Runoff election results; GA redistricting paused; Tropical Storm Arthur lands

contributed over $100 million to his campaign and spent over $107 million. That's a big financial advantage over Jay Jones who spent something like $30 million. So that ability to blanket the airwaves with television advertisements, online advertisements, and the like. I think that's a big part of the story in terms of how Jackson went from a political unknown with no experience to beating. You know, Bert Jay Jones is high profile statewide elected official. It seems like those dollars bought a lot of advertising. Just from my perspective, you couldn't really watch a Braves game without seeing a lot of Rick Jackson. Yes. So, you know, money doesn't guarantee victory, as we saw in California with Tom Steyer, but it helps. And so, you know, particularly when you have big spending advantages like that, you can help increase awareness, which is really important for a candidate without political experience. So you don't expect a lot more political advertising in the fall as we head toward the general election. Governor Brian Kemp endorsed Burt Jay Jones days before the election. didn't seem to work that well. Was it too late or are Republican voters sour on establishment types? Yeah. So I think the camp endorsement came very late in the campaign the weekend before Election Day. And obviously there was in person early voting and absentee early voting as well over the past. So, you know, it was quite late in the process. You know, maybe it would have been more effective earlier. And so, you know, that's something to keep in mind. You know, the other thing to keep in mind is just Jackson's. big financial advantage. So I don't think you can include, although camp, both of camps and Dorsey's did it win yesterday. I don't think you conclude that he's less popular than he was in the past. But it does show that there are other factors that matter beyond relatively popular governor's endorsement. Well, he will face Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms who won the Democratic Party outright last month. Let's turn quickly to the Senate race. Lots of interest there. Congressman Mike Collins got a late endorsement from President Trump, and he won. Derek Dooley got Brian Kemp's endorsement, but he lost. So Brian Kemp was 0 for two in the high profile seats on the Republican ballot. What made Susan Collins stand out in this race? Yeah, so, perhaps the late Trump endorsement helped a little bit, again, though it was very late in the process. Susan Collins has more political experience, so he's been in the U.S. House.

relatively high profile, has aligned himself very closely with President Trump in Congress. So I think, you know, all those things can help against, you know, in particular, again, a political, politically inexperienced candidate like Derek Dooley, who kind of campaign is a more... middle-of-the-road conventional conservative, but didn't really have a signature issue. So I think those are some of the factors that may have attributed to Colin's success yesterday. Overall, what can you tell us about turnout? I understand, you know, there was a lot more Republican interest than Democrats because there were higher-profile races on the Republican side. What can you tell us about how turnout played out? Yes, so Democrats had very, very high turnout in the primary, but they didn't have, the Senate nominee was essentially going to be Jon Ossoff. He was running out of the post. And then Keish and Keisha Lance Bottoms won outright for the gubernatorial Democratic nomination. So, you know, we didn't have those super high profile. contests on the Democratic side in the runoff, whereas in the Republican side, you had both the Senate and gubernatorial nominations up for grabs. So Democratic turnout dropped quite a bit as a result of those lower profile races. Looking statewide, as is always the case, runoff turnout. declined significantly. So it was over 2 million in the primary. It was over a million in the runoff. So a big decline. But compared to runoffs in the past, it was actually relatively high turnout. So I think, you know, looking at this systematically, you know, whenever you have these elections in close proximity to one another and you're taking some of the races away because candidates win in the first round, turnout drops. drops quite a bit. So I think, you know, this is consistent with that. But, you know, even surpassing that one million turnout number suggests there's a lot of interest in Georgia politics. Voters are very engaged and, you know, it's possible we'll see record-breaking midterm turnout in November. Was there anything else about yesterday's results that surprised you or stood out to you? Yeah, I mean, I think big, big takeaway, tough night for Brian Kemp, but it is important to keep in mind that there are all these other factors about the candidates, Derek Julian and Burr Jay Jones in their, you know, position in their campaigns as well to keep in mind in interpreting that. Memory University's Zachary Peskowitz, thank you so much for speaking with me. Thank you. We have more results in analysis from the elections at gpb.org slash election. The Georgia legislature will not redraw the state's legislative and congressional maps for now. In an unexpected twist announced this afternoon, a special legislative session called by Governor Brian Kemp will not take advantage of a recent U.S. Supreme Court case on redistricting. GPB's Sarah Callis reports.

Speaker of the House John Burns said in a news conference that it is not the right time to redistrict. Changes to our district maps have the potential to impact every voter in Georgia and they deserve the same thoughtful fact-driven process that has always guided the House. Governor Brian Kemp ordered the special session, which convened today to address voting issues, including drawing new district lines. Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Harold Jay Jones celebrated the announcement. This is a huge victory, but it doesn't end today. It's going to continue to be a fight. Republicans did not rule out redistricting during the regular legislative session next year. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Callis at the State Capitol. The first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season is drenching the Gulf coasts of Texas and Louisiana today, and its remnants are expected to produce multiple rounds of heavy rainfall in Georgia tomorrow and Friday. The National Weather Service says rainfall amounts between two and four inches are likely. Some areas could get more than five inches, and local and potentially life-threatening flooding is possible. The heavy downpours could impact a World Cup match in Atlanta on Thursday and Juneteenth holiday celebrations across the state on Friday, among other plans. The threat of damaging winds and tornadoes is low. A study published in the medical journal JAMA suggests that the work requirements under Georgia's Pathways to Coverage Program might be worsening mental health outcomes. GPB's Sophie Grades explains. Under pathways, eligible low-income adults are required to report 80 hours of work every month to qualify for health care. That's caused administrative hurdles for many enrollees, and far less people have enrolled than state leaders originally projected. This all led Joanne Constantine with SUNY Downstate University to ask, what is the association between Georgia's Pathways to Coverage Program and mental health outcomes among low-income adults? She found that the start of the Pathways program in 2023 was associated with an increase in the number of days eligible people reported having poor mental health or a diagnosis of depression. Meanwhile, neighboring states with similar politics saw no change. If we did not experience this policy shock in Georgia, we would have anticipated outcomes in all of these states to keep moving in tandem. And while Medicaid is the largest insurer of people with mental health and substance use disorders, there are no explicit exemptions to work requirements for them. This policy was intended to help those people, but unintentionally, this policy is... particularly harming the people that are most vulnerable. Constantine says there's more to learn about the other downstream effects that work requirements can have ahead of a nearly nationwide expansion of the policy in January as part of President Trump's big, beautiful bill. For GPB News, I'm Sophie Grades.

About 1 billion birds die each year in the U.S. from collisions with glass and buildings. In Georgia, one nonprofit has been documenting these occurrences since 2005. GPB's Jillian Magtoto has more on this year's numbers. A team of around 100 volunteers from the nonprofit Birds, Georgia, documented 202 bird building collisions across Metro Atlanta and coastal Georgia during this year's spring migration. That's about 60 collisions above the spring average, according to Birds, Georgia Conservation Coordinator Sarah Manning. It's estimated that we're only finding 10 to 20% of the actual collision victims, and so the number is likely very high. Manning says nearly half of birds' bodies are found beneath windows of residential buildings, and most collisions happen at night. They're drawn into our city by the lighting, and then they rest in those nice... habitat patches that they find, some are full of trees. And when they wake up in the morning, they're surrounded by what looks like more habitat. And it's actually just reflective glass. They're flying to the next tree, but it's actually just glass. And most of the time, the collision is fatal. Birds Georgia recommends that residents avoid washing windows during spring and fall migration, add insect screens and turn off non-essential outdoor lighting overnight. For GPB News, I'm Jillian Magtoto. The Columbus Council has approved an ordinance that would regulate the development of data centers. The new ordinance creates what's called a technology overlay district that would set standards for things like height and noise. It would also require data center developers to confirm that providers of electricity and water have enough capacity to handle the new project. The vote yesterday will allow Choose Columbus, the local development authority's marketing arm, to continue pursuing the proposed hyperscale data center known as Project Ruby. provided the project meets the new requirements. The $5 billion project is planned for nearly 900 acres of green space in northeast Muscogee County and has generated local pushback. In Georgia sports, Georgia shut out Texas 2-0 last night to survive elimination in the College World Series. The victory set the school record for wins in a season. They're now 53 and 13 and vying for their first national championship since 1990. Georgia will take on Oklahoma tonight and will need to beat the Sooners twice to reach the finals.

And that is a wrap on Georgia Today. If you want to learn more about any of these stories, check gpb.org slash news. Make sure you subscribe to this podcast and send us feedback if you've got any. The best way to reach us is by email. The address is Georgia Today at gpb.org. I'm Peter B. Yellow. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.