Candidates, supporters give closing pitches in Coastal Georgia

With midterm elections just days away, the candidates in races significant for Coastal Georgia voters, along with their supporters and surrogates, are making their closing pitches to voters. Following are excerpts of their remarks in the past week. Click here for The Current’s voting guide, which is updated daily.

Keisha Lance Bottoms, Democratic candidate for governor, speaking to reporters at a rally in Savannah, Oct. 30, 2026:

“I cannot win this race without Coastal Georgia. We need the voter participation we’ve seen in Coastal Georgia to continue for us to be successful. . . Coastal Georgia matters — huge economic engine for our state. The people of this area really are the lifeblood of who we are in Georgia.”

Rick Jackson, Republican candidate for governor, speaking to reporters at a rally in Savannah, Oct. 29, 2026:

“We have to take care of Georgians. We can’t worry about all the events around the world and in [Washington] D.C. They do good things and bad things, but we have to focus on Georgians, and that’s what he [Gov. Kemp] has done, and that’s what I’ll do. . . . I just want to keep it going in the right direction.”

Jim Kingston, Republican candidate for the 1st Congressional District, speaking to WTOC-TV, in an interview conducted Sept. 30 and aired on Oct. 28:

[On the war with Iran] “I’m really glad Secretary of State Marco Rubio is there. He is a lot better at the international stuff than I am. Trump has surrounded himself with really great people, and that’s why I proudly supported him this last go-round, and in 2016, and in 2020,” Kingston said. “I’m not in those private briefings, but I know this. You know, we’ve got to get gas prices down one way or the other, and the president’s on top of things.”

[Message to undecided voters] “Well, look, I’m going to be a champion for everyone in Southeast Georgia, and everybody in the state of Georgia for that, for a matter of fact . . . But, you know, look, I have a lot of friends and all different sorts of political ideologies. They’re still my friends. I still take their phone calls. I still welcome their feedback. Doesn’t mean I have to agree with everybody or everything, but I’ve always cautioned people. If you meet somebody that agrees with you on every single topic, that person’s probably lying to you, so you’ve got to be careful. But I’m going to be a champion for every single voter and even non-voters in this area.”

Amanda Hollowell, a Democrat, speaking at a rally for Keisha Lance Bottoms in Savannah, Oct. 30, 2026:

“I’m a full-time caretaker of my father who is blind, who uses Medicaid and Veteran Services, and I am proud to say I will take this man to go vote for the first time for me on Election Day. . . We make hard decisions in our house. We decide what we’re going to afford and what we need and what we don’t. I understand that we need someone in Congress who cares about affordability, who cares about corruption.”

“I have built an intergenerational, multiracial coalition of folks to get me this far — a primary of eight [candidates] to a runoff to here. Tuesday is the last ay you can vote . . . We are talking about the future of democracy, and if we don’t take it back now, it’s going to be much harder the next time. And we have an amazing opportunity with a ballot of amazing people, and it’s going to take all of us to move Georgia forward and to make this country better.”

Mike Collins, Republican U.S. Senate candidate, speaking at a reception in Rincon, Oct. 29, 2026:

“Jon Ossoff is the leader of the Democrat Socialist of America movement for the Democrat Party right here in America. I don’t want America to look like France. Now, if you see what’s going on in France, they [the DSA] want to import that right here. There’s a reason they wanted those borders left open.”

“Jon Ossoff doesn’t represent us on purpose. He’s running for president, and he will run under that Democrat Socialist of America ticket. Y’all, we are seeing our country at a crossroads, and if we don’t stop this mess this time around, they’re going to change the fabric of this country, and they’re doing it from the inside out. They [the DSA] are taking over the Democrat Party. . . . He [Ossoff] hates Trump worse than he loves Georgia. This guy is only using Georgia as a platform.”

Jon Ossoff, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, speaking at a rally with former President Barack Obama and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, in Morrow, Oct. 28, 2026:

“For nearly two years, we’ve seen our government transformed into a tool of one man’s personal vengeance and power and enrichment. We’ve seen insurance stripped from cancer patients, and hospitals close services to fund tax cuts for the rich. We’ve seen prison camps for immigrants full of children. We’ve seen masked federal agents with license to kill demanding papers at police checkpoints. Each day, Donald Trump digs the moral pit deeper. But Pastor Bryant, isn’t it in Proverbs that says, ‘Whoever digs a pit, whoever digs a pit will fall into it’? In Georgia, over the last year, in defiance of his depravity, we’ve marched together in protest, and we’ve gathered at rallies like this one that just keep getting bigger and bigger.”

State Rep. Jesse Petrea (R-District 166) speaking at a rally for Rick Jackson in Savannah, Oct. 29, 2026:

“Everybody in the world is moving to Georgia, and where are they leaving? Blue states. They’re leaving states — California, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Jersey — every state in this country [where] people are fleeing like refugees are led by people like Keisha Lance Bottoms. . . They’re moving to states that are led by conservatives. They’re moving to red states where we believe in entrepreneurship, and we believe in protecting public safety, and we believe in low taxes, and the list goes on.”

State Sen. Ben Watson (R-District 1) introducing GOP attorney general candidate Brian Strickland at a rally for Rick Jackson in Savannah, Oct. 29, 2026:

“A bad mayor does not make a good governor. That’s really all that needs to be said from my perspective.”

State Rep. Ron Stephens (R-District 164) speaking at a reception for him and state Rep. Bill Hitchens (R-District 161) in Bloomingdale, Oct. 29, 2026:

“Bloomingdale’s going to look different 10 years from now. . . We’re moving from the eighth most populated state to somewhere along the fifth, behind New York. Folks have realized what we’ve got here in the coast of Georgia, and they understand that our state government runs well. Our local governments are running phenomenal.”

Gov. Brian Kemp, speaking to reporters at a rally in Savannah for Republican gubernatorial candidate, Rick Jackson, Oct. 29, 2026:

“Don’t make this [midterm election] a national election. This is about the people at home. It’s about what we’ve been doing to keep money in your pocket, whether it’s suspending the gas tax, cut cutting taxes, property tax relief, tax rebates, having infrastructure like we’ve invested in in this area to keep our state and our families moving forward.”

Former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, speaking to reporters at a rally in Savannah for Republican gubernatorial candidate, Rick Jackson, Oct. 29, 2026:

“He [Jackson] is an executive. He understands. He speaks the language of business and understands. But he also has a heart for the underdog, and that’s what I love about him. He knows what it’s like not to be on top but is successful. And that’s what he wants to do for all Georgians.”

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, speaking at a rally in Savannah for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, Oct. 30, 2026:

“President Trump asked me — asked us — when we go to the polls to pretend he’s on the ballot. So, I went to the polls, and I pretended he was on the ballot. I thought about the $70 that I had to pay to fill up my gas, and I thought about my groceries, and I thought about the war he was going to end on day one, and I thought about all of these things. I pretended he was on the ballot. And then I looked at Rick Jackson, who says he wants to be just like Trump . . .  I did what Trump said, and I cast my vote for Keisha Lance Bottoms.”

Bryan County Sheriff Mark Crowe, speaking at a rally for GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson in Richmond Hill, Oct. 28, 2026:

[Comparing Keisha Lance Bottoms to Gen. William T. Sherman. Both leaders, he said, let Atlanta burn, Sherman during his March to the Sea in 1864 and Bottoms during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.] “What we don’t want and we don’t need is the state of Georgia ever going up in flames again. Nor do we want or need the bottom of the barrel running the state of Georgia.”

Law enforcement needs leadership that can stand up to “liberal wack jobs and their campaigns that give criminals more rights than they do law enforcement.”

Former President Barack Obama, speaking at a rally for Democrats Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms, Morrow, Oct. 28, 2026:

“I accused this Administration based on the facts that they were engaging in unprecedented levels of corruption. They didn’t say anything about that! The President wasn’t even mad about the Saddam Hussein comparison. That part didn’t bother him! But he was very upset about the Cheesecake Factory comments. He took great umbrage. He said I didn’t understand the work of the artisans in the White House. . . . And they mobilized. I mean, it’s all crazy, but this was the really crazy part. They mobilized a whole-of-government response to that joke—not to inflation but to that joke! . . . . To everybody out there, including the press, I want you to understand this. This is what I mean when I say these are not serious people. They don’t have solutions to actual problems, so they’d rather have the media and you talking about the Cheesecake Factory.”

Coastal Georgia Congressman Buddy Carter, a Republican, speaking in an interview on CNN, Oct. 29, 2026

“It’s always tough on midterms for the majority party, for the party in power, and we understand that history tells us that gas prices are high right now. Look, I go to the gas station just like my constituents go to the gas station. I go to the grocery store just like they do. I see it like they see it.

“But let’s keep in mind what this is a result of — it’s a result of making sure that Iran never has a nuclear bomb. That’s something we’ve got to make sure never happens. . . If they [Iranians] have a nuclear bomb, they’ll use it and they’ll use it against Israel, and then they’ll come to us in America.”