During his one hour and 15 minute meeting with Oconee County Democrats last week, veteran political journalist Greg Bluestein told inside stories, laughed about the tactics of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, speculated on career paths for Ossoff and others politicians, discussed the current campaigns, and predicted plans of the Georgia General Assembly.
Bluestein said that the Georgia General Assembly “likely” will be back in session after the elections in November, and the probability of that happening will increase if Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms wins the governor’s race.
He said the General Assembly, which will remain in Republican hands until at least January, will want to redistrict to pick up one and possibly two seats in the U.S. Congress and to “clip the wings” of Lance Bottoms, if she wins, before she assumes office.
Bluestein, who is the chief political reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, began his presentation by noting he has spoken to the Oconee County Democrats previously and that he is “maybe one of the only people who has spoken both to the Oconee County Democrats and the Oconee County Republicans over the last few years.”
Bluestein co-hosts the Politically Georgia podcast and edits the morning electronic newsletter of the same name. He also is an analyst for MS NOW and is the author of Flipped, a book about the 2020 election in Georgia.
Bluestein said he began his career writing for the student daily, The Red&Black, at the University Georgia and covering the campaign of a “young construction contractor running an uphill battle for state senate against an entrenched Democrat.”
“Little did I know one day I'd be writing about perhaps whether or not that young construction contractor would someday be a presidential candidate.”
That construction contractor, who is from Athens, is Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, and the “entrenched” Democrat he defeated was Doug Haines.
Special Session
Without using notes, Bluestein talked for 30 minutes before taking questions from a very attentive crowd of 41 at Piedmont Oconee Health Campus off Jennings Mill Road. The crowd applauded loudly when Bluestein finished.
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| Bluestein 9/3/2026 |
As Bluestein was ending his opening comments, he turned to the Georgia General Assembly.
“We are likely to be headed towards some sort of special session at the end of the year,” he said. “We're still waiting to see what that could look like.”
“But in my conversations with folks, Republicans are obviously gearing up for it, and there are going to be two different main purposes,” he said.
One is the kind of lower-hanging fruit, which is we know that after the Supreme Court ruling, Republicans have wanted to revise--redraw--congressional districts to wipe out at least one Democratic-leaning seat, but maybe two Democratic-leaning U.S. House seats.”
Bluestein was referring the April Supreme Court ruling that states violate the U.S. Constitution if they use race as the main reason to draw voting district lines.
“We haven't even seen any of the proposed maps,” Bluestein said.
“But you can definitely see a reality where in November or December, there's a special session that Gov. Kemp calls to go and redraw those districts and take it off the table for Rick Jackson, who probably doesn't want one of his first acts, if he wins governor, one of his first acts to be overhauling districts.”
Jackson is the Republican candidate running against Democrat Lance Bottoms.
“And certainly, they do that if Keisha Lance Bottoms wins (and the Republicans remain in control of the General Assembly in January) because she would veto any map that calls for these sort of overhauls,” Bluestein said.
Second Reason For Special Session
“The second reason that we might see a special session is if Keisha Lance Bottoms wins,” Bluestein said, “because you better believe the Republicans are already talking about ways in which to sort of clip her wings, curtail her executive power.”
“I'm just musing here because there's other states that have done similar things,” he said, referring to North Carolina and Wisconsin as examples.
The Georgia Republican Assembly “would say the legislative branch should have final say over certain executive appointments or certain executive decisions that right now the executive branch has complete power over.”
“So, there's a very real reality of that happening,” he said.
Bluestein said he asked Lance Bottoms about that possibility on his podcast, and she said, according to Bluestein, "Look, I hope the Republicans, if I win, won't be sore losers."
“And so, senior Democrats are already readying for that possibility if Keisha Lance Bottoms wins,” Bluestein said. “And frankly, I think Republicans are, too. There's already conversations being had under the radar.”
“It's not going to be a surprise to anyone,” he said, “Although, imagine the national coverage if the first Black woman elected governor in the nation's history and the first Black governor in Georgia's history is met immediately with--or shortly after her election--with a special session that would rein in her powers.”
“You can imagine protests and all sorts of backlash,” Bluestein said.
Ossoff And Harp
Bluestein said he has covered Ossoff since he ran for Congress in 2017.
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| Bluestein 9/3/2026 |
“We in Georgia who have been following him, we're very familiar with who he is and his strategy,” he said. “But now we're seeing a much wider national audience see a little bit, learn a little bit more about Jon Ossoff.”
“And to me, the biggest wake-up call was just a few weeks ago when Ossoff had his rally in midtown Atlanta,” Bluestein said. “It was one of several rallies he's had. Each rally seems to be bigger. The stagecraft just gets a little sharper.”
“Multiple camera angles,” he said. “Made for YouTube, made for streaming type approaches that instantly get a lot of social media traction.”
“And every rally he has seems to get national attention,” Bluestein said, “but this one was particularly interesting.”
Bluestein said he was at the rally on on Aug. 16 when Ossoff said President Trump “golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie to their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar.”
Bluestein said that “most of the people in that room didn’t know who Natalie was.”
“But over the next 10 days, there were countless stories from national media writing about Natalie Harp and the relationship she has with Donald Trump, and her rise from a little-known commentator to a member of Trump's inner circle," Bluestein said. Harp’s title is executive assistant to Trump.
“It showed how Ossoff, who considers himself-- he's an investigative filmmaker-- considers himself a grizzled journalist--has this sort of ability to shape the media narrative just by one turn of phrase,” Bluestein said.
Career Projections
Bluestein said “right now, of course, there's a lot of talk not just about Ossoff's campaign against Mike Collins but what he'll do if he wins. And even Republicans right now are really worried about Mike Collins and his chances.”
“There hasn't been a poll in the last year that showed Mike Collins up on Jon Ossoff,” Bluestein said.
“There are very few Democrats and very few Republicans who think this will be a blowout of 10, 12, 15 points or anything like that,” he said. “But even a five-point victory in a state as close as Georgia is a huge, huge win.”
“A lot of focus is already on Ossoff's future as a potential presidential candidate,” Bluestein said. “I personally believe him when he says...that he's not running.”
“I'm focused more closely on Sen. (Raphael) Warnock,” Bluestein said, “because it's Senator Warnock who is going to early voting states. It's Senator Warnock who just wrote a second book. It's Senator Warnock who is all over the national news as well. And he doesn't have a reelection campaign until 2028.”
“So a lot will be dictated by who wins the governor's race, because that person would be able to appoint a successor to Sen. Warnock if he steps down to run for president.”
“A lot will be dictated just on overall where the electorate is moving,” he said. “But I think it's Sen. Warnock who's far more likely to run for president than Sen. Ossoff.”
Gubernatorial Race
Bluestein told the Democrats that the gubernatorial race between Lance Bottoms and Republican Rick Jackson “is super close. You've seen the polls. You've seen most of the polling out there shows her and Rick Jackson within the margin of error.”
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| Bluestein 9/3/2026 |
Bluestein said Jackson ended up self-funding his primary campaign “to the tune of $111 million. I think that's just a part of the picture because there was also other affiliated actions from his allies that we'll never really know the full scope of it. But we know that $20 million was spent battering Bert Jones.” Lt. Gov. Jones competed with Jackson in the primary.
“We know that millions of other dollars were spent on helping Rick Jackson and his allies,” Bluestein said. “So, we might end up seeing at the end of this campaign, Rick Jackson spending more than $200 million.”
“So you're about to see a huge torrent of ads, especially after Labor Day,” Bluestein said. “He's already come out with five, six, seven different ads.”
“He's got enough money for dozens of ads,” he said. “One of his ads can fail, and the next one can pop, or the next. So the strategy there is just flood the airwaves.”
“And Keisha Lance Bottoms is responding,” Bluestein said. “Part of her new approach, and we just saw it this week back in Atlanta, is trying to get more media attention. So she did an interview with Politically Georgia, our podcast, which I encourage you to listen to.”
“She's done more press conferences,” he added. “She's trying to combat the surge of Rick Jackson money, which is a huge advantage for the Republican, with her own new, more aggressive approach, trying to earn attention from the media, to get more focus, more spotlight on her."
“It is a race dominated by major divides over healthcare,” Bluestein said. “Rick Jackson, against Medicaid expansion, says he has his own more tailored version that more aligns with Governor Kemp's version.
“Whereas Keisha Lance Bottoms is supportive of it,” Bluestein said, referring to Medicaid expansion.
Data centers, you name it, the list goes on and on,” Bluestein said.
Rick Jackson is in favor of data centers, saying local governments should decide. Bottoms is calling for a one-year moratorium on data center construction.
Other Races
“We also have unbelievable down-ticket races that are getting hardly the same attention, for some reason, as the marquee races,” Bluestein said.
Bluestein said Democrat Josh McLaurin, running for lieutenant governor “has a real chance of flipping that seat for the first time in about two decades.” Greg Dolezal is the Republican candidate.
In the Attorney General race, Bluestein said, “Democrat Tanya Miller has a good chance of winning as well.” Brian Strickland is the Republican candidate.
“There are many, many smart Republicans, senior Republicans, who see a reality where Rick Jackson could win by a smidge, but Democrats could dominate the rest of the ticket, not just Senate but also those other races,” Bluestein said.
“So that could happen,” he continued. “And of course, there could be a Democrat sweep at the top.”
“Or Republicans could sort of turn what could be looking like a wave into more like a ripple,” he said.
“A lot can happen in the next few weeks,” he said.
Georgia House
“The other giant narrative, of course, is what happens to the Georgia House,” Bluestein said. “Democrats are looking to net 10 seats to flip the House.”
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| Gisler 9/3/2026 |
“I don't need to remind you that one of your seats is right in the middle of those crosshairs,” Bluestein told the Democrats, “because Democrats have to play defense.”
Incumbent House District 121 Rep. Eric Gisler, who won his seat in a special election in December, was in the audience. He has a rematch with Republican Mack “Dutch” Guest IV on the November ballot.
“Not knowing you were going to be here,” Bluestein said nodding to Gisler, “I talked to some senior Republicans who are saying, ‘Look, Gisler has a really good chance of holding the seat.’"
That brought about loud applause from the gathering.
“There are legitimate Republicans who are worried about that seat,” he repeated.
Video
The video below is of the entire Sept. 3 meeting of the Oconee County Democrats.
What is above is only a summary of parts of the meeting. Bluestein returned to Ossoff in response to questions he received and also addressed a variety of additional issues.
Bluestein began his comments at 2:23 in the video.
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