Brian Kemp endorses Burt Jones for governor. The primary is suddenly up for grabs.

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:00:00 -0400

Gov. Brian Kemp endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones for governor Tuesday afternoon, ending weeks of speculation and reshuffling a Republican primary that had been widely expected to be a smooth ride for the incumbent.

The endorsement came after a roughly 30-minute phone call between the two men, according to a Kemp senior adviser who confirmed the conversation to WACN 21.

What changed

Until last week, Jones’ path to the nomination looked nearly impossible. State Sen. Greg Dolezal of Cumming had been consolidating support from Kemp’s inner circle, and Attorney General Chris Carr had been quietly prepping for his own entry.

Georgia Supreme Court rules in favor of Atlanta in long-running water rights case

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 17:00:00 -0400

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled 6-1 Monday that Atlanta’s current water-withdrawal permits from Lake Lanier are valid, ending — for now — a 14-year legal fight over the metro area’s most important water source.

But the court’s reasoning was narrower than Atlanta had hoped, leaving the door open for future challenges as the region grows and as upstream states press for stricter limits.

The case

The suit was brought in 2012 by Alabama and Florida, both of which sit downstream on the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) river basin and have argued for decades that Atlanta’s withdrawals from Lake Lanier — built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s — leave too little water flowing south.

State on WACN 21 News

Brian Kemp endorses Burt Jones for governor. The primary is suddenly up for grabs.

What changed

Georgia Supreme Court rules in favor of Atlanta in long-running water rights case

The case