The Georgia state Capitol was bustling on Monday, but not because of the usual business of lawmaking.
Instead, big names in politics trickled in and out of the Capitol building, some having travelled hours to face a long line to ensure their names appear on the ballot for the upcoming November elections. Among those who qualified on Monday are Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is running for reelection, and several sitting members of Congress, including one of Ossoff’s Republican opponents, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter.
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Governor’s race
Some candidates running for the state’s highest office also showed up Monday for the first day of candidate qualifying. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and former state Sen. Jason Esteves, who are both Democrats, and Republican state Attorney General Chris Carr all qualified to run for Georgia’s open race for governor.
“This is what democracy looks like,” said House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, a Columbus Democrat, about the long line of candidates waiting to qualify.
Aspiring candidates up and down the ballot are showing up this week to file their paperwork and put down the required fee to run. Even the state House’s most powerful leader, Speaker Jon Burns, was there to defend his southeast Georgia seat.
“Not a day goes by as Speaker of the Georgia House that I don’t remember my most important public office – State Representative for House District 159,” the Newington Republican said.
The day brought a few surprises based on who did or did not stand in line to qualify.
Scott qualifies
One of the big questions was whether longtime U.S. Rep. David Scott would seek another term. The Democrat defended his seat in 2024 but now faces a formidable field that includes a state representative, a former local school board member and a reality TV star.
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Scott, who was first elected in 2002, did show up to qualify early Monday morning but he was whisked away by aides as reporters and one of his challengers, Everton Blair, attempted to speak with him. Candidates commonly take questions from reporters when they qualify. Blair described the situation as “indefensible, and frankly, it’s sad.”
Other elected officials have made the decision to hang it up. Among them is longtime state Rep. Mack Jackson, a Sandersville Democrat who was first elected in 2008 and who narrowly fought off a Republican challenger in 2024.
Jackson said Monday that he decided it was time to pass the torch to a new generation.
“The world is changing. I’m not a tech-savvy type person, and social media has taken over. AI has taken over,” Jackson said.
“So, it’s time for them to take over. It’s time for them to come up. It’s time for us to move out of the way and stop reminiscing and talking about times past, because they will never come back again. And it’s their day. It’s their day, and I realize that, and I’m more than happy to promote them. I’m more than happy to see them come into the place that they’re coming to.”
State Rep. Jasmine Clark, a Lilburn Democrat who is also challenging Scott in the May 19 primary, said she would be the first woman with a Ph.D. in science to be elected to Congress. Clark, who is a microbiologist and a nursing school professor at Emory University, said that at a time when established scientific principles are being questioned by federal officials, it’s more important than ever to have someone with those credentials in higher office.
“At a time when you have RFK Jr. running our public health, Dr. Oz running health care as well, and them trying to confirm Casey Means, who’s never even served as a doctor, we need people who actually can bring that perspective to Washington, D.C.,” Clark said.
Candidates have until noon on Friday
More than 300 candidates seeking legislative, statewide or federal offices qualified Monday, with dozens from both sides of the aisle filing paperwork to run. Qualifying ends at noon Friday.
Carr said now that he’s qualified to run, the real campaign work begins.
“Well, I think of this like a race, and this is the starting gun. When you qualify, we now know who’s actually going to be in each race. Everything’s theoretical before this. So you kind of set the stage, you’ve done the training. Now the race is being run, so we’ve got a long way to go. I know it doesn’t seem that way when it’s 78 days, but it does, and in politics, that’s 100 political lifetimes.” Carr said. “So off we go.”