The Current/FW: Local Impacts for State of Union

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From: The Current GA <st...@thecurrentga.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 6:13 AM
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Subject: Local Impacts for State of Union

Affordability & Tariffs, Qualifying is Coming

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Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026

Good Morning! In the news today: A State of the Union with profound implications for Coastal Georgia; the region's lawmakers in Washington respond to tariff decision; and we note some things you may have missed. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.th...@gmail.com.

NEWS: GOVERNING

Consweulo Davis, the wife of Linda Davis. In Savannah on Feb. 22, 2026.

Profound implications

President Trump delivers his State of the Union address this evening and is expected to touch on issues that have profound implications for Coastal Georgians.

To start with, there's immigration and federal efforts to round up and remove foreign nationals allegedly violating U.S. immigration law. One of those operations led last week to the death of Linda Davis, a 52-year-old Chatham County special education teacher.

For Davis' wife, Consweulo Davis, dealing with the grief is nearly too much to bear. “It’s not one day at a time. It’s one second at a time,” she told The Current's Margaret Coker in an interview on Sunday.

Then there's high consumer prices, a.k.a. "affordability."

"I've won on affordability" and "solved it," the president declared in a speech in Georgia last week. But a look at grocery prices in Chatham and Glynn counties during Trump's first year back in office suggests that many Coastal Georgians have yet to feel the thrill of victory, The Current's Craig Nelson and Jabari Gibbs report.

Finally, there are the gathering clouds of renewed war with Iran, which Trump is certain to note. The uptick in the whirr of military aircraft flying overhead in recent days in Coastal Georgia, home to Fort Stewart and the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division, remind us of the region's stake in what he has to say.

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NEWS: POLITICS

On September 24, 2024 in Savannah, GA. (Credit: Justin Taylor/The Current)

On September 24, 2024. in Savannah, GA.

Speaking of affordability . . .

The three lawmakers who directly represent Coastal Georgia in Washington and for that reason are often the focus of The Current — U.S. Rep. Earl "Buddy" Carter and U.S. Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff — had predictably different responses to last week's long awaited U.S. Supreme Court decision on tariffs.

Carter called the court's decision "judicial overreach" and accused the justices of undercutting the president's ability to defend American workers and prevent the U.S. from being "ripped off."

(For this part, Trump on his Truth Social media account termed the court's decision "ridiculous, poorly written and dangerously anti-American." To reporters, he described the justices who’d opposed him as “fools and lapdogs" and said they were probably under the influence of “foreign interests” and other “slimeballs.” He complained that he had the "right to destroy foreign countries but not the right to charge a fee.")

On the other hand, Ossoff, in a speech in Savannah on Friday, said Trump would redouble his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election to divert attention from his loss in court. Warnock described the decision as "welcome relief for families who are struggling with higher prices as a direct result of this President’s policies."

An analysis released earlier this month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said nearly 90% of the economic burden of Trump's tariffs on imports last year fell on U.S. firms and consumers.

NEWS: POLITICS

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ICYMI

• In election news: The five-day candidate qualifying period for this year's elections starts Monday. Local political party candidates and non-partisan candidates submit their paperwork to their county election board; candidates for state and federal office at the secretary of state's office in Atlanta.

• In legislative news: March 6 is Crossover Day — the date by which a bill must pass out of its chamber of origin (House or Senate) to remain eligible for consideration for the remainder of this year's 40-day legislative session.

• Sen. Ben Watson (R-Savannah) leads successful Republican efforts to defeat a measure by Democratic lawmakers to pass Medicaid expansion — “Medicaid explosion, expansion, whatever you want to call it,” he said.

• Watson and Billy Hickman (R-Statesboro) are co-sponsors of a Senate bill that would cut tax credits for "large-scale projects" that hire illegal immigrants. Drew Echols (R-Gainesville) says the proposed law would only apply to the largest employers in the state, including Hyundai.

• Stopping short of approving legislation that would prevent 17-year-olds from being tried as adults, House lawmakers instead vote to create a special committee to study raising the age of juvenile court jurisdiction to include them.

• More State of the Union: Warnock said yesterday that his guest at the State of the Union would be Bill Lee, CEO of the not-for-profit Evans Memorial Hospital in Claxton. Lee and Warnock have highlighted the perils posed to rural health care caused by GOP health-care cuts. As of this writing, no word on Carter's and Ossoff's invitees.

• 'Pain still there': Yesterday marked the 6th anniversary of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery by three white men in Glynn County. In an interview with Yolanda Neely, Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, discusses her son's legacy.

• "Usta . . . Gonna . . . Gonna be usta . . .": Writing in Savannah Agenda, Tom Kohler, a lifelong Savannah resident, ponders the past, present and future of Montgomery Street.

• Heads up: Bryan County school officials announce that students who haven't been vaccinated against measles must stay out of school until March 6, after an individual later diagnosed with the highly contagious disease was present at Bryan County Middle School on Feb. 13.

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State House advances bill to raise juvenile court age, full reform stalled

The Georgia House passed a bill to create a special committee to study raising the age of juvenile court jurisdiction to include 17-year-olds, while stopping short of preventing them from being tried as adults.

GOP shoots down Democratic effort seeking to expand Medicaid in Georgia

Georgia Democrats attempted to pass Medicaid expansion on the floor of the Senate, but their Republican counterparts shot down the bill, arguing that it had not been thoroughly vetted and that Democrats had not provided an estimate of how it would impact the state’s budget.