Tuesday, June 2, 2026
Good morning! In the news today: A scramble for votes in the 1st Congressional District runoff; local state lawmakers accuse governor, GOP U.S. Senate candidate of corruption; and some things you may have missed. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com..
NEWS: ELECTIONS
Overcoming election fatigue
Joyce Griggs and Amanda Hollowell, the two Democrats vying for Coastal Georgia’s seat in the U.S. Congress, are scrambling to get their supporters back to the polls for the primary runoff on June 16.
It’s no easy task. Enthusiasm to return to the polls just four weeks after the first round of voting typically plummets, even among a candidate’s most ardent supporters. In Coastal Georgia’s Democratic primary runoff in 2022, it dropped 53.9 percent; in 2020, 54.6 percent.
Griggs appears to be in the catbird seat. In the first round of voting last month she bested Hollowell by 8.3 percent of the vote in Chatham County. In Liberty — Coastal Georgia’s other Democratic stronghold — the margin was a whopping 29.1 percent.
Hollowell edged past Griggs in Glynn, the region’s second most populous county, with 27.3 percent of the vote to Griggs’ 24.1 percent. Nevertheless, districtwide, Griggs defeated Hollowell by 9.8 percent of the vote.
Hollowell told The Current on Sunday she is confident she can overtake Griggs. That confidence isn’t misplaced, recent history suggests. In 2022, Wade Herring lost to Griggs in the first round of voting by 10.6 percent of vote. In the runoff, Herring turned the tables, defeating Griggs by 23.8 percent of the vote — a massive 34.4-point swing.
The different campaign styles and priorities of the two candidates were on display Monday.
Both Griggs and Hollowell were invited to participate in a candidate forum in Atlanta sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club. Griggs’ campaign manager, Lakesia Hodges, said Monday the candidate accepted the invitation but was forced to back out due to a previous commitment, after the press club changed the debate schedule.
The commitment, Hodges told The Current on Friday, was a 9 a.m. meeting in Brantley County to help RV owners facing a zoning change that could force them off their property. The schedule shift didn’t allow for adequate travel time to Atlanta following the meeting, she said. The result? Hollowell spoke next to an empty podium at Monday’s debate.
Early voting for the runoff starts Monday, June 8. The winner of this month’s runoff will face Republican Jim Kingston in November. Kingston avoided a runoff, winning 52.4 percent of the votes cast in the six-way race.
NEWS: POLITICS
‘Pay-to-play politics’
Two Savannah-area state Democratic lawmakers urged Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday to open an independent investigation into allegations that a company owned by the brother of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Derek Dooley received special treatment in the awarding of millions of dollars in state contracts and has improperly influenced the race for the GOP nomination.
In a report broadcast last week, WXIA-TV in Atlanta alleged that Kemp helped pave the way for a supplier of K-12 school safety and emergency response systems to win state contracts worth more than $27 million dollars from 2019 through 2025.
The company, Centegix, is owned by Kemp’s longtime friend, Daniel Dooley, whose brother Derek is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate. Daniel Dooley, the report said, has donated $100,000 to Kemp’s political action committee, Hardworking Americans, which is backing Derek Dooley’s campaign.
Neither Kemp nor Dooley, who were scheduled to be on a campaign stop in Savannah on Monday, have responded to the allegations. But they came as Dooley’s opponent in the primary runoff, Mike Collins, has come under intense scrutiny concerning the conduct of a chief of staff.
State Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook on Monday said the claims against Kemp and Dooley pointed to “one of the most blatant, corrupt pay-to-play politics scandals in recent Georgia history.”
“Georgians deserve to know the truth, and they deserve to know it now,” she said. “That’s why I am demanding that the governor open an independent investigation into Centegix and no-bid contracts.”
State Sen. Derek Mallow described the Centegix contracts as an example of “blatant corruption” between Kemp and longtime family and friends “at the expense of hardworking Georgians in an economy where everything costs too much.”
ICYMI
- Former Glynn County sheriff Scott Ebner, a finalist for the Honolulu police chief’s job, faces scrutiny about his conduct in Georgia.
- A settlement is reached in the long-running Coastal Georgia cement price-fixing case.
- “Pooler City Council will no longer offer an in-person public comment period,” WSAV reports.
- “Savannah’s horse-drawn carriage tour operators have filed a lawsuit challenging the city’s heat-related operating restrictions,” WJCL reports.
- Eager to expand solar power capacity, Savannahians run into shortage of federal help.
- “We find a remarkable increase in food insecurity, particularly among lower-educated and lower-income households and households with young children,” the New York Fed says in a blog.
- “ICE detainees are dying by suicide ‘at an alarming rate,’ an AP investigation finds.”
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Commission approves Georgia Power fuel rate decrease
The Georgia PSC has approved a deal to lower the rate Georgia Power charges for fuel, resulting in a net decrease to power bills for millions of Georgians.
Development Authority considers alternate wastewater discharge site
Nearly 1,000 members from Liberty and Bryan Counties have loudly opposed a proposed state-of-the-art water reclamation facility, which would discharge treated wastewater a few feet from the sandbar.
Collins, Dooley clash on immigration, ethics in GOP Senate debate
In the Republican nomination debate for U.S. Senate, Congressman Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley exchanged jabs over immigration policy and a U.S. House ethics investigation, while U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and Democratic nominee for Georgia governor Keisha Lance Bottoms showed Democratic unity at a joint campaign event.
Feral hog eradication programs slashed by Kemp veto
Gov. Brian Kemp cut a $1 million public-private pilot program and a $200,000 wild pig eradication program from the state budget, despite the House passing a bill to use drones to hunt feral hogs and allow their capture without a license.
Trauma, PTSD can increase risk of pregnancy complications for veterans in Georgia, nationwide
Arthurine Williams-Wright, a Black woman veteran, experienced harassment, abuse, and sexual assault while serving in the US Army Corps of Engineers, which led to her diagnosis of PTSD and MST, and ultimately her decision to leave the military.
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