Georgia
Involved from the Start: Georgia’s Role in America’s Birth | Atlanta History Center
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — these rights were enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and secured with the signatures of delegates from each of the 13 colonies. As the United States grew, the founders faced the contradictions and challenges that independence presented, including the limited power of the federal government. Eleven years after the Declaration of Independence was signed, delegates convened once more to draft and ratify the U.S. Constitution.
These two documents continue to shape and inform the country today. The Georgia delegates who signed them were dedicated to the betterment of both the nation and the state. As the United States celebrates 248 years of democracy, let us remember the Georgia signers who resolutely ushered in independence and were instrumental in establishing the political system we have today.
Button Gwinnett (1735–1777)
Often described as the most notorious of Georgia’s declaration signers, Button Gwinnett was born in Gloucestershire, England. He moved to Savannah in 1765, hoping to escape financial hardship. In Savannah, Gwinnett tried and failed at becoming a merchant before pivoting to planting, purchasing St. Catherine’s Island and enslaved people. When this venture also failed, Gwinnett shifted his focus to politics.
Before signing the Declaration of Independence, Gwinnett played a notable role in organizing and rallying backcountry and coastal Whigs in revolutionary efforts. In 1776, his success in local politics led to his election as a representative of Georgia at the Second Continental Congress. There he joined George Walton and Lyman Hall in signing the Declaration of Independence.
After signing the Declaration of Independence, Gwinnett returned to Georgia, where he held high-ranking military positions and briefly served as governor from March to May 1777. Gwinnett became entangled in ongoing conflicts with his rival, Lachlan McIntosh. Their rivalry reached a head in May 1777 after McIntosh publicly called Gwinnett “a scoundrell [sic] and lying rascal.”
Offended by the public insult, Gwinnett challenged McIntosh to a pistol duel. He was shot during the duel and died from his injuries. Less than a year after signing the Declaration of Independence, Gwinnett became the second signer to die. His signature, considered one of the rarest and most valuable due to his relative anonymity before signing the declaration and his death shortly after, has been valued at more than $500,000.
Lyman Hall (1724–1790)
Described by his peers as a “friend of human rights,” Lyman Hall was perhaps the most vocal advocate for national liberty in Georgia at the time. Born in Connecticut, Hall graduated from Yale College (now Yale University) before joining a group of New England Puritans who had relocated to the Southeast. Hall and the Puritans settled in St. John’s Parish and founded the town of Sunbury in Georgia’s Midway District (present-day Liberty County). In the parish, Hall served the community as a physician before turning to politics.
Hall and other members of the parish maintained strong family ties to New England, making them more sympathetic than most Georgians to the Patriots’ outrage at British policies such as the Intolerable Acts. . Frustrated with the colony’s decision to abstain from the First Continental Congress in 1774 and eager to show their support for national independence, St. John’s Parish independently elected to send Hall to Philadelphia, where he was admitted to Congress without voting ability. When Georgia formally aligned with the other colonies, they officially elected Hall as one of the delegates, allowing him to vote for, ratify, and sign the Declaration of Independence along with Gwinnett and Walton.
Upon his return to Savannah in 1777, Hall revived his medical practice before being elected governor from 1783 to 1784. As governor, Hall advocated for the establishment of courts and education by calling on the legislature in Augusta to grant plots of land and endow institutions of learning. His proposal paved the way for the establishment of Franklin College, later the University of Georgia.
George Walton (c. 1749–1804)
Despite his humble beginnings, George Walton went on to hold the most offices of the three signers of the Declaration of Independence. Born in Virginia, Walton was orphaned by the age of 12 and worked as a carpenter’s apprentice until his 1767 move to Savannah, where he successfully studied and practiced law. Like Gwinnett, Walton attended early meetings among fellow revolutionaries and secured election to the Second Continental Congress.
Although there is no record of Georgia’s delegates giving speeches in Congress, Walton was deeply moved by John Adams’ speech in support of independence. In a letter to Adams, he wrote, “Since the first day of July 1776, my conduct, in every station in life, has corresponded with the result of that great question which you so ably and faithfully developed on that day. … It was then I felt the strongest attachments and they have never departed from me.” Walton’s sense of devotion to the new nation is evident in the many offices he held upon returning to Georgia in 1778. He immediately resumed his political career at the state level. As colonel of the First Regiment of the Georgia Militia, Walton fought in the Siege of Savannah, was captured, and then, held as a prisoner of war. After being released, Walton was elected governor in 1779 and again in 1789. Between gubernatorial terms, Walton served as chief justice of Georgia from 1783 to 1789 and as a member of the Augusta Board of Commissioners from 1784 to 1785. He also served as a delegate to Georgia’s Constitutional Convention and as a U.S. Senator.
In addition to the many positions Walton held, he stood apart as the only one of Georgia’s signers of the Declaration of Independence who did not enslave people. Walton even spoke out against what he called the “barbarian” attacks by local white citizens on an African American Baptist congregation in Yamacraw, Georgia. Walton finally retired to his Augusta home, Meadow Garden, where he died. Meadow Garden now operates as a museum.
Abraham Baldwin (1754–1807)
Born in Connecticut, Abraham Baldwin graduated from Yale College and served as a chaplain during the Revolutionary War. After the war, Baldwin declined a professorship at Yale, instead choosing to relocate to Georgia.
Aware of the high value Baldwin placed on education, Governor Lyman Hall encouraged him to create a plan for secondary and higher education. Baldwin believed that an educated public was the cornerstone of a successful republic, and to this end, he crafted a plan that would advance not only the educational system in Georgia but also serve as a blueprint for public higher education across the country. Baldwin’s plan eventually led to the establishment in 1785 of Franklin College (later the University of Georgia), the nation’s first state-chartered university. Baldwin served as UGA’s first president from 1786 to 1801.
During this time, Baldwin also served as a delegate at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the main concerns at the convention was how each state would be represented in the federal government. Larger states advocated for representation based on population, while smaller states, fearing inadequate representation, voted for equal representation.
Although Georgia was considered a larger state, Baldwin empathetically voted with the smaller states, resulting in a tie that led to a compromise. The Great Compromise, also known as the Connecticut Compromise, established the bicameral legislature: the House of Representatives and the Senate. Described as an intentional listener, Baldwin’s efforts helped create the legislative system we have today and paved the way for public higher education across the nation.
William Few Jr. (1748–1828)
William Few Jr. arrived in Georgia in the mid-1770s after abandoning a drought-stricken tobacco farm in his birth state of Maryland and fleeing political trouble in North Carolina. During the Revolutionary War, Few joined the Richmond County regiment and served as a lieutenant colonel. Like other Georgia signers, Few’s military success opened the door to political service.
In 1786, Few was elected to represent Georgia at the 1787 Constitutional Convention where he lobbied his fellow congressmen to vote in favor of the new U.S. Constitution. After signing the Constitution, Few continued to hold office in the newly formed legislature, serving as one of Georgia’s first senators.
When his congressional term ended in 1793, Few returned to Georgia and served as a federal judge for the Georgia circuit. Few was also an advocate for education and a founding trustee of the University of Georgia in 1785. Although Few spent his final years in New York, his remains were reinterred at St. Paul’s Church in Augusta.
Hope and promise characterized the early years of the newly independent United States. Founding fathers wrestled with optimism and frustration as they laid the foundations of the country. Georgia’s signers met this challenge with passion and devotion. Their belief in the value of public service is evident in how they lived their lives. Their contributions to the state are honored through the naming of counties, schools, memorials, and roads throughout Georgia.
Welcome to the Daily Briefing. Here’s what’s breaking this morning:
Nicole Fallert here, wishing I were frolicking in this superbloom. Wednesday’s headlines begin with a Georgia special election and then we’ll talk about that Team USA World Baseball Classic loss.
Who will replace Marjorie Taylor Greene?
Trump-endorsed Republican Clay Fuller, a former prosecutor, came in second among a field of more than a dozen candidates in Georgia’s special election on Tuesday to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives in January after months of clashing with the president.
Retired Brigadier General Shawn Harris, one of just three Democrats on the ballot, topped the votes after consolidating most of his party’s support. But neither candidate received the required threshold under Georgia law of more than 50% to win outright. That means the two are headed for an April 7 runoff election.
Mississippi also had a primary election on Tuesday. See the results.
And this all begs the question: Can Trump run both a war and a midterm campaign at the same time?
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Dunk!
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Something to talk about
Italy just upset USA baseball
Team USA suffered one of the most embarrassing losses in World Baseball Classic history, 8-6 to Italy in front of a stunned crowd at Daikin Park on Monday. Now, they must rely on Italy to beat Mexico on Wednesday night, or hope a tiebreaker works in their favor.
Before you go
Have feedback on the Daily Briefing? Shoot Nicole an email at NFallert@usatoday.com.
Georgia
With voting over, Georgia’s election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene could be test of Trump’s influence
Polls have closed in the Georgia 14th Congressional District special election to elect who will replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress.
The seat has been vacant since January, when Greene resigned following a monthslong public fight with President Trump over foreign policy issues and the release of documents involving the Jeffrey Epstein case. A week before she announced her plans to resign, Mr. Trump said he would support a primary challenge against her.
Twenty-two candidates filed to run for the seat, but the number dropped to 17 candidates — 12 Republicans, three Democrats, one Libertarian, and one independent — all of whom appeared on Tuesday’s ballot.
Among the top candidates are former District Attorney Clay Fuller, who was endorsed by Mr. Trump, former Republican state Sen. Colton Moore, and Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army brigadier general who lost to Greene in the 2024 race for the seat.
Harris has raised more than $4.3 million for the race, with about $290,000 in the bank.
Greene has declined to endorse anyone in the race.
Georgia voters enthusiastic to choose their representative
Voters in Rome, Georgia, said they expect to return and vote in what is likely to be a runoff election because of the number of candidates.
“Too many people that think they’re politicians — some I know personally that has no experience, that, you know, Washington would just swallow them up like it does most people,” one voter said.
“What I look for in a candidate is tell me your policies. That’s the problem that I have with both sides today,” another voter said. “They attack each other, they hate each other, and they don’t ever get around to telling you what their actual policies are.”
Despite voters saying they planned to return to the ballot box, Floyd County Republican Vice Chair David Guldenschuh said the complicated schedule had party heads worried.
“There’s real fatigue out there, and I sense and feel for them,” he said.
Still, Guldenschuh said he doesn’t feel like the crowded field would hurt the GOP’s chance to hold the seat that Greene once occupied.
“I think that, you know, we have an unusual situation here. We all appreciated and loved Marjorie. And when she and Trump had the falling out, we still supported both here in this district, even though they weren’t getting along very well. And still are, as I understand,” he said. So I do know that this district is very solid conservative, and from Floyd County north, it’s really conservative. So I don’t see a big change going on now.”
Vincent Mendes, the chair of the county’s Democratic Party, expected Harris to get to the runoff, but said it would take effort to flip the seat.
“We will have to work our butts off to make him win if he gets to a runoff, but that’s how we should treat every single election,” Mendes said.
A local race with national implications
CBS News Political Director Fin Gómez said this special election is about more than just one seat in Congress. It’s being watched by politicians across the state and around the nation as an early indicator of where the Republican Party and its voters stand right now.
Gómez said this race could offer one of the first real tests of Mr. Trump’s influence within the party, with the president throwing his support behind Fuller.
The results could show whether the Republican base is still fully aligned with him after his rift with Greene.
The key question, according to Gómez: Does the president still have the influence that he did back in 2024?
“I do think that if Clay Fuller does well, even if he doesn’t clear the threshold that’s needed to avoid a runoff, I think that bodes well for the president, because that means Republican voters are still adhering to what the president says, and it shows the influence that that the president still has on the Republican Party, including in northwest Georgia,” he told CBS News Atlanta.
If another candidate, such as Moore, pulls off a win, it could signal the Republican base isn’t always following the president’s lead.
“If Fuller does not when I think it would surprise a lot of the Trump faithful who really adhere to who he supports in these type of elections, but if, let’s say, if it doesn’t go Fuller’s way and Moore picks off this win, I think what you are seeing is that the base might be a little more unpredictable, similar to what we saw perhaps in 2010.”
Special election marks start of busy campaign stretch
With how crowded the field is, it is very likely that this will be only the first step to choosing Greene’s replacement. Georgia’s special election rules require a candidate to win a majority of votes. If that threshold is not met, the top two candidates will go on to the April 7 runoff.
Whoever eventually wins the seat will serve out the rest of Greene’s term — a relatively short time in office. If they want to remain in the seat, they’ll have to run again in the May 19 party primaries. That race could possibly go to a party runoff, which would take place on June 16. The winners of the primaries will advance to the general election in November.
Last week, 10 Republicans, including Fuller and Moore, qualified to run in November’s election for a full two-year term. Harris also qualified, the sole Democrat who did in what has been rated as the most Republican-leaning district in Georgia by the Cook Political Report.
Mr. Trump carried the 14th Congressional District with 68% of the vote in the 2024 election, with Greene receiving over 64%. Republicans want that rightward trend to continue in the district. Democrats are hoping that the potential GOP infighting and crowded field could help them secure a surprise electoral win, shrinking the already-narrow margins in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Republicans currently control 218 House seats to the Democrats’ 214.
People cheer for President Trump en route to his speaking engagement at the Coosa Steel Corporation on Feb. 19 in Rome, Ga. Trump delivered remarks on the economy and affordability as the state started voting to replace the seat vacated by former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
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ATLANTA — Voters in Northwest Georgia are choosing who should replace former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Voting closes in the district’s special election on Tuesday night.
The election will test the weight of President Trump’s endorsement of one of the candidates in a crowded race. Some voters say the president’s choice is not who they think would best support the conservative MAGA movement championed by both Trump and Greene.
Greene resigned at the beginning of this year, leaving Georgia’s 14th Congressional District without representation in Congress — and slimming the GOP’s majority in the House — following a bitter split with Trump.
Greene rose to prominence over five years in office as a strong ally of Trump, bombastically attacking critics and pushing the MAGA movement’s “America First” policy. Yet the two had a very public clash after she pushed for the release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Greene has also been sharply critical of Trump’s actions abroad, saying he has strayed from his promises to focus domestically.
With Trump now in the second year of his second term, other high-profile spats with key parts of his MAGA coalition have erupted over his administration’s handling of other issues, including sweeping tariffs, immigration policy and more. More recently, rifts have emerged over the war with Iran.
Some, like Greene, argue that though Trump helped create the “America First” worldview, he is not the sole arbiter of what it looks like.
Most of the GOP candidates in the special election have said they want to focus on Trump’s priorities and the concerns of their district, rather than become headlines themselves — an approach they say Greene embraced in her public disputes with Democrats and even with members of her own party.
“The difference between Marjorie and I is I will not use the press to become a celebrity,” Republican Star Black said during a candidate forum on Feb. 16. “I will use the press to actually show what I have done — the accomplishments,”
Trump has endorsed Clay Fuller, a district attorney in northwest Georgia for the state’s Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit. He emphasized his support last month during a visit to Rome, part of the state’s 14th District, where he held a rally to tout his administration’s economic policy.
Fuller called himself a “MAGA warrior” at the event.
Republican congressional candidate Clay Fuller (left) shakes hands with President Trump as he arrives on Air Force One at Russell Regional Airport on Feb. 19 in Rome, Ga.
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“I really like him,” said rally attendee Jill Fisher. “I think he’s a strong candidate, seems like a very nice family man with some great values. And I think he’ll add a lot to Congress.”
Highlighting Fuller’s military service as an Air Force veteran, an ad for his campaign says, ” ‘America First’ is the story of his life.”
Fuller faces several other GOP candidates in the primary, including former state Sen. Colton Moore. Moore won elections for the state Legislature in the district before and is considered one of the most right-leaning lawmakers at the state level.
“I’m 100% pro-Trump,” Moore declared in his campaign announcement video.
He’s made a few headlines of his own. Last year, Moore was arrested for attempting to enter the House chambers in Atlanta to attend the State of the State address by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp. Moore argued he had a constitutional right to enter the chamber. Moore had been banned from entering the chambers by the state’s Republican House Speaker Jon Burns for disparaging comments he made about a late Georgia lawmaker at his portrait unveiling.
Moore’s record matters for some GOP voters even more than Trump’s endorsement. Less Dunaway, 14th district voter, says he’s a strong supporter of Trump, but thinks Moore will do a better job carrying out the president’s agenda than Trump’s own pick.
“He actually knows what he’s doing,” Dunaway said of Moore. “He was a state representative, a state senator. He was the first one to fight the people over the 2020 election in Georgia.”
Moore was one of a group of GOP state lawmakers who called on lawmakers to investigate or impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis after she charged Trump and others with trying to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, when Trump and his allies pushed baseless claims of widespread election fraud.
Fuller insists Trump made the right choice in supporting his bid.
“I think they’re looking for someone to carry President Trump’s banner, support his agenda, and fight for him on Capitol Hill,” Fuller told Georgia Public Broadcasting last month.
Still some Republicans who attended the February rally left undecided.
“I don’t just blindly follow what [Trump] says,” said Clay Cooper of Rome.
Still, Cooper said that Trump’s endorsement means he will give Fuller more thought. “[Fuller is] someone that [Trump] thinks aligns very much with his messaging, with his actions, so that certainly weighs in,” Cooper said.
Unlike a partisan primary, all the candidates — Republicans, Democrats and third party candidates — will be on the same ballot for voters in the special election. If no one gets over 50% of the vote, the two top vote-getters regardless of party will advance to a runoff on April 7.
Follow the results below as polls close on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET.
NPR’s Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.
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