Southwest Georgia Has a Fighter. Meet Him. Plus: Runoff Debates, Celebrating Pride, and More.

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Coming Home: Introducing Ethan Wolfe, HD-151

The 2030 Project is proud to introduce our fourth battleground candidate of the 2026 cycle: Ethan Wolfe, running for Georgia House District 151 in Southwest Georgia.

Ethan came home to Americus the same way he did everything else in his life: with purpose.

After thirty years in the United States Air Force, rising from an enlisted Communications Systems Operator to Lieutenant Colonel, he had every reason to go anywhere. More than 3,800 flight hours. Combat deployments across Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond. A Master Air Battle Manager who commanded the skies and trained some of the nation's finest airmen. Medals that tell the story of a man who showed up every single time.

He chose to come home to Southwest Georgia.

"There is no place like home," he says. "This is where my soul is."

Since returning to Americus, Ethan has served as Commander of American Legion Post 2, Chaplain of VFW Post 4784, and a board member of Friends of Andersonville. The uniform came off. The service never stopped.

Now he is running for the Georgia State House, and the district he wants to represent reflects exactly why he came back. Roads are crumbling. Broadband is spotty at best. Young people are leaving because jobs—and opportunity—are scarce. Healthcare is out of reach for too many families. Ethan's father spent thirty years in Georgia classrooms, and he watched firsthand what it looks like when teachers give everything and receive so little support. Specifically, he says, Georgia needs to update the Quality Basic Education, which hasn’t been reformed since the 1980s.  

He is running on Medicaid expansion, fully funding public education, and bringing real economic investment to rural Georgia.

And Southwest Georgia is ready. On May 19th, Ethan outgained the Republican incumbent in the primary, an early signal that HD-151 is in play this November. As Republicans prepare to redraw Georgia's congressional maps at the June 17th special session, the region faces the prospect of losing Sanford Bishop, one of the last Democratic voices representing rural Georgia in Congress. The stakes for this part of the state have never been higher.

Ethan Wolfe intends to be here for all of it.

"Service doesn't stop when you take the uniform off," he says. "Coming home reminded me why it was all worth it."

We believe Southwest Georgia deserves a fighter, do you? You can support Ethan Wolfe's campaign here: James Wolfe—Donate via ActBlue.

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Georgia: Still A Proving Ground For The South

Georgia's May 19th primary told the rest of the South something it already suspected: this state is still the proving ground.

Democrats turned out at historic levels, enjoying a 15-point advantage over Republicans in early voting. And one day after the June 16th runoffs, Georgia lawmakers return to Atlanta for a special session to redraw congressional and state legislative maps. The whole region is watching.

In recent years, Georgia has become one of the country's most competitive battleground states. After voting Democratic in the 2020 presidential election by fewer than 12,000 votes and delivering two Democratic Senate victories in the 2021 runoff elections, Georgia became the political center of the South.

So, what sparked this Democratic shift? Let’s take a quick look back.

Rapid growth in metro Atlanta and surrounding suburbs led to a sharp increase in voter turnout. Since 2010, counties like Gwinnett and Cobb have become significantly younger and more diverse, reshaping voting patterns across the state. That shift didn't happen by accident. Stacey Abrams and the political machine she built spent years registering voters and investing in communities that campaigns had long ignored, laying the groundwork before a single national dollar arrived. This year-long community outreach, particularly among Black voters and young voters, helped turn Georgia from a reliably Republican state into a true battleground.

Because of this, Georgia is now viewed as a model for how Democrats compete across the South. In North Carolina, former Governor Roy Cooper is running for U.S. Senate. In Texas, James Talarico won the Democratic Senate primary this spring, drawing thousands to rallies in Republican strongholds, running on the same coalition-building playbook Georgia Democrats wrote. The Georgia blueprint is being exported—and expanded—in real time.

Republicans continue to fight hard to make sure it stays that way. Five years of new voting laws, gerrymandered maps, and now a special session to redraw districts before 2028 are the clearest signal that Georgia's shift rattled them. Georgia showed the South what's possible. Now both sides are fighting over whether it stays possible.

Georgia is no longer politically predictable. And the rest of the South is paying attention.

Finding Pride in HIV Prevention

Georgia carries one of the heaviest HIV burdens in the South, and this month, the state took a meaningful step toward easing it. Governor Kemp signed bipartisan bill SB 195 into law, and with it, pharmacists in Georgia can now prescribe PrEP and PEP—the drugs at the frontline of HIV prevention. This follows another recent victory worth naming: Congress held the line against a proposed $2 billion cut to HIV prevention, care, and research funding. In a political moment where the destruction of public health infrastructure has become routine, these wins are not small.

HIV—human immunodeficiency virus—spreads through infected bodily fluids and then quietly, methodically dismantles the immune system. Left untreated, it progresses to AIDS within roughly a decade. That progression is not inevitable. It never has been. But access to care has always been the difference between a manageable condition and a death sentence—and access, in this country, has never been equally distributed.

Consider what that looks like in Georgia. Atlanta, the queer capital of the South, is absorbing not only its own swelling case numbers but also those of rural residents who travel in for care they cannot find at home. In rural communities, the silence around sex, STDs, and protection runs deep—and even where resources exist, the fear of walking into a local clinic and being recognized keeps people away. That fear is not irrational. It is the predictable consequence of a culture that has never made space for these conversations.

And we cannot talk about HIV in Georgia without talking about race. Despite the efforts of the Trump administration to excise race from health data entirely—efforts led by an HHS Secretary, RFK Jr., who has made his discomfort with these conversations clear—Black Georgians, and specifically Black cisgender men, are contracting HIV at rates that demand acknowledgment, not erasure. Silence is not neutrality. Silence is a choice that gets people killed.

PrEP and PEP changed the landscape of HIV prevention. PrEP—pre-exposure prophylaxis—is taken by HIV-negative individuals to prevent the virus from taking hold if they're exposed. PEP—post-exposure prophylaxis—is the emergency intervention: it must be started within 72 hours of exposure and can stop an infection in its tracks. These are not fringe treatments. They are life-saving tools. And the pharmacist prescribing pathway created by SB 195 means that the distance between a person and that protection just got shorter.

As we move into Pride Month, we carry all of it with us—the progress and the grief, the legislation and the quilts made for those we have already lost. HIV is no longer what it was during the AIDS crisis, but the weight of that history does not lift easily, nor should it. Our communities remember. And this month, we also celebrate, with gratitude, the legislators who made better access to prevention possible: Sen. Chuck Hufstelter of District 52, Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick of District 33, Sen. Ben Watson of District 1, Sen. Elena Parent of District 44, and Sen. Nan Orrock of District 36, alongside every legislator who carried this bill through both chambers.

The work continues. It always does. But this is a moment worth marking.

Which is Worse: An Empty Podium or Burt Jones? You Decide.

With less than two weeks until the Republican runoff for Governor, billionaire Rick Jackson is working to differentiate himself from his opponent, Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones. 

Having trailed by 6% in the May primary to the Trump-endorsed Jones, Jackson would need to gain serious ground in order to have any fighting chance at winning the nomination. The Atlanta Press Club debate held on Monday provided a perfect opportunity to demonstrate his character and commitment to Georgia.

Unfortunately for Jackson, he did just that. Both his character and commitment to Georgia were made clear by his decision to skip the Georgia debate in favor of rallying with Republican Florida Senator Rick Scott. 

At the Kennesaw rally, Senator Scott offered his full endorsement of Jackson. Scott drew comparisons between himself and the gubernatorial candidate, noting that they are both businessmen turned politicians and “political outsiders” looking to shake up the system.

It is worth noting that “political outsiders” typically aren’t two-term Governors, two-term Senators, and former nominees for Senate Majority Leader, like Rick Scott.

In front of a crowd of 600, Jackson promised to lower taxes, support law enforcement, and crush “woke ideology.” He further distanced himself from Burt Jones by saying, “I’m the outsider. I don’t know the laws of anything.” 

Hardly a reassuring claim from someone seeking political office.

Meanwhile, on the debate stage, Jones seized the opportunity to clarify his Trump-aligned platform, while dodging difficult questions by pointing out that his opponent didn’t bother to show up. The one-sided debate has already surpassed 2,000 views on YouTube, and Rick Jackson’s absence has become a major talking point in Georgia politics.

While Keisha Lance Bottoms rallies with Senator Ossoff, forms a unified Democratic coalition, and turns her sights towards the general election, the Republican base is split between two candidates: a Trump-endorsed continuation of Governor Kemp’s tenure, and a billionaire who would rather rally with Florida politicians than articulate his views to Georgians.

Showing Up, Giving Up, Catching Up: The Lt. Governor Debate

This week, Senators Ossoff and Warnock joined Stacey Abrams in endorsing Josh McLaurin in the Democratic runoff for lieutenant governor, a significant show of unified support ahead of the June 16th vote.

On May 31st, McLaurin and runoff opponent Nabilah Parkes faced off in a debate hosted by the Atlanta Press Club. Covering a broad range of topics from redistricting to the legalization of recreational marijuana, the debate focused on one particular theme: who would be the strongest fighter for working-class Georgians.

The Central Dispute

A major point of contention centered around Parkes' decision to resign her position as a state senator in the midst of a special election for a highly competitive seat.

McLaurin repeatedly painted this as abandonment: "How could you possibly say you're a fighter to your constituents when you've resigned your seat and left open the possibility that a Republican will fill that seat for a generational civil rights fight in the state Senate?" Furthermore, he stated, "Fighters do not give up. They show up. That defeatism is how we lose to Trump."

Parkes pushed back, arguing that her entrance was out of necessity and that McLaurin had failed to build momentum. "I got into this race because you weren't doing the work for an entire year, and it's evidenced by the fact that I caught up with you in two months." She also reiterated her confidence that Democrat Adrienne White would win her District 7 seat.

To Collaborate with Republicans

A Republican-majority Senate is the reality both candidates would face as lieutenant governor. McLaurin and Parkes presented different approaches: McLaurin pointing to existing relationships, Parkes to the power of the office itself.

McLaurin highlighted several wins while being in the minority: car booting regulations, funding for PTSD research in veterans, and a quiet respect from Republican colleagues. A particular anecdote emphasized this: after speaking out against Trump, four senators privately thanked him for his willingness to do so. He also referenced his endorsements by over 60 state colleagues as a testament to his ability to "get stuff done."

Parkes argued for the leverage yielded by the lieutenant governor's bully pulpit and calendar control. She noted Republican co-optation of her bills on a school supply tax holiday and the sales tax on menstrual products, and raised a moratorium on data centers as a potential bipartisan issue given energy costs and contamination concerns.

Whatever their differences on strategy, McLaurin and Parkes agree on where Georgia needs to go: Medicaid expansion, reproductive rights, raising the minimum wage, legalizing marijuana, and fully funding public education. The question voters will answer on June 16th is simpler: Who do you trust to fight to get there?

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