Greetings everyone. Excited to introduce you to one of the best state party chairs in the country, Charlie Bailey, the Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia. We sat down earlier today and you can find a video recording and rough transcript of our conversation above.
Friends, this is a very uplifting conversation from one of our most important 2026 battlegrounds, one that reinforces both the opportunity we have this cycle and the incredible impact revitalized state parties - force multipliers as Charlie describes it - are having all across the country. I encourage you to watch this one as soon as you can.
Here are some points we got from the Georgia Democrats about their work this cycle. Pretty impressive stuff!
Georgia Democrats are on offense – and we’re building the best operation that the state has ever seen.
- In 2025, we laid the groundwork for a new chapter for Georgia Democrats: organizing statewide, being aggressive, and investing directly in key races.
- Our statewide organizing program has been in full swing since early last year – more than a year before the midterms – running phone banks and canvasses.
- Our best-in-the-nation Voter Protection team is monitoring and catching election issues all across the state before they can disrupt voters.
- And we’ve invested directly in paid media – TV, radio, and digital ads – in multiple downballot races that haven’t seen investment from the party in 2 decades.
That’s why Georgia Democrats have the momentum - and it’s only growing.
- Democrats won the November 2025 Public Service Commission elections – our first non-federal statewide wins in two decades – by a margin of 25 points.
- Then, a month later, we flipped a Trump +12 State House seat in Northeast Georgia.
- And even in seats we haven’t won, we’ve been dramatically overperforming, showing just how strong Dems are and how weak Republicans are even in “safe” districts.
- And last month, Shawn Harris posted a jaw-dropping 25-point overperformance in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former district in deep-red Northwest Georgia.
But Georgia remains the most competitive battleground in the country.
- In 2026, almost every major office in Georgia is up for election. We have the chance to elect a Democratic governor for the first time in two decades. We have Jon Ossoff’s U.S. Senate seat to defend. We are within 10 seats of taking back the State House from Republicans. And every single statewide constitutional office (Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor, etc) is on the ballot.
- Senator Jon Ossoff is the only Democrat running for re-election in a seat that Donald Trump won in 2024. This is going to be one of the most expensive, competitive races in the entire country.
- In the GOP primary for Senate, he is facing three Donald Trump loyalists who only care about rubber stamping his harmful agenda, including ripping away health care and jacking up premiums on 1.4 million Georgians.
- In a state like Georgia, nothing is guaranteed, and winning will take a generational effort and an unprecedented organizing program
While we’ve been supporting Senator Ossoff ($173,000 raised so far) last week Hopium jumped in to support our two Georgia Supreme Court candidates, Jen Jordan and Miracle Rankin, in their May 19th election. In our interview Charlie lays out the new ambitious Georgia Democratic Party-led strategy to take back the Supreme Court in Georgia in two years:
“The idea is when we elect Jen and Miracle to the Supreme Court, we then have three justices that are pro-women’s rights, pro-choice, pro-fair-maps, pro-democracy. We probably have another justice or two that might be there on some things, and so there might be some decisions even next year where you see a different alignment.
But then in 2028, there are two more right-wing Federalist Society justices up. We will go after them, and when we beat them, we have a firm majority. That can be done. This is not a 10-year project. That can be done within two years.”
As we discuss today in a post-Callais world Democrats are going to have to get more aggressive about flipping state legislative chambers and winning control of state Supreme Courts as Democrats are attempting to do in Georgia.
You can learn more about these critical Supreme Court races here; help us get to our $50,000 fundraising goal here; and watch my interview with Jen and Miracle here:
Perhaps the best news coming out of our discussion is what we are seeing in the early vote in Georgia for the May 19th primary and Supreme Court general election. It has been 20 years since Democrats outvoted Republicans in a primary election like this. As of today, despite Republicans having very competitive and expensive primaries for both Senate and Governor, Democrats are outvoting Republicans 54%-44%, a very encouraging sign for Jordan and Rankin and for our November elections too.
President Obama jumped into support Jordan and Rankin today. The momentum is building people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friends, watch this interview with the chair of the one of the most ambitious and successful state parties in the country. It will lift you up and provide yet another demonstration of the impact revitalized state parties are having all across the country, as together, we work to expand our maps, compete and win in races and places we’ve too long ignored, and take advantage of what is clearly shaping up to be a year of opportunity for us throughout the US.
We’ve all been working hard these last 16 months to counter Trump and help our candidates win elections over the country. Next up are these Georgia Supreme Court races - help us flip these two seats by making a contribution today. After Callais these would be two incredibly symbolic wins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Simon
Biography - Charlie Bailey, Chair, Democratic Party of Georgia
A lifelong Democrat and seasoned political strategist, Charlie has spent decades organizing, advising, and fundraising for campaigns across the state. His political journey began with the Young Democrats at UGA, eventually leading to senior roles in congressional and gubernatorial campaigns. As the Democratic nominee for Attorney General in 2018 and Lieutenant Governor in 2022, he raised millions in grassroots support while advancing bold, people-first policies. Since his election as Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia in May 2025, Charlie has led the state party to historic overperformances and victories, including Democrats’ first statewide, non-federal wins in nearly two decades in the Public Service Commission elections last year.
In addition to his political leadership, Charlie is a former Fulton County prosecutor and civil rights attorney. He prosecuted violent crime as part of the gang and organized crime unit and later held corporations and public institutions accountable through his legal advocacy. In 2024, he represented five local election officials pro bono to challenge last-minute rule changes that threatened to undermine the democratic process.
A native of Harris County, Charlie remains deeply committed to justice, rural communities, and strengthening Democratic power in every corner of Georgia.
