President Donald Trump weighs in on college sports.
Marjorie Taylor Greene wants to end taxeson home sales.
State Election Board revives 2020 election fight.
Standing down
A woman holds a sign during a rally to protest the redistricting hearings at the state Capitol in Austin, Texas, on Thursday.
Credit: Eric/AP
An aggressively redrawn map of U.S. House districts by the Texas Legislature may trigger a national race to overhaul congressional boundaries ahead of next year’s midterms. But don’t expect Georgia to join the fray.
Senior legislative leaders from both chambers say there have been no serious discussions to revisit Georgia’s congressional districts for a rare mid-decade redistricting.
That’s what’s happening in Texas, where Republican leaders are proposing to carve up five Democratic-controlled seats to favor GOP candidates at President Donald Trump’s urging.
He’s also pressing allies in Indiana, Missouri and other Republican-led states to take similar steps. With control of the House on the line, Democrats are under growing pressure to counter their moves.
During the most recent redistricting in Georgia after the 2020 census, Republicans successfully redrew the map to eliminate a toss-up seat that had begun to lean toward Democrats. An ensuing court challenge resulted in a new map, but it did not change the balance of power in the state with nine Republicans and five Democrats elected from Georgia’s 14 districts.
Things to know
Drivers raced in the Quaker State 400 NASCAR Cup Series at EchoPark Speedway in Hampton in June.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Good morning! The Atlanta Motor Speedway hosted its first NASCAR race on this date in 1960. Now known as EchoPark Speedway, the track is eyeing a big expansion into casinos — if it can convince the state Legislature to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.
Here are three other things to know for today:
U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock voted to limit sales of American automatic assault rifles to Israel, highlighting a deepening rift among Democrats over about a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Greg Bluestein writes.
The State Ethics Commission has accused a conservative political action committee of illegally influencing elections in 2022 and 2024, the AJC’s David Wickert and Bluestein report.
A federal appeals court has ruled that a wetland on St. Simons Island is not protected from development under the Clean Water Act, the AJC’s Rosie Manins reports.
Paying players
A 2020 photo of the national office of the NCAA in Indianapolis.
Credit: AP
President Donald Trump said his recent order regulating the murky world of amateur athlete endorsements “saves college sports.” But some experts warn it will only add to the confusion as major college programs figure out how to pay their players directly amid court rulings and legal settlements.
A recent settlement clears the way for college programs to pay their athletes directly from a pool of $20.5 million. The assumption has been major college programs will share the bulk of their revenue with football and men’s basketball programs. But Trump’s order directs them to act in a way that “protects women’s and non-revenue sports.”
“I think it’s a fluid situation that everyone is looking for a legislative and judicial action so things get fully nailed down,” said Michael Lewis, a marketing professor at Emory University who focuses on sports. “I suspect it will be a long process to get there.”
This potential dispute has ramped up calls for Congress to pass a law regulating how colleges and universities pay athletes. A bill that would do that, known as the SCORE Act, cleared two House committees last week with party line votes. But lawmakers can’t vote on it until they come back from their summer recess in September.
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, said she worried how the bill would impact athletic scholarships that enable many people to go to college.
“We must ensure they are kept widely available for both male and female sports and for sports of all kinds, not just those that generate revenue,” she said.
Still besties
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, has long been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump.
Credit: Doug Mills/The New York Times
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has publicly disagreed with President Donald Trump many times this year. But Trump’s recent comments about possibly ending capital gains taxes on home sales show the two are still in sync.
Trump floated the idea last week as an idea to jump-start the slowing housing market. His comments came a few weeks after Greene introduced a bill to stop the federal government from taxing people on the money they make from selling their primary residences.
Right now, people who sell their primary residences don’t pay capital gains taxes on up to $250,000, or $500,000 for joint filers.But Greene says those limits haven’t been adjusted since 1997. Home prices are much higher now, meaning some middle class homeowners are being hit with capital gains taxes.
Greene’s proposal comes as the median sale price for metro Atlanta homes fell 2.5% from last year, the AJC’s Matt Reynolds reported. Back in April, a report from Redfin — a real estate brokerage firm — found there were 63% more sellers than buyers in the metro Atlanta area.
Still, homes are expensive in Atlanta. The median sale price was $397,000 in June.
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Stock trade
U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wants to ban members of Congress from trading stocks.
Credit: AP
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is teaming up again with U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley to try and ban members of Congress from trading stocks.
Ossoff, an Atlanta Democrat, and Hawley, a Missouri Republican, got a bill through committee last year that ultimately did not pass.
This year, they went their separate ways as Hawley introduced a bill mockingly named after former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an attempt to attract more Republican votes. Ossoff introduced his own legislation along with Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.
On Thursday, Hawley brought his bill before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. But he swapped it for a similar bill that he and Ossoff sponsored last year, one that doesn’t include Pelosi’s name. One important note: the bill would also apply to presidents and vice presidents, but only ones elected in the future.
The committee voted to advance the amended legislation with all Democrats and Hawley in favor and allother Republicans opposed.
“Georgians overwhelmingly agree that Members of Congress should not be playing the stock market while we legislate and while we have access to confidential and privileged information,” Ossoff said.
It’s unclear if the bill has enough votes to pass. President Donald Trump, after initially saying he liked the concept of the bill, later posted on social media the proposal would be “so bad for our Country!”
Georgia 2026
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is a former Atlanta mayor, recently met with workers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who lost their jobs at a gathering in Clarkston.
Credit: AP
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms landed the endorsement of one of the nation’s most powerful unions this morning.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents roughly 80,000 Georgians, said it was backing the former Atlanta mayor’s campaign.
The development came after Bottoms held an event last week with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees who lost their jobs as part of President Donald Trump’s government-slashing initiatives.
“She recognizes the importance of federal workers and how attacks on us impact working families not just in Georgia but across the country,” said Tatishka Thomas, a vice president of the union.
Bottoms and state Sen. Jason Esteves, D-Atlanta, are locked in a tough contest for the party’s nomination. State Rep. Derrick Jackson, D-Tyrone, and former pastor Olu Brown are among the other Democrats in the race.
Listen up
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, is up for reelection next year.
Credit: Chattanooga Times Free Press
Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast the AJC’s Atlanta City Hall reporter Riley Bunch joins Greg Bluestein to discuss U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s decision to not run for governor in 2026.
You can listen and subscribe to the show for free at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.
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2020 redux
Three State Election Board members voted Wednesday to weaken the position of Chair John Fervier.
Credit: Abbey Cutrer/AJC
Three far-right members of the State Election Board voted Wednesday to revive a fight over the 2020 presidential election, the AJC’s Mark Niesse reports.
A resolution by board member Janice Johnston, an appointee of Georgia Republican Party, seeks documents from Fulton County related to its recount of ballots during the 2020 presidential election.
Chair John Fervier, an appointee of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, strongly objected. He said the investigation was already completed when the board reprimanded Fulton County in May 2024 for double-scanning more than 3,000 ballots during a recount.
But Johnston said the case isn’t over and Fulton hasn’t responded to the board’s Election Day 2024 subpoena seeking the 2020 documents. A judge has scheduled a hearing in September on the county’s motion to quash the subpoena.
The resolution calls for Georgia’s secretary of state and attorney general to seek assistance from authorities, including President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, to obtain the documents. Fervier and Democratic Party appointee Sara Tindall Ghazal voted against the resolution.
While state investigations verified errors by Fulton election workers in the 2020 election, they never found intentional fraud. Former President Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory has been upheld after investigations, recounts and court cases.
The board also voted to remove power from Fervier by giving their newly hired executive director, James Mills, authority over personnel, job postings and meeting dates.
Today in Washington
President Donald Trump has lunch with Vice President JD Vance and signs executive orders.
The House is out until Sept. 2.
The Senate will vote on more Trump nominations.
Shoutouts
State Rep. Carl Gilliard, D-Savannah, first took office in 2016.
Credit: Courtesy photo
Today’s birthday:
State Rep. Carl Gilliard, D-Savannah.
Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that. Click here to submit the shoutouts. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.
Before you go
Justice Nels S.D. Petersen is sworn in by David Nahmias (right) at the Capitol in Atlanta in 2022.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
The Georgia Supreme Court will unveil a portrait next week of former Chief Justice David Nahmias. Now a partner at the Jones Day office in Atlanta office. Nahmias authored more than 470 published opinions during his 13 years on the bench.
The Politically Georgia team starts your day with insights and analysis from Peachtree Street to Pennsylvania Avenue. If you do not want this newsletter, unsubscribe here.
The Politically Georgia team starts your day with insights and analysis from Peachtree Street to Pennsylvania Avenue. If you do not want this newsletter, unsubscribe here.
