Kemp passes on Senate bid in Georgia
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) announced on Monday that he's forgoing a bid to challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) in Georgia next year, delivering a major blow to Republicans who sought to recruit him for the race.
'Over the last few weeks, I have had many conversations with friends, supporters, and leaders across the country who encouraged me to run for the US Senate in 2026. I greatly appreciate their support and prayers for our family,' the two-term GOP governor said in a post on the social platform X.
'After those discussions, I have decided that being on the ballot next year is not the right decision for me and my family,' he continued, adding that he had spoken with President Trump and Senate GOP leadership about the decision earlier that day, expressing his 'commitment to work alongside them to ensure we have a strong Republican nominee who can win next November.'
The news is a blow for Republicans, who largely saw Kemp as their most formidable opponent to Ossoff, the first-term Georgia Democrat who narrowly ousted now-U.S. ambassador to China David Perdue in the 2020 cycle.
Ossoff campaign manager Ellen Foster responded to the news in a statement saying, 'As we've said for the past few months, Senator Ossoff is well-prepared to defeat any challenger.'
'As Republicans scramble in the aftermath, our campaign will continue to build insurmountable momentum needed to win next November.'
Kemp has also been seen as a potential 2028 contender and most believed that if he was considering running for president, he was unlikely to make a bid for the Senate in 2026.
The Georgia Republican's announcement will almost certainty kick off a chaotic and spirited primary for the nomination to take on Ossoff, the only Senate Democrat running for reelection in a battleground state in 2026.
Republicans who have said they would be interested in running if Kemp opted against it, or who could very well jump in, include Reps. Rich McCormick, Mike Collins, Buddy Carter and Marjorie Taylor Greene, in addition to Insurance Commissioner John King. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger could also launch a bid as well.
Senate Republicans projected confidence that they had a strong chance of flipping the seat next year.
'While Jon Ossoff is running to impeach President Trump, Republicans have a number of strong candidates who can build a winning coalition to add this seat to President Trump's Senate Majority,' said Joanna Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the Senate Republicans' campaign arm.
Other Republicans, however, were more candid. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters on Monday that they were 'disappointed' and said he 'would have been [a] great candidate.' Still, he maintained it would be competitive 'either way.'
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats ridiculed Republicans over Kemp's announcement in their own statement.
'Brian Kemp's decision to not run for Senate in 2026 is yet another embarrassing Republican Senate recruitment failure as they face a building midterm backlash where every GOP candidate will be forced to answer for Trump's harmful agenda,' Maeve Coyle, a spokeswoman for the Senate Democrats' campaign arm, said. 'Senate Republicans' toxic agenda and recruitment failures put their majority at risk in 2026.'
Ossoff's campaign did not immediately offer a comment about Kemp's retirement when asked.
Public polling had shown that Kemp would keep the race competitive with Ossoff, aided by the fact that President Trump won the state in November by just over 2 points.
Polling released by The Atlantic Journal-Constitution this month, which was conducted by University of Georgia's School of Public & International Affairs Survey Research Center showed Kemp with a strong approval rating of 60 percent, while it showed Ossoff with a 48 percent approval rating.
When respondents were asked about a hypothetical matchup between Ossoff and Kemp, 49 percent said the GOP governor while 45.7 percent supported Ossoff, just outside of the poll's 3.1 point margin of error.
In hypothetical matchups between Ossoff and several other Republicans – including King, Greene and Raffensberger – Ossoff beat each of them. Ossoff beat Raffensberger by close to 10 points in a head-to-head; he beat King by close to 13 points; and he beat Greene by 17 points.
Even without Kemp in the race, Ossoff faces a challenging reelection. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) ran against Republican Herschel Walker, who was dogged by personal controversies, in 2022 and was forced into a runoff with him before ultimately winning.
At the same time, Ossoff could benefit from a crowded and raucous GOP primary, which could leave to the Republican nominee bruised heading into the general election.
Updated at 4:13 p.m. EDT
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jewish lawmakers call out silence as antisemitic threats surge in Florida
Sen. Tina Polsky made it clear in a prayer at the beginning of a Florida Senate session: The sound of silence is deadly for Jews in Florida and Jewish communities everywhere. On June 5, the Boca Raton Democrat called on senators to be 'a light in the darkness, to confront hatred with justice and to never stand silent in the face of cruelty.' It was a restatement of a "call to conscience" issued earlier in the day by the 14-member Florida Jewish Legislative Caucus. Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, there has been an increase in violence against Jews in Florida, according to 'The Year in Hate and Extremism,' an annual report by Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit legal advocacy organization based in Montgomery, Alabama. There were 353 Florida reported antisemitism incidents in 2024, fewer than the previous year but 31% higher than 2022, according to the SPLC. The counties of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade make up the U.S. third largest Jewish community, after New York and Los Angeles. At the same time, some civil rights advocates and pro-Palestinian groups fear conflating hatred with legitimate criticism of Israeli policies. They caution about suppressing free speech and peaceful protest, calling for a balanced approach that protects Jewish communities while preserving the right to dissent. Earlier during a break in budget negotiations, Rep. Mike Gottlieb, D-Davie, the chair of the Jewish Legislative Caucus, held a news conference to encourage people to speak up and condemn violence because 'silence enables bigotry.' 'We need people to stand with us to fight antisemitism. It is not OK to pick on anybody for any reason. We need Floridians to know that we are uniting people, Republicans, Democrats, independents, Black, White, gay, straight, to say this is wrong and we are not going to tolerate it,' Gottlieb said. The SPLC report finds more than half of the reported incidents involved people harassing Jewish residents over the state of Israel policies. They include vandalism of Jewish institutions and places of worship, intimidating flyers from known hate groups, and outright battery, such as one involving a 68-year-old Broward man near a synagogue. 'People are literally experiencing fear to be Jewish here in America. A year and a half ago, I was talking to a few people. I said, 'We're going to just start getting knocked down in the streets,' and it's happening now,' said Rep. Debra Tendrich, D-Lake Worth. Tendrich organized Thursday's call-to-conscience news conference in less than 24 hours. A discussion with colleagues about three recent high-profile attacks, including two in which 'the attacker tried to burn Jews alive,' prompted her. In the past three months, a suspect has fire-bombed the Pennsylvania governor's mansion after Jewish Gov. Josh Shapiro and family had finished dinner; two Israeli embassy staffers were murdered outside a Washington, D.C., museum; and a man with Molotov cocktails, gasoline, and a make-shift flamethrower sprayed fire on people marching in support of Jewish hostages still held by Hamas. Two dozen colleagues and legislative staffers stood with the 14-member caucus as they voiced disappointment with other elected officials and community leaders for not loudly condemning the acts of violence as hate crimes. Silence is complicit in abuse because it isolates the victims and makes them 'an easy target," Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman explained. Added Rep. Jennifer 'Rita' Harris, D-Orlando, 'Hate wants us to be silent.' Neo-Nazis staged demonstrations and flew banners on highway overpasses two years ago in her district. Earlier this year, Harris co-sponsored a bill that makes Jan. 27 Holocaust Remembrance Day in Florida. Rep. Hillary Cassel of Dania Beach flipped to the GOP from Democrat in December because among other issues she 'felt disconnected' from the Democratic Party after listening to a debate about a Hamas-Israeli ceasefire. She too said she would not be silenced. 'Let me be clear," she said. "Blaming Israel for Hamas terrorism is not activism. It is antisemitic. Shouting 'From the river to the sea' is not a peaceful protest. It is a genocidal slogan for the eradication of Israel and endangers Jewish lives everywhere. Language that advocates the destruction of an entire people is not activism. It is incitement.' Cassel said she was fortunate to live in the state of Florida where the Legislature has delivered "the most protections" in the country for the Jewish community. The past two sessions, the Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis has responded to a series of hate crimes: HB 187, which codifies as Florida law the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. Thirty-six other states use the IHRA definition, which emphasizes criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. HB 1109, which provides funding for security hardening measures at Jewish day schools. HB 269, which created a felony to harass individuals based on their ethnicity or religion and makes it a misdemeanor to leave flyers with hateful images, messages, or any other credible threat on a person's private property. Polsky told the Senate she was grateful beyond words for the allies and friends who have stood beside the Jewish community since the hostages were taken in 2023. She closed with these words, 'May we work together to transform grief into action and despair into hope, so that our children may live in a world free of fear in honor of those injured and to guide our body as we continue to work for the betterment of Florida." James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@ and is on X as @CallTallahassee. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Jewish legislative caucus slams rising antisemitism in Florida, U.S.
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Senate passes stripped-back version of ‘no-cause' eviction bill, but House likely to oppose it
Senators scaled back the bill to lessen the effect on tenants — raising the likelihood of a clash with the House. (Getty Images) The New Hampshire Senate passed a bill Thursday intended to make it easier for landlords to terminate tenancies. But before passing it, senators scaled back the bill to lessen the effect on tenants — raising the likelihood of a clash with the House. In current law, New Hampshire landlords must cite a specific reason to initiate evictions, including nonpayment of rent, failure to follow the lease, behavior affecting the health or safety of others, or a business reason by the landlord, such as a renovation. As originally passed by the House, House Bill 60 would have allowed for 'no-fault' or 'no-cause' termination of tenancies for leases six months or longer. In those cases, landlords could ask a tenant to leave at the end of the lease period with no reason given. Republicans argue allowing no-cause evictions would let landlords treat leases as fixed-length contracts with tenants, and relieve them of the burden of finding a reason if they no longer wished to rent to someone. But Democrats and legal aid organizations argue it would increase the pace of evictions and could make it easier for landlords to discriminate. On Thursday, the Senate dramatically altered the bill, keeping the 'no-fault' evictions but adding a trigger provision that prevents application of the law unless the state has had a 4% or higher rental vacancy rate for four quarters in one calendar year, as determined by the Federal Reserve. Currently, the Federal Reserve estimates New Hampshire has exactly a 4% vacancy rate, citing U.S. Census data. The Senate's version would also allow landlords to use no-cause evictions only with leases of 12 months or more. And it would exempt tenants who are subject to no-cause evictions from having those evictions added to their record for the purpose of rental applications and tenant screening reports, easing concerns from housing advocates about the effects of the original bill. Those changes earned the support of Senate Democrats; the amended bill was voted through unanimously Thursday. But before the bill can go to Gov. Kelly Ayotte's desk, it must receive final sign-off from the House, and some House Republicans have made it clear they are not happy with the Senate's changes. Rep. Joe Alexander, a Goffstown Republican and the chairman of the Housing Committee, said he will be requesting a Committee of Conference with the Senate to attempt to find a compromise when the House meets on Thursday. The Senate's version of the bill does not fit with the House's position, Alexander said in an interview. And he noted that the full House already voted down two attempted Democratic amendments to add trigger provisions. 'The House position is the lease is a contract,' Alexander said. 'And (in) every other place in contract law, when a contract ends, both parties go their separate ways unless there's conversation about renewing it. So we're just trying to bring it in line with all other contract law in the state.' Elliott Berry, a former attorney for New Hampshire Legal Assistance who has been following the bill, said even with the Senate changes, he and other housing advocates believe HB 60 could harm tenants. 'It's going to make a lot of landlords take the easy way out,' he said. 'And so tenants who for whatever reason feel any kind of antagonism towards them in general, well-based or not, they're going to be in jeopardy.'
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The governor, House, and Senate each created a budget for NH. Now, they must agree on one.
The rear of the New Hampshire State House on May 19, 2025. (Photo by Dana Wormald/New Hampshire Bulletin) When the New Hampshire Senate approved its proposal for the state's two-year spending plan on Thursday, it set off a new phase of the lengthy state budgeting process. That process began in February when Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte released her budget proposal. Then, House lawmakers got their turn to rework that proposal and in April, they approved their version of the budget before handing it off to the Senate. Soon, the House and Senate will enter what is known as a committee of conference, where negotiators will hash out the differences of their two budgets with the hope of agreeing on one proposal. Once that is complete — and both chambers sign off once again — Ayotte will have the opportunity to approve the budget, veto it, or allow it to go into law without her signature. The new fiscal year begins July 1, so officials from the three bodies have to approve a single budget by then in order to fund the government. Perhaps the most contentious disagreement between the Legislature and the governor was on revenue projections. Months of lagging business tax revenues, combined with the millions of dollars the state must pay out to victims of a massive abuse scandal in its juvenile justice system and the end of pandemic-era federal funding, have made this a particularly tight fiscal environment. In February, Ayotte unveiled her budget proposal and with it her revenue projections, which were immediately labeled as optimistic. Ayotte predicted the state's revenues would rebound quickly and provide the state with around $6.3 billion over the next two years. House Republicans were quick to balk at those projections. 'We're just not as optimistic as the governor is with growth,' Rep. John Janigian, a Salem Republican and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, told the Bulletin at the time. 'We think it's a steamship: It takes time to turn it. It's moving in a positive direction, but at a slower rate.' The House Ways and Means Committee projected $5.8 billion in revenue later in February. Ayotte rejected those figures, telling reporters in April she was 'confident that the revenue numbers that I laid out in my budget are actually more accurate revenue numbers than the lower proposals made by the House.' The Senate's projections ended up falling in the middle. The Senate Ways and Means Committee voted to accept a projection of roughly $6.1 billion total revenue over two years. That's about $228.1 million above the House's estimate, but $172.1 million below Ayotte's. While the Senate landed closer to the governor than the House did, Ayotte still expressed her frustration. 'I disagree with that vote,' she said at a press conference soon after. 'And I also will tell you this: I don't understand why Republicans are joining with Democrats who want to put us in a position to raise taxes instead of adopting, I think, what would be a more accurate revenue picture for the state.' When she announced her budget in February, Ayotte emphasized the need for belt-tightening, calling her plan a 'recalibration' during a speech in the State House. Still, her budget kept many agencies and programs intact. In some cases, it expanded programs. That includes the state's voucher-like education freedom accounts, which she proposed opening to students attending public school at all income-levels, increased funding for state services for people with disabilities aimed at eliminating the waitlists for those services, and an additional $32 million for special education. Ayotte also tried to recoup funds through changes to Medicaid. She proposed instituting premiums on some recipients based on their income, charging higher copays for prescriptions, and allowing Medicaid to purchase name-brand drugs when those drugs are cheaper than generics. Each chamber's proposal was determined largely by how optimistic or pessimistic their revenue projections were. So for the House, which projected a gloomy financial outlook, steep cuts to Ayotte's budget were proposed. 'We must fit (the budget) to the revenues proposed by the House Ways and Means Committee,' Rep. Ken Weyler, a Kingston Republican and chairman of the House Finance Committee, said during a hearing in March. 'That revenue differs from the governor's estimate by almost $800 million in an almost $16 billion budget. Obviously, this is a bigger challenge than most budgets, but less than some previous challenges.' Weyler said the governor's budget is 'on a path to overspend by about $50 million.' When Republican House lawmakers got their hands on the budget, they decided to cut costs by axing several agencies. They voted to eliminate the Office of the Child Advocate, the state's child-focused watchdog overseeing New Hampshire's child welfare, juvenile justice, and youth care systems. They moved to disband the Housing Appeals Board, which allows residents to contest decisions from their local planning and zoning officials. They proposed eliminating the State Council on the Arts, the Human Rights Commission, and the Right-To-Know Ombudsman, among others. The House's budget also included a lot of layoffs. It proposed eliminating 190 positions in the Department of Corrections, 34 in the Liquor Commission, 27 in the Department of Education, 14 in the Department of Business and Economic Affairs, eight in the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, eight in the Department of Safety, five in the Secretary of State's Office, and three in the Insurance Department. Among the most controversial moves made by the House were a 3% cut to Medicaid reimbursement rates, a cut to the $1 billion Ayotte set aside in an effort to eliminate the developmental disability services waitlist, and some funding for community mental health centers. It also increased some state fees to help make up for lost revenue, including fees for vanity license plates, dam registrations, wetlands dredging and filling, sewage, state elevator inspections, trucking, agricultural products and equipment, fisheries habitats, driver's licenses, and motor vehicle titles. 'Preliminarily, there's been a difference between what (House Ways and Means) see as revenue and what your budget proposes,' Weyler told Ayotte during a hearing in February. 'We may have to be making some further adjustments as we go, and I hope you will support them.' Ayotte ultimately didn't support many of those adjustments. In May, after the House finalized its budget, she told reporters, 'My takeaway is that my budget was a lot better.' When the Senate's turn to amend the budget began last month, senators quickly moved to reverse the Medicaid reimbursement rate cut and the cuts to developmental disability services and community mental health centers. However, on many of the others they looked for a middle ground. For example, they restored the Office of the Child Advocate, but with reduced funding. Their proposal calls for four positions to be eliminated from the office as opposed to all nine. Sen. Sharon Carson, who spearheaded the proposal, told the Bulletin she 'know(s) the value of the work they do' so they were 'trying to find a middle ground that the House will accept.' They took a similar approach to several of the other agencies. For the State Council on the Arts, (which they also debated axing, but eventually reversed course) senators turned it into a volunteer council, appropriating just $1 but allowing it to accept donations and tap into a business tax credit. They also reinstated the State Commission on Aging but cut about $130,000 to bring its total funding down to $150,000. Ayotte's proposal came out to a total of roughly $16 billion. The House's proposal trimmed that down to spend a total of around $15.5 billion over two years. And the Senate, seeking a middle ground, created a budget that spends roughly $15.9 billion. The current state budget for fiscal years 2024-25 is $15.4 billion. Now, the Senate and House must agree on one proposal. The House is allowed to accept all the amendments made by the Senate outright, but it is most likely that the two chambers enter into the committee of conference process to hash out differences between their budgets. Their deadline to pass a single budget is June 26. Once they approve a budget, it goes to Ayotte's desk and the governor can sign it, veto it, or allow it to be enacted without her signature. Ayotte does not have the option of a line-item veto — as many other state constitutions allow their governors to do — which means she has to accept or reject the budget in its entirety. The state's new fiscal year begins July 1. The new budget must be finalized and enacted by then to fund the government.
