Republicans want Georgians not to believe their eyes. Voters aren’t fooled.
As we near the May 19 statewide primary election, let me put a translator on every stump speech, all-caps tweet and slick ad that voters are hearing from Georgia Republican candidates:
“Don’t believe your lying eyes.”
This is the message that Republican elected officials and candidates are betting on in 2026 as they continue to pledge their unwavering loyalty to President Donald Trump.
In February, Georgia Republicans running for office stood by Trump’s side in Rome as he proclaimed that he’d “solved” the affordability crisis and that he’d taken the economy and “made it great.”
Even my counterpart across the aisle, Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon, made the same claims about affordability in a guest column earlier Feb. 27 entitled “Thanks to President Donald Trump, Georgia is winning again.”
Candidates are taking Trump’s baggage to the ballot box
Republican candidates’ complete loyalty to Donald Trump has forced them to stand by these lies. But that loyalty has put them in a tough spot. Here is what they’re finding out: You can’t message around reality.
Between February and December 2025, Georgians paid $7.1 billion extra in tariffs – the third highest after California and Texas.
Nearly a quarter of a million Georgians have lost health insurance after Republicans refused to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, and many more are being crushed by rising premiums.
Tariffs are straining small businesses and farmers and Georgia saw record layoff announcements in January, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas’s Challenger Report.
It’s clear that Georgia Republican candidates will take this baggage to the ballot box. A recent Civiqs poll found that a majority of Georgians do not like Trump, and when it comes to two of the biggest culprits in his affordability crisis – skyrocketing health care costs and economy-crushing tariffs – Georgia Republicans on the ballot are with him every step of the way.
Consider the three-way U.S. Senate Republican primary race.
“MAGA warrior” U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter and hard-core MAGA supporter U.S. Rep. Mike Collins voted repeatedly at Trump’s direction against extending tax credits that made insurance affordable, and Derek Dooley – the worst football coach in a century of Tennessee history (utsports.com) – sided with them.
All three have repeatedly praised the destructive tariffs, even as they cost average households about $1,000 last year.
Republicans can’t spin away the truth no matter how many ads they buy
Meanwhile in the GOP governor’s primary race, Rick Jackson has boasted that he “can’t think of a single” Trump policy he disagrees with – in fact, he’s bragging about how much money he’s made off Trump’s reckless policies.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones stood by Trump in Rome as he declared tariffs “the most beautiful word” and said he was not concerned about the tariffs’ negative impacts on Georgia farmers.
And this was all before Trump sent the U.S. into a war of choice without a plan and without regard for the brave service members whose lives he is risking.
So, Georgia Republicans running for office can empty their pockets on expensive TV ads all they want, but they can’t spin away Georgians’ everyday experiences of trying to keep up with bills that keep climbing, cutting prescriptions in half to save money, or agonizing over whether to drop their health insurance as premiums double or triple.
While Georgia Republicans are insulting voters by asking them not to believe their own eyes, the Democratic Party of Georgia is giving them a different option.
Georgia Republicans running for office are spinning a tall tale that everything’s peachy. Georgians aren’t buying it, and Republican candidates will learn that the hard way at the ballot box in November.
Charlie Bailey is the chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia.
