We’re all aboard the time machine as we take stock of the biggest stories of the year in Georgia politics.
The first stop on our journey is January 2024, exactly one million years ago. Or so it seems to your narrator.
The issue of election interference has been derailed
In January, an attorney for one of the lesser-known defendants in the Fulton County election interference investigation filed a motion that would upend District Attorney Fani Willis’ plans to take the case to trial in 2024 — or ever.
The lawsuit accused Willis of having a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor, Nathan Wade, in the investigation, and said the arrangement represented a conflict of interest, citing vacations the two took together. Willis I confess For the relationship, but she says it began after Wade’s appointment.
Fulton County Judge Verdict in March That Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned, which he promptly did. But a Georgia Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 this month, saying that wasn’t enough Willis is disqualified And her office of the case. Willis is appealing the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court.
As the year draws to a close, the case remains stalled and risks losing its main target, President-elect Donald Trump, if his lawyers succeed in arguing that the next president He cannot be tried Once he is sworn in next month.
Epic discussion fail
Atlanta was a notorious place now CNN Talk Which exposed President Joe Biden’s weakness fully and unfiltered to the American public in late June. The debate exposed the president’s vulnerabilities, though he and his supporters called it a bad night, led to intense scrutiny of Biden’s fitness and raised new questions about his ability to lead the country for another four years.
It will be more than three weeks before Biden It leaked from the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to run in his place, preparing her to run an abbreviated campaign that bypassed the usual primary process.
The unusual move created an unprecedented vacancy at the top of the ticket just a month before Biden was scheduled to formally accept his party’s nomination.
Side note: Biden ended his visit that day in very Atlanta fashion with a late-night stop at Waffle House, where he told reporters that he thought he “did well” in the debate.
The state of the battlefield remains
Georgia, one of the seven swing states, was the main target for both presidential candidates this year. Harris and Trump’s back-and-forth campaign events — often occurring within a week, if not days — have given voters plenty of opportunities to see the candidates in person this fall (and drawn the ire of political reporters in the state).
But unlike four years ago, when Biden narrowly won Georgia by about 12,000 votes and became the first Democratic presidential candidate in three decades to capture the state, Trump found electoral redemption here by a healthy margin of 115,000 votes over Harris in the November election.
Also unlike four years ago, Trump accepted the Georgia election result this time.
School shooting leads to father’s arrest
14 year old student Four people were shot at Appalachian High School in Barrow County in September, killing two students and two teachers. Nine other people were injured.
The shooter was arrested and charged with murder. But in a rare move, his father, 54-year-old Colin Gray He was also charged Charged with manslaughter, second-degree murder, and cruelty to children.
The father purchased the AR-style firearm used in the shooting last December as a Christmas gift for his son, according to law enforcement officials. In 2023, police spoke with the son about online posts threatening to target a school in another county.
It was only the second time nationally that the parent of a school shooting suspect has been charged.
Shots were also fired Increased calls For gun safety measures.
Historically deadly storm
In late September, Hurricane Helen crossed the Florida state line into Georgia while still at hurricane strength, then tore through the eastern side of the state, devastating communities along the way.
Helen will be remembered for the series of tragedies left behind by the storm. 34 people died in Georgia alone, making it the deadliest storm to hit the state in more than a century.
The storm also caused at least $5.5 billion in agricultural and timber losses lossesAnd put Georgia leaders from both parties In the center From the late-year fight over disaster relief in Washington.
The murder of a college student becomes a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration
The impact of Laken Riley’s killing while jogging on the University of Georgia campus in February was immediate and widespread, sparking a national debate over immigration when it was revealed that her then-accused killer had entered the country illegally.
The 22-year-old Augusta University student’s name was invoked under the gold dome when the state Lawmakers paid The advance measures aim to force local enforcement to help federal immigration officials, and President-elect Donald Trump frequently cited her killings during his campaign.
José Antonio Ibarra was convicted in November of three counts of first-degree murder, first-degree murder, kidnapping with bodily injury and aggravated assault with intent to rape, and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. They have a lawyer Since asked for a new trial.
Two Georgia women died while trying to get an abortion in 2022, new reports show
At least two Georgia women, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candy Miller, died after the state’s six-week abortion ban went into effect in 2022 while trying to end their pregnancies, according to ProPublica.
The state Maternal Mortality Review Commission concluded that both deaths were preventable.
Miller’s death in particular has become part of the national debate about the impact of the wave of abortion restrictions that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion more than two years ago.
28 year old mother I tried to quit She got pregnant using abortion medication from a clinic in North Carolina. But when she developed a rare complication and went to an Atlanta-area hospital for treatment, doctors waited 20 hours to perform a dilation and curettage, or D&C, procedure to treat sepsis resulting from an incomplete miscarriage.
In Georgia, revelation The debate was reignited Concerning an exception in the law aimed at protecting mothers when their health is at risk. There is expected to be a new campaign to repeal the 2019 Georgia law, which… currently Before the Georgia Supreme Court again.
In November, officials in Georgia Expel all members From the Maternal Mortality Review Panel in response to ProPublica’s access to internal reports detailing the deaths of the two women.
Trump-aligned trio on state elections board goes rogue
Three members of the state Board of Elections tried to pass new election rules that critics said were attempts to sow chaos in the immediate aftermath of Georgia’s November election.
Rules like requiring all ballots to be counted by hand on election night have catapulted the little-known commission into national news. Their work also earned them a shoutout from Trump on the campaign trail, who called them “bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”
Their actions drew opposition from the GOP-appointed chairman, John Vervier, and Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, who warned members they were exceeding their authority. The Council is designed to interpret and implement policy decisions made by the legislature.
After the election of the council Vote instead To ask state legislators to take up legislation next year that would address their concerns, rather than continue to make their own rules.
Medicaid expansion gets a look
For the first time, high-ranking Georgia Republicans entered a new legislative session saying they were It was open To consider expanding the public insurance program for the poor, or at least a version of it.
Georgia GOP leaders have long avoided expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, so it was big news this year when the expansion proposal received Surprise hearing In a Senate committee.
But Gov. Brian Kemp’s limited expansion program, “Georgia’s Coverage Roads,” cast a long shadow over those discussions, and the governor’s continued opposition to full expansion has been credited with derailing this year’s talks from progressing.
At the time, Republican lawmakers said the governor’s program deserved more time to be successful. As of November, 5,562 people were enrolled in the program, according to A.J track From the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
Georgia is one of 10 states that has not fully expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
School voucher bill passes
After years of failed attempts, GOP lawmakers mustered enough votes this year to expand the state’s school voucher program, thanks in part to the governor’s announcement that passing it this year would be his priority.
The measure allows families with students enrolled in K-12 public schools in Georgia to eliminate $6,500 in state funding provided to local school districts for private school attendance or homeschooling.
Critics of vouchers argued that the measure would strip funding from public schools and questioned whether $6,500 would be enough for education. Families suffering from financial hardship To afford education in many of the best private schools in the country.
But an expanded interpretation of the law by the new agency administering the program resulted in far more students being eligible for the voucher than originally expected, the Associated Press reported. I mentioned In December.
