Georgia
JD Vance touts Georgia's election security after Trump attacks state officials
Former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, on Sunday expressed confidence in Georgia’s election security, a contrast with Trump’s recent attacks against Republican state officials Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
During an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Vance was pressed on how comfortable he is with the progress being made by the Republican National Committee and Republican-led states to ensure a fair election in November as Trump continues to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 election results.
Vance pointed to Georgia’s voter ID requirements, which he said makes the battleground state’s elections “much more secure.”
“I think that we’ve got some good court cases, some good legal changes going all across the country,” he said. “The RNC has been more aggressive about this in 2024 than they have been in 2020.”
“The basic principle here is every American citizen’s vote should count. But if you’re not an American citizen and you’re not casting a legal ballot, your vote shouldn’t count, right?” he added. “It’s sort of common sense that the Republican Party believes in.”
Vance has repeatedly echoed Trump’s baseless claims about a rigged 2020 election and has argued that lawmakers would have had legitimate reasons to fight the results. At the time, Trump and his allies filed a series of lawsuits in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results, but none succeeded due to a lack of evidence.
Ahead of the 2024 election, the Trump campaign and the RNC have pledged to enlist 100,000 volunteers and attorneys to monitor votes in battleground states.
In a post to his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump criticized Kemp and Raffensperger, both of whom fought against Trump’s efforts in 2020 to delegitimize the results of the presidential election. Trump wrote that Raffensperger should “do his job” and “make sure this election is not stolen,” while telling Kemp to “focus his efforts on fighting crime, not fighting Unity and the Republican party.”
“He should be seeking UNITY, not Retribution, especially against the man that got him the Nomination through Endorsement and, without whom, he could never have beaten Stacey Abrams,” Trump wrote, referring to Kemp’s Democratic rival in the 2018 and 2022 Georgia governor’s race.
In a phone call to Kemp weeks after he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Trump attempted to pressure Kemp to call a special session of the state Legislature in an effort to overturn Biden’s narrow victory in the state.
On Jan. 2, 2021, Trump also called Raffensperger, a Republican, urging the top Georgia election official to “find” the votes to toss out Biden’s victory in the battleground state.
Kemp pushed back on Trump’s attacks in a post to X later Saturday, saying that he is focused on winning in November and “saving our country from Kamala Harris and the Democrats — not engaging in petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past.”
“You should do the same, Mr. President, and leave my family out of it,” he wrote.
Raffensperger also refuted Trump’s attacks in another post to X saying that the state’s elections were “secure.”
“The winner here in November will reflect the will of the people. History has taught us this type of message doesn’t sell well here in Georgia, sir,” he wrote.
Trump and 18 co-defendants last year were charged with racketeering in connection with their efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Trump has denied wrongdoing in the case. A Georgia appeals court has paused the case until at least October.
Georgia
Take a look: Gulfstream welcomes students to its Savannah headquarters
Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
Georgia
LSU Falls to Georgia in Series Finale
ATHENS, Ga. – Designated hitter Daniel Jackson and centerfielder Rylan Lujo combined for nine RBI Sunday, leading fifth-ranked Georgia to a 12-1 win over LSU at Foley Field.
Georgia improved to 41-11 overall, 21-6 in the SEC, while LSU dropped to 29-24 overall and 9-18 in conference play.
The Tigers return to action at 6:30 p.m. CT Thursday when they play host to Florida in Game 1 of a three-game SEC series in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. Thursday’s game will be broadcast on the LSU Sports Radio Network and streamed on SEC Network +.
“Georgia won the moments in this series,” said LSU coach Jay Johnson. “They’re going to score, so you’ve got to capitalize against them when you have scoring opportunities on offense.”
Georgia starting pitcher Caden Aoki (8-0) was the winner, limiting LSU to one run on four hits in 5.0 innings with two walks and seven strikeouts.
LSU right-hander Casan Evans (2-3), making his first appearance since April 17 versus Texas A&M, started the game Sunday and was charged with the loss, working 1.2 innings and allowing four runs on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts.
“I thought Casan’s stuff looked great, and that’s good for him from a health standpoint,” Johnson said. “He’s a guy that the more he pitches, the better he is, so there might have been a little bit of rust, but I thought he competed fine.”
Georgia struck for four runs in the bottom of the second inning in an outburst highlighted by Jackson’s two-out, two-run single and an RBI single by second baseman Ryan Black.
The Tigers narrowed the gap to 4-1 in the third when designated hitter Omar Serna Jr. delivered an RBI single.
Georgia extended its lead to 7-1 in the fourth as Jackson launched a two-run homer and centerfielder Lujo lined a run-scoring single.
Lujo unloaded a grand slam in the fifth, giving the Bulldogs an 11-1 advantage.
Georgia
‘We’re champs’: How Georgia baseball soaked up first SEC title in 18 years
The Georgia baseball team had long since poured out of the Foley Field home dugout and the water bottles that were thrown on the field in jubilation had been cleaned up.
The Bulldogs celebration that carried into center field after a 13-8 victory on Saturday night over LSU on May 9 had ended and players had doused coach Wes Johnson with blue sports drink.
Now, some 20 minutes later, it was postgame photo time for the freshly minted 2026 SEC regular season champions.
They gathered in front of the spot on the right field wall where the previous seven seasons of Georgia SEC championships were listed, the last in 2008. Above them on the video board was a graphic that recognized this year’s team as SEC champions.
“Watching the program grow in such a shot amount of time, it’s awesome,” said pitcher Paul Farley, who has been with the Bulldogs for all three seasons with Johnson and got the win in relief Saturday. “We’ve got four SEC games left and to be able to hang that up there the SEC champs already it’s amazing.”
Farley was speaking figuratively because the 2026 numbers weren’t on the outfield fence just yet.
Fifth-ranked Georgia (40-11, 20-6 SEC) still has a chance to put a College World Series trip up there in left field for the first time since 2008 and in a best case scenario add another national championship year in right field with the 1990 season.
“SEC champs is great, but obviously we want to do bigger and better things,” Farley said.
LSU, the team that won it all last season, was still around having a postgame talk on the artificial turf field long after the game ended.
Johnson was with LSU in 2023 as pitching coach when it won another College World Series.
“It’s massive,” Johnson said of this latest championship. “Anytime you can win this league, man, it’s so hard. Then win it outright. It’s something you want to check off on your list of things you’ve ever accomplished. It’s 10 weekends of just meat house grinding.”
Johnson said he didn’t know that the dominoes had fallen Saturday to set up Georgia being able to clinch except that he saw that Texas lost at Tennessee as the result flashed on the scoreboard.
Texas A&M also lost twice at Ole Miss to set up the clinch for Georgia.
“I’m calling pitches, I’m locked in,” Johnson said.
He said assistant coach Will Coggin told him when the game ended that ‘We’re champs.’”
Many of the players knew.
“We had a few inside operatives, I’d say, tell us,” Farley said.
Shortstop Kolby Branch said he didn’t know “until the water bottles started flying.”
Branch said another Georgia team loaded with transfers grew closer in the fall and built relationships that have turned into wins this season.
Johnson said winning the regular season title in his third season as coach in the age of the transfer portal and NIL “means a lot.”
Johnson mentioned Farley, Branch and Tre Phelps being at Georgia for all three of his seasons.
“Seeing where we were in the first fall, we forget this used to be dirt and grass,” Johnson said standing on on turf field. “And we didn’t have the cool building and we only had one batting cage, all the stuff we’ve been able to do since we’ve been here. The other side is just understanding true belief and understanding what guys can do.”
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