Georgia’s GOP Gamble: Federal Waste, Kandiss Taylor, and the 2026 Shake-Up

The GOP aims to flip the U.S. Sen­ate seat, with Gov­er­nor Bri­an Kemp’s poten­tial run with Trump’s endorse­ment in ques­tion. Demo­c­ra­t­ic strong­holds like Atlanta, Macon, Colum­bus, and Savan­nah could sway turnout, threat­en­ing the Repub­li­can tick­et. In the 1st Dis­trict, all eyes on Bud­dy Carter whether he will retire, run for anoth­er office or face a pri­ma­ry chal­lenge from Kan­diss Tay­lor, whose con­tro­ver­sial past and new­found alliance with Kemp (after claim­ing she beat him in the 2022 guber­na­to­r­i­al race) stirs chaos. The AJC cham­pi­ons Taylor’s bid, see­ing her as a GOP lia­bil­i­ty that could boost Democ­rats. Her base may balk at her shift from out­sider to estab­lish­ment ally. Mean­while, Josh McK­oon and David Cross vie for GOP chair, and Rich McCormick’s staged town hall flop in the 7th District—coupled with his DeSan­tis ties—angers con­stituents, risk­ing Repub­li­can cohe­sion as the AJC waits to pounce.

• Fed­er­al offices all over the coun­try dupli­cat­ing ser­vices. There are leas­es all over the coun­try that we are pay­ing for emp­ty build­ings. You have to take the focus into the states as well. 
• Is Kemp going to run for Sen­ate? And, who is get­ting Trump’s endorse­ment? We have some hot spots in Geor­gia. We have atlanta, macon, colum­bus, savan­nah all demo­c­rat hot spots. We could have a can­di­date that could increase turnout in those areas that could hurt can­di­dates in oth­er races on the tick­et. 
• We have Bud­dy Carter, cur­rent first dis­trict rep­re­sen­ta­tive (Savan­nah). Is he retir­ing or is he run­ning and Kan­diss Tay­lor going to pri­ma­ry him. Or is he run­ning for Sen­ate. Yes­ter­day in the AJC ran an arti­cle. The AJC loves every­thing about Kan­diss Taylor’s con­gres­sion­al bid shakes up GA 2026 GOP midterms. Kan­diss has made a lot of com­ments that are con­tro­ver­sial. She is exact­ly what the AJC is wait­ing for to turn the demo­c­rat tick­et. She ran for US Sen­ate, then she ran for gov­er­nor, now she is run­ning for con­gres­sion­al seat to take Bud­dy Carter’s seat. When she ran for gov­er­nor, she and her sup­port­ers said that she won the elec­tion against Bri­an Kemp. But she is now say­ing that her and Kemp have made amends. There was a time that you would find Kan­diss around any estab­lish­ment in GA but now she is best friends with them. What kind of role could that first dis­trict play in the gov­er­nor’s race and the sen­ate race? If she wins the pri­ma­ry and gets on the gen­er­al bal­lot, watch out. Every­thing that the AJC is report­ing is out there on what Kan­diss has said and post­ed. 
• What will this do to the repub­li­can tick­et in Geor­gia? The AJC grabbed it imme­di­ate­ly. They are look­ing for­ward to this. 
• Now the base, for those of you out there that sup­port­ed Kan­diss, what are you going to do as she starts cam­paign­ing and doesn’t sound like the Kan­diss Tay­lor that ran for Sen­ate and Gov­er­nor. What the base does and get­ting sur­prised by what you are about to hear and the new friend­ships she has cul­ti­vat­ed. 
• Josh McK­oon is run­ning for chair of the GOP. David Cross is run­ning against him. The repub­li­can women of hall coun­ty will be host­ing David Cross and Gar­land Favorito tomor­row night. 
• Rich McCormick is the con­gress­man of the new 7th dis­trict. He has fold­ed like a lawn chair. It was a staged town hall. The media is using him as the poster child of these town halls because it is Geor­gia. They want to chip away at the mon­ey that is in the dis­trict. He is real­ly upset­ting his daw­son and lump­kin coun­ty res­i­dents. Remem­ber he also sup­port­ed Ron DeSan­tis.