GOP Swing State Justices Sweep In Rare Midterm Setback For Democrats
'I remain committed'
Democrat power-grab attempt goes south. AGAIN.
Democrats committed earlier this year to ideologically flipping the Georgia Supreme Court, where eight of the current nine justices are appointees of Republican governors, but they hit a major snag: Georgia voters.
Democrats' plan was to oust a pair of incumbents in the May 19 election, replace them with a pair of pro-abortion radicals, then, in 2028, similarly knock out the trio of GOP-appointed justices who will be facing re-election.
'The people of Georgia have made clear that they want to keep politics out of Georgia's courtrooms.'
Charlie Bailey, the chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in April that his party was investing a historic sum in the campaigns of former Democrat state Sen. Jen Jordan and personal injury attorney Miracle Rankin, noting that "it's the most money that the Georgia Democratic Party has spent in judicial races in 20 years."
In addition to outside money, the liberal challengers enjoyed the support of outsiders, including pro-abortion groups and former President Barack Obama.
Obama, who endorsed both Jordan and Rankin, issued a reminder on Tuesday afternoon that "the decisions made by state supreme courts touch every part of our lives" and implored voters to "get this one right."
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Twice-failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris also weighed in from afar, telling Georgia voters to back Rankin and Jordan, whom she characterized as "extraordinary leaders."
Just as Democrats wasted millions of dollars on the unlawful, Obama-backed redistricting power-grab in Virginia — which the Old Dominion's Supreme Court torpedoed on May 8 — their court-flipping scheme in Georgia similarly proved to be a humiliating failure.
Georgia Supreme Court Justices Sarah Warren and Charlie Bethel, the Republican-appointed incumbents whom Gov. Brian Kemp threw his support behind, handily crushed their Democrat-backed challengers.
With over 95% of the expected votes in, Warren secured over 350,000 votes more than Jordan, beating the former Democrat lawmaker 59.3% to 40.7%.
Warren said in a statement following her decisive victory, "Today, the people of Georgia have made clear that they want to keep politics out of Georgia's courtrooms. The Supreme Court of Georgia is a nonpartisan court by constitutional design, and I am thankful that it will stay that way."
Bethel, a former Republican state senator, had a closer race but still came out on top, taking 51.1% of the total vote.
Whereas his challenger, Rankin, demonstrated on the campaign trail that she was sensitive and receptive to the ideological fads of the day, Bethel made clear on the campaign trail that he remains "committed to following Georgia law without respect to my personal preferences or the popular sentiment of the day."
According to AdImpact, over $4 million was blown on ads across the two races.
Kemp congratulated the victors and stressed that "the Democrats are not going to take their foot off the gas heading into November, and neither will we. Keep Choppin'!"
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'Friend' of President Trump advances to Georgia Republican Senate primary runoff
The president likes him "a lot," but Georgia voters still have to prove they agree.
Sitting U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) took home the most votes in the Georgia GOP primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, but it was not enough to secure an outright nomination.
'28 more days of putting the hammer down!'
Collins was first in the primary, but since he did not garner 50% of the vote, he will have to go head-to-head against runner-up Derek Dooley in a runoff election on June 16. Collins finished with nearly 41% of the vote, while Dooley had about 30%, according to CBS News.
"Thank you, Georgia. Love y'all. 28 more days of putting the hammer down!" Collins wrote on X after securing the most votes in the primary.
Collins was considered the favorite as a MAGA-style Republican and led polls by an average of 11.5 points between April and May.
The 58-year-old also received an unofficial endorsement from President Donald Trump in February, but it is unclear how much that endorsement helped him.
A video posted February 19 showed Trump telling supporters, "He's a friend of mine. He's a good guy."
"I like him a lot," Trump added.
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The video garnered nearly 1 million views on X, but subsequent polls showed Collins' lead shrank from about +25 in mid-February to just +14 by the end of the month.
Still, Collins was considered to be Trump-aligned, having similar views on immigration and spearheading the Laken Riley Act. As well, Collins voted against aid to Ukraine in October 2023, but voted in favor of Israeli aid the same month.
Dooley, a former football coach for the Tennessee Volunteers, was consistently second or third in polling and was endorsed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R).
Dooley put out a statement late on Tuesday thanking his voters for their support.
"This campaign has been about putting the people of Georgia first and sending a new type of leader up to D.C. who's in it for the right reasons, and that's to serve," Dooley wrote on X.
"Let's get to work and win this runoff!" he added alongside a photo that featured Gov. Kemp.
Third place went to Rep. Earl "Buddy" Carter (R-Ga.), a former pharmacist and mayor who received approximately 25% of the vote.
Other candidates included businessman and real estate developer John Coyne, as well as Jonathan McColumn, a retired U.S. Army Reserve brigadier general and pastor. Both got less than 5% of the vote.
The winner of Collins vs. Dooley will face off against Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff in November. Ossoff went unopposed in the Democrat primary and has been in office since 2021.
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Georgia Investigators Killed 2020 Election Probe At Kemp’s Request, Unsealed Testimony Claims
Sen. Perdue testified that GBI's director initially viewed the evidence as compelling enough to warrant a full investigation.Exclusive: ICE urges Georgia sheriff not to release illegal alien ‘monster’ accused of sexually assaulting 10-year-old girl
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is urging Georgia law enforcement officials not to release an illegal alien charged with sexual crimes against a child, according to a Department of Homeland Security press release exclusively obtained by Blaze News.
Juan Carlos Salvador Diaz, 29, was accused of sexual battery against a 10-year-old girl on August 1, 2025, and on December 1, 2023. Salvador Diaz allegedly committed these crimes at a Marietta apartment complex.
'We need cooperation from state and local authorities to return these types of sickos over to us, so we can get them OUT of our country before they victimize more Americans.'
Local authorities arrested him on January 30, and he is facing two counts of aggravated sexual battery.
Salvador Diaz is currently being held without bond.
The DHS reported that the Honduran national illegally entered the U.S. in 2019.
The day after his arrest, ICE lodged an arrest detainer with the Cobb County Sheriff's Office.
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ICE is urging the Cobb County Sheriff's Office not to release Salvador Diaz from its jail without first notifying the federal immigration agency.
"This monster sexually assaulted a 10-year-old girl. We are now asking Georgia authorities to commit to honoring the ICE arrest detainer to ensure this pedophile is not released and able to prey on more innocent children," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement provided to Blaze News. "We need cooperation from state and local authorities to return these types of sickos over to us, so we can get them OUT of our country before they victimize more Americans."
RELATED: Sanctuary city official cries ‘abduction’ when ICE arrests alleged drug trafficker — DHS fires back
The Cobb County Sheriff's Office's website acknowledges that the DHS has a detainer against Salvador Diaz.
In January 2021, then-newly elected Sheriff Craig Owens terminated the sheriff's office's participation in ICE's 287(g) Program, which allowed local law enforcement to identify and process immigration violators in its correctional facilities.
However, in 2024, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed HB 1105 into law, which requires "any custodial authority" to "comply with, honor, and fulfill any request made in the immigration detainer notice."
The Cobb County Sheriff's Office did not respond to a request for comment.
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Why Election Crimes Are Rarely Prosecuted In Georgia
The structural dysfunction of state offices in enforcing Georgia's election law has too often led to flagrant disregard of those laws.Big Tech’s AI boom hits voters hard — and Democrats pounce
Wouldn’t it be a bitter irony if Republicans lost the midterms — maybe even in conservative red states — because Democrats outmaneuvered them on the dangers of the AI data-center boom? The left now warns voters about land seizures, rising electric bills, water shortages, and Big Tech’s unchecked power. Meanwhile, Republicans stay quiet as Trump himself champions the very agenda voters increasingly fear.
During the Biden years, Republicans attacked Big Tech censorship, digital surveillance, Agenda 2030 land-grabs, and the artificial online culture reshaping young Americans. Every one of those concerns now intersects with the data-center explosion — energy demands, land use, power monopolies, and the rise of generative AI — but the political right barely whispers about it.
Republicans can channel AI toward focused, beneficial uses and away from a dystopian model that erodes civic life. Voters already want that shift.
Democrats don’t make that mistake. They see a potent electoral weapon.
Georgia hadn’t elected a Democrat statewide since 2006. Yet Democrat Peter Hubbard defeated a Republican incumbent on the Public Service Commission by 26 points by hammering “sweetheart deals” GOP officials granted hyperscale data centers. Voters in the state face repeated rate hikes linked to the massive energy demands of Big Tech facilities.
“The number-one issue was affordability,” Hubbard told Wired. “But a very close second was data centers and the concern around them just sucking up the water, the electricity, the land — and not really paying any taxes.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. In 2022, Georgia’s Republican legislature passed a sales-tax exemption for data centers. In 2024, a bipartisan bill attempted to halt those tax breaks, but Gov. Brian Kemp (R) vetoed it. Voters noticed — and punished the GOP for it.
Georgia now surpasses northern Virginia in hyperscale growth. Atlanta’s data-center inventory rose 222% in two years, with more than 2,150 megawatts of new construction under way. It’s no mystery why Democrats flipped two PSC seats in blowouts.
Republicans lost because they defended crony capitalism that inflated energy bills, devoured land, and fed an AI industry conservatives once warned about. If Kamala Harris had pushed the data-center agenda as aggressively as Trump now does, Republicans would be in open revolt. But Trump’s support silences the conservative grassroots and leaves Democrats free to define the issue.
Virginia tells the same story. Democrat John McAuliff flipped a GOP seat by attacking Big Tech’s land-grab and the rising utility costs tied to data-center expansion. He blasted his opponent for profiting while family farms vanished under the footprint of hyperscale development. He became the first Democrat in 30 years to carry the district.
At the statewide level, Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the governor’s office by arguing that AI data centers must pay their “fair share” of soaring energy costs. She framed the issue as a fight to protect families from Big Tech’s strain on the grid.
New Jersey voters heard similar warnings as they faced a 22% electric rate increase. Democrat Mikie Sherrill defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli by double digits after blaming part of the spike on hyperscale energy demand. She pledged to declare a state of emergency to halt increases and require data centers to fund grid upgrades.
This pattern repeats in reliably red states.
Indiana saw dozens of new hyperscale proposals, yet not a single Republican official pushed back. Ordinary citizens blocked one of Google’s planned rezonings near Indianapolis. Liberal groups — like Citizens Action Coalition — filled the leadership vacuum and demanded a moratorium on new data centers, calling it a fight against “big tech oligarchs that are calling all the shots at every single level of government.”
RELATED: Stop feeding Big Tech and start feeding Americans again
Republican leaders, meanwhile, worked to ban states from regulating AI at all. This summer they attempted to insert a sweeping prohibition into the budget reconciliation bill that would bar states from regulating data-center siting or AI content for 10 years. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) now seeks to attach the same language to the FY 2026 defense authorization act. President Trump backs the provision.
Instead of ceding the issue to the left, Republicans should correct course. They can channel AI toward focused, beneficial uses and away from a dystopian model that erodes civic life. Voters already want that shift. A new University of Maryland poll found residents believe — by a 2-1 margin — that AI will harm society more than it helps. More than 80% expressed deep concern about declining face-to-face interaction, the erosion of education and critical thinking, and job displacement fueled by AI.
Capital expenditures cannot sustain the current pace of expansion, and public patience with Big Tech’s demands is running out. The political party that recognizes these realities first will earn the credit. Right now, the party that once defended property rights, community values, and human-centered technology is getting lapped by the party that partnered with Big Tech oligarchs to censor Americans during COVID.
Republicans still have time to lead. But they won’t win a fight they refuse to join.
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