ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have declined to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in his 2026 reelection bid.

So far, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter and Georgia Insurance and Fire Commissioner John King have thrown their hats into the GOP Senate primary, with more candidates perhaps on the way.

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ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – After Donald Trump successfully took aim at the transgender community as a focal point of his reelection campaign to the White House last year, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter is hoping to replicate the president’s success in Georgia.

Carter, the first announced GOP challenger to incumbent Democrat Jon Ossoff, released a new campaign ad entitled “Ossoff fan,” that shows what appears to be a transgender woman complaining to an unidentified party on the phone about Carter’s conservative voting record.

Carter’s announced his Senate campaign in early May after Gov. Brian Kemp finally ended speculation about his political future by declining an Ossoff reelection challenge.

Since then, only Georgia Insurance Fire Commissioner John King has entered next year’s GOP Senate primary. Another Georgia congressional representative, northwest Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, has also decided not to run for Senate.

Carter, 67, represents a district based in Savannah and includes most of Georgia’s coastal south. He served as a Georgia state representative from 2005 to 2009, and a state senator from 2009 to 2014, after which he ran successfully for Congress.

Carter is currently the only licensed pharmacist serving in Congress.

“American parents don’t need federal bureaucrats confirming our children’s genitalia,” said Ossoff campaign spokesperson Ellie Dougherty. “The Republican bill threatened extremely intrusive federal investigation of children’s bodies. Athletic associations and local school districts can ensure fair, safe competition in childhood athletics.”

For his part, Kemp has already signed a bill passed by this year’s General Assembly that prohibits the use of state funds for sex reassignment surgery, hormone replacement therapies or cosmetic procedures for inmates.

The bill prompted Democratic state representatives to hold a walkout before the GOP-controlled state House approved the bill by a vote of 100-2, with every Democratic representative abstaining from the vote after walking out of the chamber.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) today introduced a bill creating a Select Committee to investigate the White House cover-up of former President Biden’s cognitive and physical health decline.

The bipartisan Select Committee will be responsible for issuing a report to Congress detailing President Biden’s cognitive and physical health decline and the potential concealment of information from the American public.

“This is potentially the biggest political scandal of our lifetime, and the American people deserve to know the truth about who was really running the White House under Biden’s tenure as president. From using the autopen to pardon his own family members to likely concealing a cancer diagnosis, our government must restore trust with the public by fully investigating the former administration’s lies and getting to the bottom of one of the most consequential coverups in history,” said Rep. Carter.

Original Cosponsors include: Reps. Mark Alford (R-MO), John Rose (R-TN), Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), and Barry Moore (R-AL).

Read the full bill text here.

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It’s more than a year before the next major election, but multiple Georgia hopefuls have already begun their work.

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s re-election campaign is underway, and a handful of Georgians have announced their intention to attempt to run against him. Here are those we have confirmed:

Buddy Carter

Republican: Buddy Carter is a U.S. Representative for the Savannah area and has been since 2015. He has also been Mayor of Pooler and owner of Carter’s Pharmacy, Inc. He is not related to former President Jimmy Carter.

“Georgians will have a very simple choice in 2026: Do you want a MAGA warrior for you or do you want a trans warrior for they/them?” Carter wrote on X. “I’m with you. You can guess where Jon Ossoff is. Game on.”

John King

Republican: John F. King has been the Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner since 2019, reportedly becoming Georgia’s first Hispanic statewide official. He’s also had a long career in the military and law enforcement including as Doraville’s Chief of Police and commander of 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

“I’ve never shied away from a fight, but what truly scares me today is having Jon Ossoff for six more years,” King said in a video on X. “President Trump got sent to Washington, D.C. to solve some very big problems. He needs help.”

Reagan Box

Republican: Reagan Box is a self-employed horse trainer with an eclectic background including art studies in Paris, sharks and sea turtle research in the Florida Keys, and missionary work in Costa Rica.

“As Senator for the great state of Georgia, I will stand strong in the fight for the people and tackle the tough issues head-on,” Box said on her website. “I will fight to protect the unborn, defend our God-given and Constitutional rights, and ensure our military is strong and free from the radical-left ideology that has damaged its effectiveness.”

Elbert Arthur “AL” Bartell

Independent: Al Bartell is a policy analyst, a U.S. Air Force veteran, and chairman of the World Human Rights Network. He previously ran for U.S. Senate in 2020 and Georgia governor in 2022.

“With over thirty years as a public policy leader, I work across party lines with a balanced approach to events, situations, and issues,” Bartell said on his LinkedIn.

DeVelle Jackson

Independent: DeVelle Jackson lives in the Atlanta area but is a student at the University of Minnesota. He is also the owner of “Black XX Ltd Co” but little else is known.

Other candidates

The following are candidates who have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, but detailed information on their backgrounds and platforms was not immediately available:

Democrat: Chris Capparell of Atlanta

Chris Capparell of Atlanta Republican: Christoph La’Flare Chapman of Columbus

Christoph La’Flare Chapman of Columbus Republican: Rick Temple of Americus

Miguel Legoas is a Deep South Connect Team Reporter for Gannett/USA Today. Find him on X and Instagram @miguelegoas and email atmlegoas@gannett.com.

By: Dave Williams and Ty Tagami

Buddy Carter declares for Senate bid

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island, has become the first Republican to jump into next year’s U.S. Senate race following term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to pass on the contest.

Carter announced his candidacy Thursday with a 30-second video ad posted on YouTube declaring the sixth-term congressman’s close ties with Donald Trump.

“Trump has a warrior in Buddy Carter,” the narrator says in the ad, which goes on to call Carter a “MAGA warrior.”

Carter, 67, a former mayor of Pooler and former member of the General Assembly, was elected to Congress in 2014. He represents Georgia’s 1st Congressional District, which covers all six coastal counties and all or parts of nine inland counties in southeastern Georgia.

The ad criticizes Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff for voting against securing the nation’s borders and opposing efforts at the federal level to ban transgender athletes born male from participating in girls’ sports. Both the illegal immigration and transgender sports issues have been high on Trump’s list of priorities.

With Kemp out of the race, the Republican field is expected to grow significantly larger. Other members of Georgia’s GOP delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives reportedly considering joining the fray include Mike Collins, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Rich McCormick.

Kemp announced last Monday that he would not running for Ossoff’s Senate seat. The governor was widely considered as having the best shot among Republicans at turning Ossoff out of office next year after a single term.

John King declares for race

John King, Georgia’s insurance commissioner — not the assistant city manager of the city of Covington — has joined the Republican primary election in hopes of unseating Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff next year.

King, a major general in the U.S. Army National Guard and a former police chief, is the first official elected statewide to join the race. He won the election for insurance and safety fire commissioner in 2022 after Kemp appointed him to the position in 2019.

The native of Mexico is the first Hispanic to have won statewide office in Georgia.

King came to America at age 17 and enlisted in the National Guard, rising from private to major general when he retired in 2023. He was deployed to Afghanistan, Africa, Bosnia, and Iraq. Over four decades in law enforcement, he rose from beat cop in Atlanta to police chief in Doraville.

In his announcement Monday, King emphasized these roles, his statement saying he “was shot and stabbed in the line of duty.” King also underscored his ties to President Donald Trump, noting that he was deployed to the southern border during Trump’s first term and co-chaired Trump’s 2020 campaign in Georgia.

Despite his statewide election success, King could struggle with national name recognition, which plays a role in campaign fundraising. Ossoff has proven a prodigious fundraiser, bringing in more cash than any sitting U.S. senator.

Still, King drew a veteran GOP strategist to his campaign. Dan McLagan, who worked for Gary Black’s campaign in the U.S. Senate primary won by Herschel Walker, is handling communications for King.