The Georgia Hour, episode 54: Sine Die Looms: Transgender Care Vote, Election Bills, GAGOP Drama, and Education Funding

Tomor­row marks Sine Die, the end of Georgia’s leg­isla­tive ses­sion. Yes­ter­day, a vote to halt tax­pay­er-fund­ed gen­der-affirm­ing care for inmates saw Democ­rats walk out, leav­ing only two to vote. Chris Carr, AG and guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­date, is crit­i­cized for pre­vi­ous­ly allow­ing such care, while Bri­an Strick­land, a Repub­li­can state sen­a­tor, filed for AG, poten­tial­ly breach­ing eti­quette pend­ing Gov­er­nor Kemp’s plans. HB397 and SB214 (paper bal­lots) passed the Sen­ate; HB397 awaits House con­fir­ma­tion, while SB214’s House vote is delayed to 2026 unless rules are suspended—unlikely but pos­si­ble. Judge Toten­berg dis­missed Curl­ing vs. Raf­fensperg­er on stand­ing after sev­en years, tim­ing it with these elec­tion bills. The Sen­ate also vot­ed to equal­ize teacher and police death ben­e­fits, side­step­ping broad­er men­tal health issues. Third-grade read­ing scores remain flat, prompt­ing $30.5M for lit­er­a­cy coach­es, screen­ers, and rec­om­men­da­tions.

The GAGOP denied Lisa Piece’s 1st Vice Chair bid after nine days, despite her meet­ing require­ments. Trans­paren­cy issues plague par­ty lead­er­ship, includ­ing Cobb County’s chair elec­tion, where Sophia Farooq lost to Mary Clarice Hath­away, who may not meet res­i­den­cy rules—raising sus­pi­cions of manip­u­la­tion. VoterGA’s past removal from a fish fry and Josh McKoon’s silence on con­tro­ver­sies, includ­ing sup­port for Colton Moore and Har­ri­son Floyd, fuel calls to oust him as chair. Travis Bow­den pos­si­bly returns as GAGOP exec­u­tive direc­tor, with ques­tions lin­ger­ing about his fund­ing and event fees.