In his first face-to-face debate with his Republican rivals, President Trump’s choice to become Coastal Georgia’s next congressman on Sunday faced withering questions about his qualifications.
As early voting for primary elections gets underway Monday, Jim Kingston, the 35-year-old son of longtime U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, has amassed a massive campaign war chest and a lengthy list of endorsements since announcing his bid 10 months ago to follow in his father’s footsteps to the U.S. Congress.
Those donations and endorsements have made Kingston the presumptive frontrunner in the race, though whether — and by how much — is far from certain, since no independent polling has been conducted in the race.
But the five other candidates for GOP nomination — Pat Farrell, Brian Montgomery, Krista Penn, Kandiss Taylor, Eugene Yu — were anything but cowed during the debate hosted by Georgia Public Broadcasting as part of the Atlanta Press Club’s Loudermilk-Young Debate Series.
‘The Atlanta candidate’
The digs at Kingston began early in the one-hour debate with Farrell and Taylor, who have both lived their entire lives in the district, deriding the younger Kingston as an urban elite who is out of touch with the largely rural counties that make up the district.
Addressing Appling County’s Taylor, Farrell said, “I’m sure you are shocked like me to see the Atlanta candidate here,” a thinly veiled allusion to Kingston’s move last year back to Savannah, where he was born, from Atlanta,where he has lived most of his adult life..
Farrell, a former member of the Chatham County Commission, went on to chide Kingston for shunning candidate forums sponsored by county Republican committees across the district.
By doing so, Farrell suggested, Kingston was seeking to avoid scrutiny about, among other issues, “coming from a family of lobbyists that represent foreign countries.” The remark was a reference to the older Kingston, who, after his unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid in 2014, joined the prominent Washington law firm of Squire Patton Boggs as a lobbyist for both foreign and domestic clients.
“I guess his handlers have kept him on a short leash and insisted that he avoid public events and just stick to the filming of commercials while the rest of us work hard to get out into the district and to meet all the voters possible,” Farrell teased about the younger candidate.
Taylor zeroed in on a widespread perception that Kingston believes he can walk into the job held for 22 years by his father. Voters in Coastal Georgia “are tired of being ignored by aristocrats that think this is a dynasty and a monarchy and a chosen seat,” said Taylor, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022.
‘A different type of candidate’
Kingston’s opponents for the GOP nomination were not the only source of tough questions.
Orlando Montoya of Georgia Public Broadcasting, along with The Current’s Margaret Coker, was invited by the Atlanta Press Club to question the candidates, along with forum moderator Tina Tyus-Shaw from WSAV.
When the president endorsed Kingston earlier this month in a post on his Truth Social media site, Trump described the candidate as a “very successful businessman and civic leader.”
Montoya asked Kingston what successful business the president was referring to and which civic organizations he belonged to — information that Kingston’s campaign had not previously made available.
“My biggest civic organization is the Republican Party,” Kingston said. As for his success as a businessman, he told Montoya he currently works for the “number one insurance brokerage in the world,” where he has been “promoted three times in seven years.” He did not name the firm.
Kingston assured voters that he would put them first, if elected. “I’ll be a different type of candidate, and I’m going to be a different type of member of Congress.”
‘Desperate candidates’
Though sometimes he appeared exasperated with the questions, Kingston attributed the attention he received to “being the frontrunner.”
He deflected suggestions by his primary opponents that his return from Atlanta to Savannah was little more than the political equivalent of venue shopping for his Congressional ambitions by saying “desperate candidates say desperate things.”
His license plate “has always said ‘Chatham County’” and “my phone number has always said, ‘912’,” he insisted.
He did not directly answer the criticism that he has ignored invitations from Republican leaders in multiple counties to address them during the campaign. Instead he asserted that he has assembled hundreds of volunteers and endorsements of more than 50 elected officials.
At another point in the debate, Montgomery, a West Point graduate who along with Penn and Yu served in the U.S. military, asked Kingston what has been the biggest challenge or setback he has faced. His reply: “I have failed as a lifelong Republican getting our people out to vote.”
Montgomery seized on Kingston’s closing statement as an unintended recommendation for voters to choose the former Army officer and combat veteran in the primary.
Kingston closed by declaring: “While I’m proud to support President Trump, he can’t do this alone. We need strong soldiers in the legislative branch.”
Montgomery quickly chimed in.
“You know, Jim, you said something there. I think it’s the first time that I’ve really agreed with you. The district does need a soldier.”
Early voting continues in Georgia until May 15 and the primary is May 19.
This article appears in 2026 Elections: Candidate lists, news.
