The Georgia Hour, episode 154: Elections, GOP Chaos, and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s DOJ Letter!

Dive into the lat­est episode of The Geor­gia Hour on Voice of Rur­al Amer­i­ca, where host BKP unpacks Georgia’s heat­ed polit­i­cal land­scape. From Ful­ton Coun­ty elec­tion board dra­ma to the crit­i­cal SD 21 race and Mar­jorie Tay­lor Greene’s con­tro­ver­sial DOJ let­ter, this pod­cast expos­es the high-stakes bat­tles shap­ing Georgia’s future. Explore Repub­li­can Par­ty tur­moil, elec­tion integri­ty debates, and upcom­ing races that could shift the state’s polit­i­cal bal­ance. Tune in for unfil­tered insights into Georgia’s 2025 elec­tion cycle!

Ful­ton Coun­ty Elec­tion Board Dra­ma:

• Issue: Jason Fras­er remains unap­point­ed to the Ful­ton Coun­ty Board of Reg­is­tra­tion and Elec­tions, with Julie Adams con­tin­u­ing to serve despite not being re-appoint­ed.
• Why It Mat­ters: Two crit­i­cal elec­tions (SD 21 and Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion­er) hinge on Ful­ton County’s elec­tion integri­ty. Fail­ure to address board appoint­ments could impact Repub­li­can out­comes.
• Con­text: The Repub­li­can Par­ty of Ful­ton County’s delay in appoint­ments rais­es con­cerns about elec­tion over­sight as Democ­rats could cap­i­tal­ize on any mis­man­age­ment.

Sen­ate Dis­trict 21 (SD 21) Spe­cial Elec­tion:

• Elec­tion Date: Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 23, 2025.
• Can­di­dates: Repub­li­can Jason Dick­er­son vs. a Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent.
• Stakes: The Demo­c­rat pre­vi­ous­ly secured 8,438 votes com­pared to Dickerson’s 3,700 in a jun­gle pri­ma­ry, pos­ing a risk of flip­ping the his­tor­i­cal­ly Repub­li­can seat.
• Impact: A Demo­c­ra­t­ic win could weak­en the Repub­li­can Sen­ate major­i­ty, embold­en Democ­rats statewide, and attract sig­nif­i­cant out­side fund­ing for future races.
• Con­cerns: Low Repub­li­can vot­er turnout and neg­a­tive sen­ti­ment toward Dick­er­son could jeop­ar­dize the race.

Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion­er Race:

• Elec­tion Date: Approx­i­mate­ly 56 days from Sep­tem­ber 9, 2025 (Novem­ber 4, 2025).
• Can­di­dates: Tim Echols and Fitz John­son.
• Sig­nif­i­cance: A Demo­c­ra­t­ic vic­to­ry in either of the two com­mis­sion­er seats could shift Georgia’s polit­i­cal land­scape, espe­cial­ly with munic­i­pal elec­tions (which lean Demo­c­ra­t­ic) occur­ring simul­ta­ne­ous­ly.
• Chal­lenge: Repub­li­cans must mobi­lize vot­ers to counter Demo­c­ra­t­ic turnout dri­ven by munic­i­pal races.

Geor­gia Repub­li­can Par­ty Lead­er­ship Cri­sis:

• Issue: The Geor­gia Repub­li­can Par­ty lacks an exec­u­tive direc­tor after Justin Rice stepped down on August 31, 2025. No replace­ment has been announced.
• Pre­vi­ous Con­text: Travis Bow­den (for­mer exec­u­tive direc­tor) was fired, high­light­ing inter­nal par­ty dys­func­tion.
• Impli­ca­tions: Lead­er­ship gaps could weak­en GOP strat­e­gy ahead of crit­i­cal 2025 and 2026 elec­tions.

Mar­jorie Tay­lor Greene’s Con­tro­ver­sial Moves:

• DOJ Let­ter: On Sep­tem­ber 6, 2025, Greene sent a let­ter to the FBI and DOJ urg­ing a fed­er­al inves­ti­ga­tion into Georgia’s elec­tions, cit­ing unre­solved 2020 elec­tion com­plaints in Ful­ton Coun­ty.
• Motives: Spec­u­la­tion sug­gests Greene’s actions stem from frus­tra­tion over not secur­ing Don­ald Trump’s endorse­ment for gov­er­nor or sen­a­tor in 2026. She may be tar­get­ing Sec­re­tary of State Brad Raf­fensperg­er and Gabriel Ster­ling to dis­rupt their polit­i­cal plans.
• Crit­i­cism: Crit­ics, includ­ing Lau­ra Loomer, accuse Greene of using her 14th Dis­trict seat for per­son­al finan­cial gain, includ­ing stock trad­ing and fam­i­ly pay­ments.
• Con­text: The Geor­gia State Elec­tion Board passed a non-bind­ing res­o­lu­tion in July 2025 call­ing for inves­ti­ga­tions into elec­tion law vio­la­tions, which Greene ref­er­ences in her let­ter.

Elec­tion Integri­ty and Blue Rib­bon Pan­el:

• Pan­el Overview: Chaired by Tim Flem­ing, the Blue Rib­bon Pan­el on Elec­tion Integri­ty is tour­ing Geor­gia to dis­cuss elec­tion sys­tem improve­ments.
• Con­tro­ver­sy: Crit­ics argue the pan­el serves as a cam­paign plat­form for Flem­ing, who announced his Sec­re­tary of State can­di­da­cy and secured endorse­ments from 70 Geor­gia State House mem­bers.
• Paper Bal­lot Pro­pos­al: Flem­ing and Vic­tor Ander­son request­ed a hand-marked paper bal­lot test for the Novem­ber 2025 elec­tion, which was denied by the Sec­re­tary of State’s office, cit­ing Georgia’s 2019 man­date for a uni­form vot­ing sys­tem.
• Response: Char­lene McGowan from the Sec­re­tary of State’s office empha­sized Georgia’s “gold stan­dard” for secure elec­tions, reject­ing the paper bal­lot test.

Brad Raffensperger’s Guber­na­to­r­i­al Ambi­tions:

• Announce­ment: Raf­fensperg­er con­firmed he is con­sid­er­ing a run for gov­er­nor in 2026, com­pet­ing against Burt Jones (Trump-endorsed) and Attor­ney Gen­er­al Chris Carr.
• Chal­lenges: Some Repub­li­cans ques­tion Raffensperger’s eli­gi­bil­i­ty to run as a Repub­li­can due to a state con­ven­tion res­o­lu­tion, though he is expect­ed to qual­i­fy with sup­port from GOP lead­er­ship.
• Pub­lic Reac­tion: Kan­diss Tay­lor crit­i­cized Raffensperger’s guber­na­to­r­i­al bid as “delu­sion­al,” though BKP notes irony giv­en Taylor’s own con­gres­sion­al run.

Gabriel Sterling’s Sec­re­tary of State Race:

• Can­di­dates: Ster­ling faces Tim Flem­ing and Kelvin King in the Repub­li­can pri­ma­ry.
• Back­ground: Ster­ling and Ryan Ger­many (2020 and 2024 Ful­ton Coun­ty elec­tion mon­i­tor) have deep knowl­edge of Ful­ton County’s elec­tion process­es, rais­ing ques­tions about their influ­ence.
• Spec­u­la­tion: BKP sug­gests Kelvin and Janelle King may have ambi­tions beyond the Sec­re­tary of State role.

Bri­an Kemp’s Nation­al Guard Deploy­ment:

• Action: Gov­er­nor Bri­an Kemp sent 300 Geor­gia Nation­al Guard mem­bers to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., to rein­force fed­er­al efforts (con­text unclear, pos­si­bly relat­ed to secu­ri­ty or “insur­rec­tion” con­cerns).
• Spec­u­la­tion: BKP ques­tions Kemp’s motives, sug­gest­ing it may be an attempt to align with Trump’s admin­is­tra­tion.
• Con­text: Kemp’s ally, Derek Doo­ley, is cam­paign­ing as pro-Trump, adding to spec­u­la­tion about Kemp’s polit­i­cal strat­e­gy.

Upcom­ing Events and Vot­er Engage­ment:

• Fish Fry Event: On Sep­tem­ber 27, 2025, at the Warn­er Robin­son Cen­ter, a Repub­li­can fundrais­er will fea­ture can­di­dates, music, and ven­dors. BKP will host a three-hour live polit­i­cal show start­ing at 10:30 AM, engag­ing vot­ers and can­di­dates.
• Debate Mod­er­a­tion: BKP plans to mod­er­ate guber­na­to­r­i­al and Sec­re­tary of State debates in 2026, empha­siz­ing tough but fair ques­tions to inform vot­ers.
• Call to Action: BKP urges Repub­li­cans to mobi­lize for the SD 21 and Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion­er races to counter Demo­c­ra­t­ic fund­ing and vot­er turnout.

Addi­tion­al Notes:

• Frost Fam­i­ly Ponzi Scheme: A $140 mil­lion Ponzi scheme involv­ing the Frost fam­i­ly is under inves­ti­ga­tion by the Sec­re­tary of State’s office, with ques­tions about cam­paign con­tri­bu­tions to law­mak­ers.
• Christo­pher Mora’s Cam­paign: Mora is chal­leng­ing Bar­ry Lou­d­er­milk in the 11th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict Repub­li­can pri­ma­ry, with more dis­cus­sion planned for future episodes.
• Per­son­al Note: BKP took a day off for Grand­par­ent Day to vis­it his grand­daugh­ters, empha­siz­ing fam­i­ly val­ues and America’s future.