swamp.” (20:14)
  “People that came out and voted for Donald Trump, they feel betrayed.” (20:40)
• Jennifer Palmieri (on Georgia’s unique place):
  “My big takeaway after talking to people here for a week is how Georgia is different from any other southern state. It is with intention that Atlanta was built the way it was… But when people move with intention to make changes, they can do it.” (23:01)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:39] – Demographic changes and why they matter
• [04:31] – Political volatility explained by Greg Bluestein
• [06:27] – Georgia’s status: “not really red or blue”
• [07:06] – Jon Ossoff’s viral rally moment and his interview about leadership
• [08:56] – Battleground stakes in the Senate race
• [09:20] – Voting rights under direct threat
• [13:04] – Kyle Tibbs Jones on liberal women in the South
• [14:12] – Latasha Brown’s background and passion for voting
• [16:13] – Community-based voter turnout creativity in 2020
• [16:43] – Impact and response to Supreme Court gutting Voting Rights Act
• [20:14] – Marjorie Taylor Greene recounts breaking with Trump
• [22:00] – How Georgia’s political attitude is unlike elsewhere
• [23:01] – Synthesis: Why Georgia’s choices matter for the national future

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Conclusion

"Georgia: The New Bellwether" illustrates how the complex social, cultural, and political transformations in Georgia are a microcosm for wider American trends. From demographic shifts and voting rights fights to breakdowns within both Republican and Democratic party coalitions, the episode emphasizes that what happens in Georgia won’t stay in Georgia—it will shape the course of the entire United States. As Palmieri notes, “If you are relying on an old picture of who’s a Georgia voter or what the South looks like, you might be missing what’s happening here now.” (11:11)

Listeners are left with a nuanced, deeply researched portrait of Georgia at a crossroads—one whose outcomes will ripple far beyond its borders.

Transcript

[Jane]

Hey, what a day, listeners. Jane here dropping in to share the first episode of a new crooked limited series we're really excited about. It's called Long Play. The south is the new epicenter of American politics. It's the fastest growing region in the country and its power in Congress and the Electoral College is growing too. And now changes to the Voting Rights act have raised the stakes even higher for both major parties. The path to winning America runs through the south, but to win it, you have to understand it. Long Play is a limited series from the folks who brought you Showtime's the Circus across six Southern states. Long Play examines the issues driving voters in a region that could shape the future of our politics and our country. It's really excellent work from Emmy nominated host and Southerner Jennifer Palmieri, former Mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landro, and award winning journalist Aaron Haynes. We're thrilled to share it with you and I can't wait for you to hear such a fascinating examination of what the new south really is. You can listen to the first episode right here and if you like it, watch or listen to the second episode right now. By subscribing to Long play series on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, we'll put the links in the show. Notes.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

250 million.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Dollars.

[Greg Bluestein]

I think Georgia is the premier battleground

[Jennifer Palmieri]

state in the nation. What do you think about politics in Georgia right now?

[Latasha Brown]

I feel like it should be a big change, you know, we've been fighting

[Jon Ossoff]

for here in Georgia, the fundamentals of the good life.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

I think it's getting better. It's just gonna take everybody coming together.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Yeah, it could be better.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Honestly.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

People are talking plainly about the shift. There's something happening. These people are my people.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

People that voted for Donald Trump in 2024 are so angry. They're like, I'll never vote Republican again.

[Latasha Brown]

We have to reframe the conversation. This isn't about participation.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

This.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Welcome to Georgia, the new bellwether state. In 2020, it became an unlikely tipping point. Going blue for the first time in nearly three decades, only to flip back to red in 2024. Since then, Georgia has been the center of some of the biggest political fights in America. Donald Trump's election fraud claims, the battle over voting rights and the first big cracks in the MAGA coalition. What happens in a state like Geor rarely stays in Georgia. So what does it tell us about what's coming next? I'm Jennifer Palmieri. I'm a former White House communications director and political advisor. More relevant to this show. I am proud to have been born in Mississippi and spent my formative years in the South. This summer, I'm teaming up with former Louisiana lieutenant governor and New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu and Erin Haynes, editor at large of the 19th and Ms. Now contributor. We're traveling across six southern states to explore the people, the issues, and what the rest of us are missing about a region that will increasingly shape our politics and our country. This is Long Play. Winning the south episode 1 Georgia welcome to grocery on Home isn't so cool.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

I love that.

[Erin Haynes]

This is awesome.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Isn't it awesome?

[Erin Haynes]

I mean, it's like right in the middle of a neighborhood.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

It's like a speakeasy, but for music. We call the show Long Play because we're getting out from the day to day to look at the long game, but also because we love music.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

We love music.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

The south is the new political epicenter of the country.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Absolutely.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

I mean, it's just like if you cannot win in the south, you are not going to be able to win America. In Georgia, population's changing, demographics are changing all others. Just six years ago, it was roughly 3/4 white. Today it's majority minority state and the state is 30% black.

[Erin Haynes]

President yes, you can see the south changing in front of people's eyes.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Georgia is the new bellwether. It's going to be the center of the cold queen universe. Headed into the midterms, we know that the eyes of the nation are going to be on Georgia.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

The thing you can't do is ignore this region, which is we've got to

[Jane]

be on the field.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Our first stop was Atlanta, the focal point of Trump's 2020 voter fraud claims. Mitch went to talk to someone who knows a thing or two about Georgia politics and battle lines. Greg Bluestein, chief political at the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

[Erin Haynes]

So the state was blue. Then all of a sudden it went really, really red. Then all of a sudden it starts trending back.

[Greg Bluestein]

Yeah. I mean, no one would have thought maybe 15, 20 years ago that Georgia would be in this space right now where it's so closely divided.

[Erin Haynes]

The president seems just to be fixated on the 2020 election. Can you talk a little bit about what you think is pushing that and why in Fulton County?

[Greg Bluestein]

I mean, one reason why Fulton County. It's the bluest bastion in Georgia. Democrats can't win without huge turnout in Fulton County. But these complaints, these concerns have been vetted and looked at and debunked in many ways over and over again. But on the Republican side of the line. There's still a deep division. There's many others, very MAGA aligned, who parrot the president's lines about election fraud in Georgia. You've got Mike Collins. He's the Senate nominee, who not so long ago told CNN that Trump won the 2020 election. So it's still animating a lot of the debates we're having about elections here in Georgia.

[Erin Haynes]

Right on the ballot in a couple of months, Jon Ossoff is up for reelection.

[Greg Bluestein]

When I first talked to Jon OSSOFF in early 2017, there was a special election for a deep red seat, but it was trending blue. Called me up and he said, hey, can you add me to the list of people running? I want you to pay attention to my campaign. I said, okay, join. Join the club.

[Erin Haynes]

Was that really your response? And did you say whatever?

[Greg Bluestein]

I mean, I was just kind of like, look, there's 16 people. You good luck guy. But then he said, I have John Lewis endorsement.

[Erin Haynes]

What's so interesting about this is in 2020, the southern state of Georgia elected two Democrats. That doesn't happen by accident.

[Greg Bluestein]

Yeah, there was a long, long history in Georgia where when Democrats ran for higher office, clinging to very GOP friendly values. And that started really changing in a big way. In 2018, when Stacey Abrams ran for governor, she and other allies talked more about Mobil, who ignore midterm elections and getting them out to vote, sending people out into the communities. And now when it comes to where the state is, we could be called a purple state, a periwinkle state, a fuchsia state, you name it. But we're definitely not a red or blue state by any means.

[Jon Ossoff]

So, Savannah, let's give them a united Georgia, and let's make sure they hear it all the way down at Mar a Lago that Georgia will bow to no king.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

That's Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff at a rally in Savannah. He's running to hold his seat this fall after a surprise win in 2020 that reshaped the political map. Clips like this from his rallies have been going viral on social media, fueling speculation about his future and even a presidential run. I sat down with him to see what's driving all that attention and how he sees this moment and his place in it. You are a son of Atlanta. Really inspired by John Lewis. Worked for him. He endorsed you. Do you think about the responsibility that comes with being a leader in Georgia's next chapter?

[Jon Ossoff]

When I first worked for Congressman John Lewis as a very young man, what he wanted me to understand was the historic alliance between blacks and Jews in the American south during the Civil. And it's something that I think echoes through the story of a young Jewish man and a black pastor from Ebenezer Baptist Church running together for the U.S. senate.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

So we now know your opponent, Congressman Mike Collins. He is a Trump endorsed MAGA candidate. This is somebody who voted against releasing the Epstein files until President Trump told the House of Republicans it was okay to do so. This is somebody who is currently under a congressional ethics investigation. And then there's just a lot of troubling stuff online from him. What would it mean for Georgia to be represented by him in the United States Senate?

[Jon Ossoff]

This is a disastrous nominee for the gop. It's just not who we are in the state of Georgia.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

And still you can't expect that it's going to be anything but close here.

[Jon Ossoff]

This will be the closest Senate race in the country. We have to build the most massive grassroots get out the vote effort in Georgia history because we also expect some of the most determined attacks on voting rights in modern American history. Right. Fulton County, Georgia, where the President of the United States sent Director of National Intelligence to oversee a ballot raid here in Georgia.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

That's something that I think people are really worried about when they see what's happening with Fulton County.

[Jon Ossoff]

It should worry people. But I think the thing that they don't understand in the White House is that because of our civil rights history in the south, their attacks on voting rights, they don't deter or intimidate people from voting. They galvanize a defiant determination to vote.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

I was here on January 5, 2021, the night that you won. Senator Warnock won. People had to vote in a primary. They had to vote in the general election for Joe Biden, for you, for Senator Warnock. And then they had to vote six weeks later in this runoff, and they did in record numbers. People forget the next morning was January 6th. What was that whiplash moment like for you?

[Jon Ossoff]

That attack on the Capitol was an attack on voting rights. It was an effort to throw out Georgia voters ballots and impose a defeated president through violence.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Since then, Roe v. Wade, the voting rights decision, all of the nonsense in Fulton County. Do you worry a lot of voters are gonna feel unmotivated or beaten down?

[Jon Ossoff]

I think our coalition is just growing. But it's a very competitive battleground state, and the Republican Party is poised to spend hundreds of millions of dollars and we can take nothing for granted.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

What do you guys like about living in Georgia?

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

The basketball,

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Southern hospitality.

[Greg Bluestein]

I like the diversity of people.

[Jane]

The Food sometimes.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Y' all got a football team go down.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Most people are friendly here, and I

[Jennifer Palmieri]

love that about Georgia. Whether Ossoff can win again here remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, Georgia no longer fits neatly into anyone's political boxes. And if you are relying on an old picture of who's a Georgia voter or what the south looks like, you might be missing what's happening here now. Which brought Erin and I to Athens, Georgia, to meet with Kyle Tibbs Jones, co founder and editor of the award winning Bitter Southerner, a magazine founded by liberal Southerners who are looking to create a home.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Welcome to God's living room, a.k.a.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

good Southern Forest. Cheers.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Welcome.

Cheers.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Okay, so tell us about founding the Bitter Southerner.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

So in 2013, we started online. We were telling stories, one story a week online. People are like, wait a minute. We haven't heard a voice like this in the South.

Yes.

We haven't heard liberal Southerners who say, y' all writing about serious issues and topics.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Oh, speaking of, think of better and good.

[Erin Haynes]

We've got some peach preserves.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Peter, these folks were legit.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

You said you described yourself as a liberal Southerner, so that's like not the stereotype right here. Why do you do it?

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Well, and before you answer, I would say liberal white Southerner. That is the thing that is not typical. Right. Because Democrat in the south, you're usually not thinking about somebody who looks like you and yet you are.

That's right. You know, that's an old way of looking at the south, the south, and the rest of the nation. There's a duality to the South. There's a duality to the nation. But what's so interesting, people ask me all the time about being outspoken.

Yeah.

Like, Kyle, you're so outspoken, any woman living anywhere across the south, if you

are

racking your brain for a way to use your voice to tell your truth, if you want to do that but you're a little nervous, I would just say take baby steps. And I took baby steps and then bigger steps. And I walked and then I ran. There's a lot of progressive to liberal white women in the South.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

When Democrats win in Georgia, that's part of the recipe of why.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Well, black women lead the way. Absolutely, 100%. But yes, women.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

There's an old fundamental tension in Georgia. Is it the voters who get to pick their elected officials or the elected officials who get to pick their voters? Who gets to participate in this democracy? That's a question Erin Haynes wanted answers

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

to that is playing out right Here in Fulton county, it's home to the most black voters in the state. You've seen voter suppression and expansion of voter participation playing out here in Georgia. People like Stacey Abrams or Latasha Brown, who starts Black Voters Matter 10 years ago.

[Latasha Brown]

My people have always taught this nation how to sing its freedom songs because we know what it feels to be a caged bird, but we also know what it feels to lift every voice.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

She's advocating for voting rights. She's helping get black people elected, but more importantly, mobilizing black voters. I think about your journey around voting. I mean, this has been a lifelong journey from you.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Erin met up with Atasha Brown at a park near the home where Martin Luther King Jr. Was born to talk about why she does this work.

[Latasha Brown]

As a child, I would like when elections would come around because it was almost kind of a ritual. My grandmother, when she went in a voting booth, there was like a nobody but her and her baby. And so she would actually let me pull. There was like a lever. She would let me pull the lever and just that act alone let me know how special voting was.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Yeah. How does that shift to you caring not about just your own vote, but voting rights for others?

[Latasha Brown]

My orientation didn't start as voting was going to help me as an individual get better. I thought that voting would help get resources to my community and which I am a part of in some ways. Some of that has been lost. We've reduced voting to kind of this individual act of power, this idea that I'm not gonna vote because I don't like the candidate. That is so foreign. That was so foreign to me. I. I never had the luxury of that. My people were the salt of the earth. They were the strength behind the movement.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

January 5, 2021, the runoff election.

[Latasha Brown]

2020. I want people to remember, like in 2020, the world has shut down. We're in a global pandemic and we got an election.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

So consequential election.

[Latasha Brown]

A consequential election. And so what we did is we had a collard green caucus. We set up tents where people could early vote and have their collard greens, their cornbread and their black eyed peas.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

In the midst of all of those circumstances that were going on, you had to get creative.

[Latasha Brown]

We had to get creative to break through. To break through.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Here we are in 2026, the Louisiana vs Calais decision comes down from the Supreme Court taking away the voting rights Act. Talk to me about your reaction to that decision.

[Latasha Brown]

My 92 year old aunt, we were actually at the salon getting her nails done. And I looked at the phone and I saw the alert, and I'm like. I looked at my aunt and I was like, they killed the Voter Rights Act. And she started crying.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

What did you decide to do in that moment?

[Latasha Brown]

I was like, no, let's get ready, let's go.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Georgia was one of the states attempting to redraw the maps here they call a special session.

[Latasha Brown]

Our response was to camp out at the Capitol. They were not going to do this on our watch. I think they understood that this was going to be a fight. The people organized themselves, and as a result, the same day the session was called, they actually called it off. We cannot allow people to amass power at the expense of us not showing up for us. We are going to do it with joy, we're going to do it with integrity, but we're going to do in the fullness of our power.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

It feels different standing out here today. What about you?

It does.

[Latasha Brown]

It represents, in some ways, past, the present, but also the future. I did not believe that we would ever be here again. Yeah, but just like this House is still standing, we are still standing.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Are you going to vote this year in the Senate race? I vote every year, in every race.

[Latasha Brown]

It's very important to me to vote.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

You're going to vote for the first time?

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Absolutely, yes.

[Latasha Brown]

It's just dear to me.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

If we don't speak, we won't be able to change.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

What are the issues you care about?

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Universal incomes, universal healthcare.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

I really care about the data centers. Gas prices are high.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Property taxes are kind of high. Higher taxes on billionaires. Like, I want to get them to

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

help with the climate crisis, immigration and foreign policy decisions.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

School system, education. Education is key. I'm very much into my Second Amendment rights. I think they should ban guns. If you don't vote, then you have no right to complain.

[Latasha Brown]

Someone's trying to stop you from voting. That should be your motivation to really want to.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

One of the most interesting things about Georgia is that Republicans in this state have been willing to stand up to President Trump in a way that you do not see in other places, even if that means rebutting him publicly. There was Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who both pushed back on Trump's voter fraud claims. And then there's someone else, one of Trump's biggest supporters, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had a very public split with him just this year. What message does that send to Republicans around the country who may be starting to say, I'm not sure. I see my place in MAGA anymore. I sat down with MTG to get a closer look.

[Greg Bluestein]

We are set and ready, guys.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

All right.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Okay. Congressman, thank you so much for doing this.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Glad to do.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

So you grew up here. Tell me, was your family Republicans?

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

Were you.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Are you apolitical?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I grew up in a family construction business where my parents discussed all the issues at the kitchen table.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

And then when did you start getting interested in politics? Or was there a point where you're like, wow, America's really just not working anymore?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

It was a lot of America's not working anymore, but it was raising my own children, running our construction company, and then feeling the same impact that my parents talked about when I was growing up. And so I had this very naive perspective. I'll just run for Congress and go up there and make changes.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

And you felt President Trump at this time, though, you, like, were hanging in there with him. You're starting to have doubts.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I was a sucker for all the lines at the rallies. I was all for make America great again. Things started changing by the summer of 2025, when it came time for me to do my job representing my district. I was butting heads with the president that I helped get elected. He was supposed to drain the swamp. Now he's become king of the swamp.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Do you feel like there's other Republicans in Georgia that feel like you?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Oh, yeah. There is a huge pullback. People that came out and voted for Donald Trump, they feel betrayed. And at the same time, though, here's the problem. The Democrats, they never changed their policies that they lost on. And so disaffected MAGA or MAHA. Republican voters from 2024 don't have a party to turn to.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

The two most high profile Republicans in the state are you and Governor Kemp. You all both bucked President Trump, but you both remained popular in this state. That does not happen in other states. Like, have you thought about that? It didn't.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

You know, I thought a lot about it, but it makes sense to me because I've lived here my whole life.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

What is it about Georgia?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

So if you're in Georgia and if you were to make some sort of statement that people didn't really agree with, you'll be met with, like, a silence, and people just might just. And they might turn their head. And that's kind of how Trump hit Georgia. If you look at Georgia's history, we are very used to conflict. We've been a Democrat state and we've been a Republican state.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

The cradle of the Confederacy.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

Yes.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

For its place in civil rights movement.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

And it's also one of the things in Georgia that we're most proud of. We love to find something across the aisle that we can relate to with our neighbor. That's something Donald Trump could never understand his entire life.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Trump is obsessed with Georgia. Are other Republicans fired up about 2020 still?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

I think what matters to people in the midterms is inflation, gas prices, another foreign war. Most Americans I talk to Democrats and Republicans, they're like, I hate both parties. Both parties have failed us. Why vote for any of them?

[Jennifer Palmieri]

Well, because you have to vote for somebody.

[Marjorie Taylor Greene]

So new leaders, you don't have to vote for anybody. I don't buy into the lesser evil, vote for the lesser evil kind of thing. If I go into a restaurant and there's nothing good on the menu, I don't want to pick the least of the bad. I don't want to eat there at all. The future of politics is probably going to get really just very bad before it gets better.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

My big takeaway after talking to people here for a week is how Georgia is different from any other southern state. It is with attention that Atlanta was built the way it was, that there was a decision made that it was going to be the city too busy, that there was a decision made to put an infrastructure around the airport so there was a black middle class that could flourish here. That continues to matter today, but it's not enough. New groups have had to be formed. Groups like black voters matter. The kind of campaigns that Senator Ossoff, Senator Warnock ran that tried to bring new voters in. It is a dynamic and vibrant place. But when people move with intention to make changes, they can do it.

[Erin Haynes]

Everybody is starting to say we can't keep going the way we're going.

[Jennifer Palmieri]

I love my country. It could be in a little better shape. Georgia is a different place.

[Kyle Tibbs Jones]

American democracy has been shaped by this part of the country from the very beginning.

[Erin Haynes]

What's in Georgia now is not going to stay in Georgia. It's going to permeate all across the southern states and it's going to lead the rest of the country in trying to figure out how we go forward,

[Jennifer Palmieri]

no matter what shape it's in.

[Latasha Brown]

I love my country, but wherever you

[Jennifer Palmieri]

are, I hope the high road leads you home again from left, right and crooked media. Watch long play on [e-mail] ongplays series or listen wherever you get your podcast. Episode 2 Texas is out right now. Meet Keith loving dad, board game champ bus driving pro.

[Keith]

I drive 65,000 miles in my bus each year. If people knew what I know, lives could be saved. Like how? There are some things I simply can't see on my route. The other day a car tried to sneak past me and ends up right in my blind spot. I turn slowly so accident avoided, but no car should be in the blind spot for a 40,000 pound bus. It's all right roads, it's our safety. Visit www.sharetherodesafely.gov.