By Jill Nolin | Editor
The contenders to be Georgia’s next governor addressed a crowd of business-minded folks Wednesday at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s annual congressional luncheon in Athens. And both candidates also spoke with reporters, who peppered the candidates with questions about data center oversight and healthcare access. Deputy Editor Ross Williams offers this dispatch from the Classic City.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms at a Georgia Chamber event in Athens. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
2026 ELECTION
By Ross Williams
Data centers and Medicaid expansion were on the menu as Georgia’s candidates for governor made their pitches to the state’s business leaders Wednesday at an annual luncheon hosted by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson took the stage at an Athens event center to pitch their policies to a crowd of over 1,000 members of the state’s business community.
“Small businesses in this state are seeing the same impacts from high inflation rates, affordability issues — they’re seeing that too, and so they want to hear what these two candidates have to offer,” Georgia Chamber President and CEO Chris Clark said after the luncheon.
“They also want to know that we’re going to have a chief executive that’s going to continue to help grow the state, grow the state’s economy in a quality way for jobs, not just in Atlanta or not just in Macon or Savannah, but in our most rural communities too,” he added.
Erica Schwartz testifies during her confirmation hearing to become director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on July 15, 2026. (Photo by Finn Gomez/Getty Images)
PUBLIC HEALTH
By Shauneen Miranda
Dr. Erica Schwartz will be the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination Wednesday.
The Senate confirmed, 51-44, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the national public health agencywithin the Department of Health and Human Services, which has taken heat over the vaccine-skeptical agenda pursued by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, who are both Democrats, voted against Schwartz’s nomination.
Pfc. Jorden Edlin, left, and U.S. Army Spc. Kaliyah Johnson, right, with the Mississippi National Guard assigned to Joint Task Force-District of Columbia in support of the DC Safe and Beautiful mission, patrol at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 2, 2026. (Photo by Photo by Sgt. Alex Lopez/Joint Task Force DC)
DC BUREAU
By Sam Gauntt
The deployment of National Guard troops hailing from all across the country to Washington, D.C. is expected to cost taxpayers more than $1.4 billion in additional funds through 2029.
The estimate from Jules Hurst III, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the Pentagon’s comptroller, came in response to a series of questions from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as a part of Hurt’s confirmation process.
“While American families are getting flattened by skyrocketing costs, Donald Trump is spending $1.4 billion to keep troops on the streets in Washington for years on end. The National Guard are not pawns and taxpayer dollars are not a piggy bank for Trump’s political stunts,” Warren wrote in a statement.
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