The 2026 legislative session marks both an endpoint and the eventual transition to come. As with the 2018 session before it, the final year of the legislative cycle and a term-limited governor will bring the prevailing political order to a close, ultimately altering the proceedings and priorities of the legislature. An open seat at the top also typically creates additional opportunities down ballot, as statewide officials, state legislators and members of Congress jockey for higher office. Tensions between the House and Senate, a permanent fixture in Georgia politics even in years without an election, unfold more routinely in public. “If we’re going to take off every other year for people to run for office, then maybe we just ought to not have a session during an election year,” then-House Speaker David Ralston said ahead of the 2018 session. As in 2018, we enter the session with a lieutenant governor who has announced his candidacy for governor. Whereas in 2018, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle faced off against Secretary of State Brian Kemp and State Senator Hunter Hill, among others, in the Republican primary, this election will feature Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Attorney General Chris Carr and S
