Free Republic

Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) said on Friday he will not require Georgia to redraw its congressional map before the midterm elections, taking the opposite stance of his Republican counterparts in other states. The governor’s rationale is that because the state’s elections are already underway, he won’t cancel the May 19 primary. His decision comes after Gov. Jeff Landry (R-LA) suspended six House primaries in Louisiana following a landmark Supreme Court decision that struck down race-based redistricting enabled by a section of the Voting Rights Act.

“Smoke drifts into Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, as air quality declines and 50 homes destroyed. Wildfires burning across the south-eastern US intensified on Wednesday across parts of south-east Georgia, where 50 homes were destroyed, and across north-east Florida, forcing evacuations and school closures in some communities. The Georgia forestry commission issued its first mandatory burn ban in the state’s history, effective across 91 counties in the lower half of the state, due to worsening drought conditions and rising wildfire activity.”

On Monday, the Superior Court of Fulton County filed notice of a hearing for a challenge to the candidacy of Brad Raffensperger for Governor on the Republican primary ballot, due to the Republican party voting to reject his candidacy last year at the Georgia GOP Convention. If successful, this challenge could disqualify Raffensperger from the Republican primary ballot. [snip] “This is not a partisan issue; it is an issue of election integrity,” said Jake Medoff, attorney for Wysong and James. “The Georgia Republican Party has the right to decide who will represent it as a candidate, and that process should...

The Brief Jonathan Dupiton was sentenced to seven years in prison for a $3.8 million unemployment fraud scheme. The Atlanta podcaster used stolen identities to file hundreds of false claims during the pandemic. Dupiton was living in a halfway house for a previous fraud conviction when the new crimes began. An Atlanta podcaster has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison after being convicted of using stolen identities to obtain millions of dollars in unemployment insurance benefits. [snip] Prosecutors say that in 2020, Dupiton was completing a federal sentence at a halfway house for a previous fraud conviction targeting...

Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) died Wednesday at the age of 80, his office said. Scott, who was seeking a 13th House term this November, is the fifth member of the 119th Congress to die since lawmakers convened in January 2025. A cause of death was not immediately available. Scott, a former advertising executive who was first elected to Congress in 2002, was facing six challengers in the May 19 primary amid criticism that he was too old to perform his duties effectively.

A criminal immigrant accused of carrying out a shooting spree in Georgia that killed three people was found dead inside his jail cell. Olaolukitan Adon-Abel, 26, was discovered unresponsive late on Tuesday night in his cell at a DeKalb County jail, according to the sheriff's office. Authorities said life-saving measures were attempted, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death has not yet been determined and an internal review is underway but officials say they do not currently suspect foul play. The sudden death brings a dramatic turn in a case that had already stunned Georgia...

Dalton Republican state Rep. Kasey Carpenter is facing criticism after a photo of him dressed in blackface has been circulating on social media. The grainy photo shows Carpenter posing alongside his wife at a party with his white skin painted brown. Carpenter said the photo was taken at a Chattanooga bar about 12 years ago when he was in his 30s. He said it was a costume party where guests dressed like power couples, and they chose to dress like Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, who were married at the time. In a phone call Monday, Carpenter called the getup...

(The Center Square) – In the last year of the Biden administration, millions of dollars flowed from the city of Atlanta to nonprofits so they could aid migrants pouring through U.S. borders. A quarter-million dollars went to a Chicago-based Islamic activist organization that was raising money for Gaza at the time. The Center Square wanted to know what, specifically, that group and others spent their grant money on. But for months, requests to the office of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, filed under the Georgia Open Records Act, have been answered with hefty price quotes ranging from hundreds to more than...

A Democratic candidate for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives said supporters of President Donald Trump should not be allowed to post anything online for four years. Suzanna Karatassos is running for a Georgia House seat currently held by Republican state Rep. Houston Gaines, who is himself running for the U.S. House seat held by Republican Rep. Mike Collins. Karatassos, who calls herself a “progressive fighter” on her Instagram page, said in a since-deleted video that when Democrats begin “rebuilding” America, Trump supporters should face “punishment” for their votes. “When this is all over and Trump’s gone and...

ATLANTA — The Associated Press has called the race for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District for Republican Clay Fuller. Fuller faced Democrat Shawn Harris in a runoff for former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s seat. ----------------------------------------- 87% reporting - Fuller (R) 57%, Harris (D) 43%

An exclusive Channel 2 Action News Investigation finds hundreds of Georgians arrested for DUI in 2025 later were proven to be sober by GBI blood tests. In suspected DUI cases, the GBI tests samples for drugs only if they are found to be under the legal limit for alcohol. Through an open records request, Channel 2 Action News Consumer Investigator Justin Gray obtained records showing that 701 people tested by the GBI in 2025 had no illegal or prescription drugs found in their system during toxicology screenings. [snip] Smyrna resident Lenny Daniel is one of those. “It’s a shame to...

[snip] MS NOW’s resident “Republican,” Elise Jordan, went on a blistering rant against President Trump—denouncing him as “trashy,” “classless,” and “unhinged” in a tirade that outpaced even her liberal co-hosts. Reacting to Trump’s Easter post about Iran—featuring an F-bomb profanity, a “praise be to Allah” phrase, and a threat to send Iranians to “hell”—Jordan said she wasn't supposed to be surprised by "the lack of decorum and the trashiness and just the utter classlessness of Donald Trump." But she quickly escalated. I cannot believe that this characterless man is the President of the United States and is behaving this way...

What’s more treacherous and treasonous than wishing your own country gets defeated in war, especially by a bunch of goat-molesting seventh-century pagan savages whose primitive mindset is matched only by their grotesque perversions? Well, the disgusting perversions part is merely a collateral reason why members of America’s donkey party seem to have such an affinity for Iran’s rulers – the mullahs, with their bizarre bestiality and grotesque handmaiden dogma, and the San Francisco Democrats, with their furry-friendly gender-spazz grossness, collectively share the worst figurative collective browser in the history of ever. Yet, it’s more than their joint commitment to degeneracy...

Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X that all she heard from President Donald Trump's address to the nation on Wednesday night "was WAR WAR WAR." "I wanted so much for President Trump to put America First. That’s what I believed he would do. All I heard from his speech tonight was WAR WAR WAR," Greene wrote. "Nothing to lower the cost of living for Americans. Nothing to reduce our near $40 trillion in debt. Nothing to save Social Security, which goes bankrupt in just a few years. Nothing to lower the cost of insurance. Nothing to address jobs...

Three weeks after the Georgia Senate failed to pass a bill requiring hand-marked ballots for the November elections, a revamped House bill with the same requirement was approved. In its original form, House Bill 960 would have added a 12th Superior Court judge to the Gwinnett Judicial Circuit. The amended bill presented by Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, on Friday contained some of the same language as Senate Bill 568, which failed on crossover day. House Bill 960 still requires hand-marked ballots for the November 2026 general election and requires a manual recount of some elections. The new version reduces the...

A Frontier Airlines flight was moved to an isolated runway at Atlanta’s airport Sunday after a passenger made a bomb threat, prompting a law enforcement response before officials deemed the threat non-credible. Frontier Flight 2539 from Columbus, Ohio, had landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and was taxiing to the gate when a passenger allegedly made the verbal threat. As a precaution and in coordination with local authorities, the aircraft was redirected to a remote location where law enforcement responded. The FBI and Atlanta Police Department told Fox News the incident remains under investigation, with the FBI taking the lead....

On March 20, the Georgia Court of Appeals delivered a staggering blow to the principle of bipartisan election oversight. In Fulton County Board of Commissioners v. Fulton County Republican Party, the court effectively granted the board’s partisan majority broad discretion to reject GOP nominees. By reversing a lower court’s order to seat duly nominated Republican Board of Registration and Elections members, the court hasn’t just sided with the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, it has undermined the very safeguards meant to ensure genuine bipartisanship in Georgia’s largest county. A Defiant Pattern This crisis is the result of a sustained campaign...

The village of Dolton, Illinois, has been an unfortunate laboratory for a specific brand of leftist governance for years. Under the leadership of Mayor Tiffany Henyard, the small suburb became synonymous with fiscal chaos, alleged self-dealing, and a flamboyant disregard for the standard rules of municipal conduct. But now, as the legal and political walls close in back home, Henyard is attempting the ultimate political Houdini act: moving to Georgia and rebranding herself as a “Republican.” The Dolton Disaster To understand why Georgians should be wary, one must first look at the wreckage left behind in Illinois. Henyard’s tenure in...

The Democrats have refused to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). That helped to cause chaos at the airports after the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had hundreds of its employees quit because they weren't being paid. Then, too, some are calling in sick. The wait times to get through security ballooned up to hours, with mammoth lines. Not only that, but it puts all of us in a more dangerous situation when the whole of the DHS isn't being funded and protecting our security. Democrats put their political agenda against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over their...

We're working to learn more about a massive fire that destroyed a historic courthouse in Floyd County, Georgia Monday afternoon. Video captured at the scene shows flames ripping through the structure, which was built in 1892. The courthouse was undergoing renovations at the time of the fire