Top stories that shaped Georgia in 2023
The jailhouse booking of a former president. The death of the only Georgian to serve as first lady. The first kilowatts of energy cranked out of the beleaguered Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project. These and other stories left a mark on Georgia politics this year, whether in jawdropping fashion or through the void left behind. Others are notable simply because they represent the smaller, incremental twists that simply moved a long-running story on to a new chapter.
Here’s a look back at the stories that made 2023 the year it was.
TRUMP INDICTED IN FULTON COUNTY
Georgia found itself back at the center of national politics in August when a grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies on racketeering and conspiracy charges for interfering in the 2020 election.
The grand jury indictments and the subsequent parade of surrenders at the Fulton County Jail also yielded the only booking photo made of any U.S. president. Four of Donald Trump’s co-defendants have since accepted plea deals and agreed to testify at trial — attorneys Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell and Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Trump’s legal team remain at odds as the lead prosecutor seeks to have Trump and the 14 remaining co-defendants stand trial together in August.
Trump, the GOP’s frontrunner for the 2024 presidential nomination, along with exTrump attorney Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff, are accused of making claims of massive voting fraud while orchestrating a multistate plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow contends the potential timing of an August trial — about three months before the Nov. 5 election — would amount to the worst example of election interference in the nation’s history.
Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has indicated he would prefer to divide the defendants into smaller groups because of the logistical challenges of a trial that prosecutors predict will involve 150 witnesses taking the stand over the course of four months.
FORMER FIRST LADYDIES AT AGE 96
Admirers of former President Jimmy Carter and former
first lady Rosalynn Carter started the year worried about the former president’s health after it was announced in February he
entered hospice care at his home in Plains.
But by the end of the year, they were grieving the loss of Rosalynn Carter, who died in November at the age of 96. She was diagnosed with dementia in May.
Rosalynn Carter was remembered as her husband’s closest adviser — Jimmy Carter called her “an equal partner in everything I ever accomplished” — as well as celebrated for own rich legacy championing mental health, caregiving and women’s rights.
The former first lady was honored with a multiday remembrance tour that included a tribute
ceremony in Atlanta that was attended by four living former first ladies and sitting first lady Jill Biden, as well as President Joe Biden and former president Bill Clinton.
Jimmy Carter attended the tribute ceremony and the funeral services held at Maranatha Baptist Church. It was the first time he had been seen in public since September when the couple made a surprise appearance at the Plains Peanut Festival. They had been married for 77 years. SIX-WEEK ABORTION BAN SURVIVES
Georgia’s six-week abortion ban survived its first legal test in the wake of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
A group of health care providers and abortion rights advocates filed a new lawsuit in state court in July 2022 after Georgia’s law was allowed to take effect last summer after the Dobbs decision, ending an earlier challenge in federal court.
They argued Georgia’s 2019 law was invalid because it was passed when Roe v. Wade was still the law of the land and insisted lawmakers should be required to pass a new law in today’s climate.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C. I. McBurney agreed, ruling the restrictions “plainly unconstitutional” when they were created. But the Georgia Supreme Court didn’t buy that, rejecting that argument with a 6-1 decision in October. RULING UPENDS POLITICAL MAPS
A federal judge’s ruling in October struck down Georgia’s political maps and pulled lawmakers back to Atlanta for a special session that wrapped in early December.
District Court Judge Steve C. Jones threw out the congressional and legislative maps drawn in 2021, ruling they diluted the voting power of
Black Georgians.
Jones concluded the GOP-drawn maps violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bars practices and procedures that discriminate on the basis of race and had just survived a test before the U.S. Supreme Court this year.
Lawmakers passed new maps with party-line votes during the special session.
The ruling had been expected to lead to Democratic gains since Black Georgians have historically backed Democrats at high rates. But the maps from the special session would give up some GOPcontrolled ground in the state House but otherwise largely maintain the current partisan balance. Jones on Wednesday accepted the new maps. LIMITED MEDICAID PROGRAM LAUNCHES
Four years after first being announced, the governor’s plan to slightly expand Medicaid eligibility for low-income adults who satisfy certain requirements was launched in July.
But the program has been off to a slow start. As of mid-December, 2,344 people had enrolled in Georgia Pathways to Coverage.
The governor unveiled the proposal in 2019 after a competitive election that focused in part on full Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which could cover hundreds of thousands of people. Today, Georgia is one of 10 states that have not fully expanded Medicaid.
In Georgia, a lowincome adult must complete 80 hours of work or other activities every month to qualify and then keep their health care coverage under the new program.
The program’s launch was delayed by the Biden administration, which pushed back on the work requirement, but Georgia officials were able to proceed after successfully suing in federal court. NEW VOGTLE UNIT GOES ONLINE
Georgia Power ratepayers will be responsible for a $7.6 billion bill for the
construction of two nuclear reactors built at Plant Vogtle located southeast of Augusta.
The financial agreement for the nuclear project was approved Dec. 19 in an unanimous vote by the Georgia Public Service Commission that calls for the utility company to cover at least $2.6 billion of an expected $10 billion in construction and capital costs spent on the Vogtle project.
Vogtle has remained a major source of contention and frustration as the costs
ballooned to more than double the price initially forecast for a project that’s taking 14 years to complete.
The two Vogtle expansion units are the first nuclear reactors to be built in the U.S. in more than 30 years, and account for the latest in a series of rate increases Georgia Power customers will continue to pay in the coming months. A MIXED YEAR FOR MEDICAL CANNABIS
Patients with serious health maladies celebrated this year when stateapproved medical cannabis dispensaries began opening their doors, ending years of suffering without medicine or obtaining it outside the letter of the law.
Georgia law allows people with certain diagnoses to sign up for a state-issue card allowing them to possess low THC oil.
But some patients and caregivers initially reported problems getting on the list, and a plan to become the first state to allow pharmacies to dispense medical cannabis products appears scuttled after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency warned Georgia pharmacies against breaking federal laws by dispensing THC. GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE FOR MINORS Transgender children and families lost the ability to get hormone therapy in Georgia this year after the legislature banned the practice on party lines.
Doctors typically recommend a course of treatment for minors experiencing gender dysphoria that can include social transitioning, as in changing one’s name or pronouns or hormone treatment, in which patients take testosterone or estrogen to match their gender identity.
The bill also outlaws sex reassignment surgery, which advocates say is not performed on minors.
NEW LEGISLATIVE LEADERS GET GAVEL
When state lawmakers kicked off this year’s legislative session in January, the gavel was in the hands of new leaders in both chambers.
Milton Republican state Rep. Jan Jones, who is the speaker pro tem, greeted lawmakers on their first day as the first woman to ever serve as speaker in Georgia. She had become speaker after the unexpected death of Speaker David Ralston in late 2022.
Then House Majority Leader Jon Burns would go on to become speaker, and as he was settling in, newly elected Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was finding his own groove presiding over the state Senate across the state Capitol building.
As new legislative leaders were taking the helm, a whopping 53 new lawmakers were also thrown into the mix of an increasingly diverse General Assembly.
PUBLIC SAFETY TRAINING CENTER
Proponents say the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center will allow police to better serve their community. Opponents deride the project as “Cop City” and say it will further militarize police and make them more effective at killing minorities.
State leadership is strongly on the pro-side, which could manifest during the 2024 session as money for the endeavor or new laws aimed at violent demonstrations. Dozens of activists now face racketeering charges in relation to their opposition, and a plan to put the center to a citywide vote is in legal limbo as the sides argue over the validity of petition signatures.