Solomon Voting Guide

May 2026 — Democratic Primary and Non-Partisan Election

Cheat Sheet — Contested Races Only

Write Down or Print Out — No Cellphones Allowed in Voting Booth!

1. Governor — Jason Esteves
2. Lt. Governor — Josh McLaurin
3. Secretary of State — Penny Brown Reynolds
4. Attorney General — Tanya Miller
5. Commissioner of Agriculture — Sedrick Rowe
6. Commissioner of Insurance — DeAndre Mathis
7. State School Superintendent — Otha Thornton
8. Commissioner of Labor — Brett Hulme
9. PSC Commissioner District 5 — Angelia Pressley
10. US House of Representatives District 1- Amanda Hollowell
11. State Senate 1 — Corey Foreman (not on all ballots)
12. County Board of Elections Member 4 — Trish Brown
13. Justice Supreme Court of GA, non-partisan — Miracle Rankin
14. Justice Supreme Court of GA, non-partisan — Jen Jordan
15. Judge Court of Appeals of GA, non-partisan — Will Wooten
16. Judge Court of Appeals of GA, non-partisan — Elizabeth Gobeil
17. Recorders Court Judge — non-partisan — Marcus Tucker
18. Board of Education President — non-partisan — Dionne Hoskins Brown

Table of Contents

1. Cheat Sheet
2. Tip Jar — Stephanie Burgess for House District 164
3. Primaries vs Non-Partisan Elections
4. Overall Rationale and Methodology
5. Race-by-Race Reasoning
6. Fun Bonus Content

Tip Jar — Seats That Can Go Flippity Flop

We have three local elections that are long shots to flip seats — State House 164 (currently held by Ron Stephens), State Senate 1 (currently held by Ben Watson), and U.S. Congress Georgia 1 (currently held by Buddy Carter). These all have about the same partisan lean of 41 D to 58 R. As all of you starry-eyed dreamers know and keep telling me, Dems have been picking up points in special elections. I hear you, but look — congressional districts are hard to flip and take a boatload of cash — money and effort go way further in state legislative districts which have a lot fewer people. And of course, state house districts are smaller than state senate districts.

Georgia’s state Dems consider House 164 worth putting resources into and they are targeting it.

Attorney Stephanie Burgess is the sole Democrat running to unseat Republican Ron Stephens so no need to worry about who’s gonna win the primary. Your time, your effort, and your money can make a difference in this one. Why bother? Little stuff like reproductive rights, congressional re-districting (clears throat), respect for local gun safety laws, etc. etc. etc.

There are seats that are more flippable; Oath the Vote would point you towards Georgia House Districts 53, 48, 45, and 108. But if you want to put your money and your volunteer time towards a local race, that’s gonna be Stephanie Burgess.

Primaries Vs. Non-Partisan Elections

Everything on the first half of your ballot, from US Senator through to County Board of Elections, is a Primary. Whoever wins will face the Republican in the general election in November (though a lot of them will first have to face each other in a run-off in June.) On the second half, all the judges and the school board are Non-Partisan Elections. Whoever wins those, wins. You. CANNOT. Vote. On. Those. Races. In. November.

If you’d like, you can ask for a non-partisan ballot and only vote for the judges and school board. But if you want to vote in the primary, you need to pull a Democrat or Republican ballot. In the past, I’ve sometimes made recs for least-bad-Republicans, but FFS y’all, there are 17 contested races on my Dem ballot alone, and I am DONE. (Just ignore the “Democratic Party Questions.” Those are stupid.)

Overall Rationale and Methodology

As per all previous Solomon Voting Guides, I’d call my politics progressive but pragmatic. I consider both who’d be good to have in office and who’s actually campaigning hard to get there. Who has a relevant background and who’s just running for something. Who’s got money to spend and where it came from. Who’s got dedicated voters to bring to the polls. Who people say nice things about and who they don’t. I talk to a lot of people who know things about state and local government and are kind enough to spill some tea so long as all y’all never know who spilled it. Some of it I print, some of it I don’t.

Here’s what I don’t do: Recommend a candidate just because they’re a white man with a square jaw. That’s bullshit, y’all. Guessing who’s gonna win in a general is a fool’s errand. I’m not out here trying to divine which candidate is going to be most appealing to my own imagined caricature of a swing Trump voter. That’s hubristic in the extreme, it’s not how I actually think this election is gonna work (a lot of those folks are gonna stay home), and more importantly, it would make me the agent of racism and sexism. No thank you. I’m not playing that game, and you shouldn’t either.

I believe primaries work. Vote for who you think is the best candidate. That’s all you need to do.

Race by Race Reasoning

Part One — Primaries

1. Governor — Jason Esteves

Look, I’m not in love with any of these options. I went to the first gubernatorial forum they held here in Savannah back in January. It was the day after ICE’s murder of Renee Good. Not one of the candidates addressed it. They all failed to meet the moment. But Esteves was the best of the bunch. Realistically, they’d all probably be fine. They all agree on expanding Medicaid and trying to restore reproductive rights. Not a ton of policy differences. I just liked Jason better based on watching the debate, and my peeps generally like him best as well.

What folks say most about Keisha Lance Bottoms is that she quit on Atlanta. It’s customary for Atlanta mayors to serve a full two terms — 8 years. But Bottoms didn’t seek reelection after her first term. The question that hangs over her campaign is how she can handle being Governor when she made clear that being Mayor was too much for her. She was in a really tough spot dealing with Covid, crime, the George Floyd protests, etc. She wrapped that all up by putting Cop City in motion and then heading out the door for a job with the Biden admin. The NYMag piece linked above is worth the read if you want a full history. Personally, I don’t know much about Atlanta and have to take all that on faith. The fact that she’s polling out in front and is almost definitely going to end up in a run-off (unless she wins outright) suggests that lots of Atlantans are fine with her.

From a Savannah perspective, she just came out in favor of casinos, which we know would end up here. I don’t want someone with major political clout pushing for that. We have enough tourists as it is, we don’t want those kinds of tourists, and we don’t want the negative impacts that come with problem gambling.

Per the polling, Geoff Duncan, Jason Esteves, and Michael Thurmond are in a three way race to see who will get into the run-off with Bottoms. At the debate I went to, Thurmond took a swing at immigrants at the 30 minute mark which sounded like he… had some sympathy for the ICE raid on the Hyundai plant and was blaming immigrants for unemployment. And again, this was in the middle of the ICE attacks on Minnesota. So that’s a no for me. Geoff Duncan I had a personal phone call with (yes, that’s a fun story — ask me about it over a beer), and for real, he’s a Republican. We talked about reproductive rights and he was entirely unaware that states passed onerous restrictions on access to abortion care even under Roe. We talked about data centers and he couldn’t fathom putting any kind of statewide regulations on them and didn’t get the concept that local legislators are easily overwhelmed by huge sums of corporate lobbying money. It’s lovely that he’s had the scales lifted from his eyes, or whatever, but too little too late.

Esteves is fine. He’s a lawyer, state legislator, and small business owner. His colleagues like him a lot. I don’t love that in his bio he calls himself a teacher because he did two years in Teach For America 20 years ago (do not get me started on TFA) but kinda leaves out the subsequent 20 years of his career as an attorney for the credit reporting industry. But I guess that’s smart politics and most people don’t check LinkedIn. And he and his wife really do run small businesses (a couple outposts of the Flying Biscuit Cafe, and an urgent care clinic.) He seems nice.

2. Lieutenant Governor — Josh McLaurin

The Lieutenant Governor’s job is to preside over the State Senate. That means you need to know the procedural rules, have relationships on both sides of the aisle, and generally play well with others. Word is that McLaurin, who’s currently serving his fourth term in the GA Senate and has endorsements from loads of his colleagues, would be great at this. Nabilah Parkes, who resigned her own State Senate seat in order to run, though she did not have to, is not spoken of quite so well. In particular, the decision to resign just 12 days before the end of the legislative session has created bad blood and triggered the need for a wasteful, confusing, and meaningless special election. Here’s the scuttlebutt. (As for Richard Wright, he’s not a serious candidate. All of his campaign contributions are from himself, and he has not served as a State legislator.)

3. Secretary of State — Penny Brown Reynolds

Ugh, no one I talked to knew anything about this race so I had to research it. There are 4 candidates in the race, but looking at their campaign finance filings only two are serious and capable of running a statewide race — Penny Brown Reynolds, aka Judge Penny ($320k raised) and Dana Barrett ($215k raised). They each have prominent backers and this one looks to be a split between Democratic Party factions. Reynolds, an attorney, is being pushed by former Gov. Roy Barnes, served as a Fulton County state judge, and did civil rights work for the Biden admin within the Dept. of Agriculture. She’s endorsed by the AFL-CIO. She had an event in Savannah you can see on her insta that had quite the guest list. Barrett, who’s a current Fulton County Commissioner, has a background in tech, radio, and bookselling. She’s spoken of highly and folks are taking her around town too. Personally, I pick Reynolds both because I think you really ought to have a law degree for this one (Barrett does not), and because a lot of the tech stuff Barrett is involved in gives me the ick. Checking out her venture capital firm led me to an event promoting NFTs and DAOs, and the non-profit she’s involved with deals with education tech. Just not my cup of tea.

4. Attorney General — Tanya Miller

This one was a little tough to decide because folks say good things about both Tanya Miller and her opponent Bob Trammell. Miller currently serves as a state representative for Fulton County and chairs the House Democratic Caucus. Trammel used to serve as state representative for Jefferson County and he was the House Minority leader until Republicans targeted him because he was an anomaly in a rural, Trump-voting district. Both are lawyers. Both are qualified. I was a little conflicted about Miller because her campaign materials do emphasize her background as a prosecutor, but her record in the legislature is one of supporting criminal justice reform. So I went off to Savannah Coffee Roasters to see Miller speak at a Savannah Indivisible event and she is wildly impressive. She is the kind of talent that the state party needs to be doing everything it can to nurture. Also, it’s notable that she hosted a free event in Savannah where folks were welcome to come meet her, while Trammel’s visit here was a fundraiser. AND her insta has 5,300 followers to his 400 — I do think stuff like that matters. (They’re on par with fundraising, both north of $300k.)

5. Commissioner of Agriculture — Sedrick Rowe

Rowe is a farmer of organic peanuts and hemp who’s also done a ton of public relations and support work for African-American farmers. He’s high profile enough to have a Wikipedia page, since he served on the Biden admin’s Advisory Committee on Minority Farmers. The wiki has a bunch of links to articles about him, like this one in Atlanta Magazine. Even his LinkedIn page includes a detailed platform for what he’d do as Ag Secretary that displays his knowledge of the issues. His farm is in Southwest Georgia because he wasn’t able to work his family land in Brunswick due to heirs property complications — bonus points for having firsthand knowledge of that issue.

Rowe’s opponent, Katherine Juhan-Arnold, is a community organizer with a focus on food insecurity and urban farming. She seems great too, just not at his level. Also, her day job currently is “BIM & Document Control Site Lead | Client: Google Data Center Services (DCS),” so there’s that.

6. Commissioner of Insurance — DeAndre Mathis

This is a lackluster field. Mathis is the only one who appears to know anything about insurance. He’s an insurance agent, and also served on the South Fulton Zoning Board of Appeals and on a local school council. He seems to be a good dude, and he’s traveling around doing events, but he doesn’t have a sophisticated campaign. However, the other folks in the race are dubious.

Clarence Blalock looks to be a Democratic Party operative who previously ran unsuccessfully for MTG’s seat and for Labor Commissioner and has no background in insurance. And he’s not the only perpetual candidate in the race. Keisha Sean Waites’ wiki had to make a bullet point list of everything she’s run for. And speaking of not being able to handle the internet, her previously functioning website is now down and she’s got a hater who’s squatting on KeishaWaites.com to blast her for alleged campaign finance violations and other misbehavior. Candidate Thomas Gabriel Dean doesn’t even have a defunct website and the only thing that comes up when I google him is a bunch of lawsuits he’s filed. Lastly, AJ Jain is a businessman and investor whose investments include an AI sales agent, an ethnic skincare line, a bunch of insurance companies, and currently a financial services firm that includes insurance companies among its clients, which seems like a glaring conflict of interest to me. He also ran a charity for Tony Robbins.

7. State School Superintendent — Otha Thornton

Thornton appears to be the most serious candidate in the race. He’s got the endorsement of GA AFL-CIO. He’s been doing advocacy work around state educational issues for years in his capacity as past president of the National PTA, like this recent trip to the Gold Dome to oppose turning public school buildings over to charter schools. He’s raised $11k, $5k of which is from the Georgia Federation of Teachers. He previously ran unsuccessfully for this position, but presumably he hopes this will be a blue wave year.

The other candidates, educators Dr. Lydia Powell and Dr. Anton Anthony, seem like good people — just less able to mount a serious campaign. You can read interviews with all the R and D candidates here.

8. Commissioner of Labor — Brett Hulme

Little background on me: Once upon a time my college decided to try to bust its labor unions and I ended up in a labor organizer training program after graduation. From there I became a community organizer and went on to law school, but my heart is always gonna be with organized labor. Brett Hulme is the labor guy in the race, with a bio that includes serving as President of Savannah’s Central Labor Council and serving as Political Director of the Southeastern Carpenters Regional Council. He’s endorsed by union locals all over the state, and his money is coming from labor unions.

Now, if Hulme had a strong opponent with an impressive background in worker protection and employment law and policy, I’d consider it. But he doesn’t. Christian Wise Smith, a former Fulton County prosecutor and Atlanta City Solicitor, has also run unsuccessfully for Fulton D.A. and State A.G. When you google him, his old DA candidate website comes up a few slots after his Labor Commissioner candidate website. He’s got money and institutional backing and lots of folks I like who think he’s a good dude, but this looks like a race of opportunity for him. Michi Sanchez is a community organizer who’s done a lot of work with Georgia’s Latinx community and looks like a cool person, but she’s got no money. Jason Moon, who also has no money, works for the Small Business Administration and the main qualification noted in his Facebook bio (no website) seems to be that Max Cleland was his cousin. That leaves Niki Porcher, who’s got a TikTok and a podcast (low engagement, though) and a non-profit that supports Black female entrepreneurs, and she’s been managing to raise a bit of money. She’s an interesting option that I’d consider if there wasn’t an established labor leader in the race.

9. Public Service Commissioner — Angelia Pressley

This one was easy, because our specially elected Democratic PSC Commissioner Peter Hubbard has endorsed, and that’s good enough for me. (Now personally, I would put that front and center on my website, rather than hoping folks stumble upon a video on my LinkedIn page, but why nitpick?)

Other candidates are Craig Cupid and Shelia Edwards and they seem like good folks too, but I’m not second guessing everyone’s favorite surprisingly successful environmental activist. I mean, just look at that smile.

10. U.S. House of Representatives District 1 — Amanda Hollowell

I have known Amanda for 13 years (I checked my email to get the receipts.) And in all that time, I have seen her do the work. Day in, and day out. With dedication, and heart, and knowledge, and intelligence, and savvy, and reliability, and thoughtfulness, and kindness. It has been humbling to watch her do so much while I’m out here writing up snarky guides and running a photo studio. I am so impressed with her and always have been. Her work history includes Georgia State Director for 9to5 which fights for policies that support working women, Managing Director of Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote, which works to increase voter participation of young Black and Brown folks, and Chief of Campaigns for racial justice organization Color of Change. She would make an unbelievable Congresswoman because she knows the issues and has the relationships. If there is any chance this race is within reach, she will be able to bring the resources to bear to win it.

There are way too many folks in this primary, and it has been unfortunately ugly in ways I don’t want to give any more airtime to. And all this drama and attention is way out of proportion to our likelihood of flipping this seat. In the last off-year election, Buddy beat Wade Herring by 18 points (and in 2024 he beat Patti Hewett by 24 points.) That’s a lot of points to pick up, but to be fair, we’re listed as Likely R, not Safe R, and I could stand to be less of a curmudgeon.

The other candidates in the primary are: Defonsio Daniels, Joyce Marie Griggs, Michael McCord, Joey Palimeno, Sharon Stokes Williamson, Patrick Wilver, and Randy Zurcher. That’s a lot of people, so I expect we’ll have a run-off in June. Because this is a federal race, campaign finance data is on the FEC website rather than Peachfile. As discussed earlier, Congressional races are extremely expensive, so let’s save me some time and look at who’s got money in the bank so I don’t need to go through this entire cast of characters, shall we? McCord has raised $224k, Amanda $66k, Wilver $28k, Griggs $15k, Zurcher $12k, Stokes-Williamson $6,500, and the rest have not reported any funds raised.

I think that justifies me only having to spill additional ink on McCord and Wilver. First question, where the %^& is Michael McCord getting all that money from? Answer, $130k is loans from himself and another $7k is in-kind donations — folks volunteering their services or throwing him a party. Raising $87k is still impressive, but let’s not overstate it. Amanda has loaned herself $11k, so that’s $55k in contributions. Wilver has $6,600 in loans and has raised $21k.

Next (and it pains me to do this), who are these dudes? McCord works in sales, but more importantly he’s an internet troll with enough arrests to generate 4 mug shots. Two for driving under the influence (one conviction, 1 dismissal), one for aggravated breach of the peace, one for driving on the wrong side of the road, and one for speeding (I believe charges were eventually dropped in those last 3.) He posts a lot of angry vitriol on FB, swinging at people he thinks are out to get him, making a lot of accusations. He does not deserve the two paragraphs I have just been forced to write about him.

Pat Wilver is a West Point graduate and veteran, who has spent the past few years working in real estate in Savannah. He helped military families relocate and also helped them use VA loans to invest in property. He did a fair amount of house flipping himself, and he also owns rental units and acts as a landlord. This is all documented thoroughly on his insta and YouTube. To his credit, although those are areas of the business that are ripe for exploitation, he has a solid reputation with absolutely no hints of impropriety or complaints. And you better believe I checked. He seems to have largely left that business at the beginning of this year, which is when he started posting a lot of politically solid insta rants about capitalism. Per Georgia Southern’s student newspaper, he’s currently a philosophy student.

All of that is fine on its face, and he’d make a great candidate for City Council or County Commissioner. But you don’t just jump into a Congressional race with no political experience and think you’re gonna flip an R+24 because you’re charming and idealistic and make good reels. This is the district, y’all. It’s geographically enormous. There are roughly a quarter of a million voters. If you’re really optimistic about winning this seat <bites tongue>, then you pick the candidate who has over a decade of experience in voter turnout work. Who also happens to be the candidate who has been committed to doing the work for her entire life.

11. State Senate 1 — Corey Foreman

This race is not on my own ballot, but it’s worth noting that Foreman serves as chair of the Bryan County Democratic Committee and has an impressive record, including military service. While opponent Barbara Gooby certainly has good politics, Foreman has the best shot at flipping this seat. He would also be a great person to donate to and volunteer for.

*Special Note — on my ballot in the State Senate and Representative section, I’ve got Anne Allen Westbrook and Derek Mallow running unopposed in their primaries. They’re great. Just sending them some mid-voting guide love. <waves> <Looks over their shoulders to see Judge Ben Karpf, also unopposed and great but farther down the ballot, and waves at him too.> (And no, I’m not sticking my nose into the House District 165 primary to replace Edna Jackson. Y’all have fun with that.)

12. County Board of Elections — Trish Brown

The main thing to know about this race is that there are 5 commissioners — 2 Republicans and 2 Democrats are elected by their parties, and then they come together to choose a 5th commissioner to be the chairperson. Two of the current commissioners (Glynda Jones, D and Marianne Helms, R) are stepping down, and two (Trish Brown, D and James Hall, R) are being challenged, which means it’s theoretically possible to end up with 4 brand new commissioners. That would be bad. The State legislature is trying to come up with a new system for running elections because the stop-the-steal people think the QR codes are sus (and, OK, they have some points), and no one has any clue what elections are gonna look like this November. There’s a possibility of a special session, there’s some lawsuits, it’s chaos. So this is not a good time for all 4 elected commissioners to be new at the job. Trish Brown is our incumbent, so we should keep her. Here’s the SMN article on who’s running.

Part Two — Non-Partisan Elections

13 and 14. Justices of the Supreme Court — Miracle Rankin and Jen Jordan

Attorneys Miracle Rankin and Jen Jordan (Jordan is also a former State Senator) are running as a slate to replace sitting Supreme Court Justices Charlie Bethel and Sarah Hawkins Warren. They’ve got backing and endorsements from big PACs — Fair Fight, Emily’s List, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL), Planned Parenthood, Georgia Equality — and supposedly there’s some dark money sloshing around this race. Meanwhile, Bethel and Warren are backed by anti-abortion group Frontline Policy Action. Essentially, we’re looking at a politicization of our supposedly non-partisan judicial elections, and there’s fear that we’re going to hit Wisconsin levels of mess. The reason for this is that Georgia has a little tradition of judges retiring early so that the sitting Governor can appoint whomever they like, and then the incumbent generally wins reelection. “Generally” meaning an incumbent Georgia Supreme Court justice has not lost a bid for re-election in over a hundred years.

So, we’ve got 9 justices, and 8 of them were initially appointed either by Governor Kemp or Governor Deal (one ran for election for an open seat.) AJC reporter Greg Bluestein does a good job of explaining the whole history in this Politically Georgia episode, including a bit where Deal expanded the court, and then interviews Rankin and Jordan who dance around talking about abortion, I assume for lawyer reasons.

Regardless, this is about abortion. While Warren is a Federalist Society leader and considered unpleasant to litigate in front of, people generally like Charlie Bethel. He was even the lone dissenter who opposed executing an intellectually disabled person. Alas, he did not dissent on any of the cases that upheld Georgia’s post-Dobbs 6 week abortion ban. Need a refresher on why that matters? Here ya go.

(Fun observation — Bethel and Warren are using red as their main website colors, while Jordan and Rankin, who are trying to pretend this isn’t entirely partisan, are using purple.)

15. Judge, Court of Appeals — Will Wooten

Will Wooten is, most notably, a Fulton County prosecutor who worked on the Trump election interference case. This Advocate article has a full bio, focusing on his experience as an out gay man in the legal work environment, including starting an LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee at the Fulton County DA’s office. He’s also worked as a public defender and teaches at Emory Law. This election is described as fall-out from the Trump prosecution, as his opponent, Judge Trenton Brown III, authored the majority opinion that removed DA Fani Willis and derailed the case. Brown was previously appointed by Gov. Deal.

16. Judge, Court of Appeals — Elizabeth Gobeil

Like all the other incumbent judges facing challengers, Gobeil was appointed by a Republican governor. BUT, she’s a local Savannahian and folks here like her. They say she’s a good judge. Fair. Not political. And it’s really nice to have someone on the bench who’s from around here. She worked for the State Board of Workers Compensation before being appointed. She’s being challenged by Fatima Harris Felton. The impression folks have is that Felton qualified at the last minute, probably was recruited, and isn’t running particularly seriously.

17. Recorders Court Judge — Marcus Tucker

This seat is currently held by Judge Claire Cornwell Williams, who is renowned for her animosity towards people who appear before her. A few years ago, Savannah Morning News reporter Raisa Habersham happened to accompany a woman to court who was trying to get an almost 20 year old misdemeanor charge restricted so that she could get on with her life. She was bullied and belittled by Judge Williams, as were multiple others that day. As I was researching the guide and talking to many different people, I heard a lot of stories about Judge Williams — all of them unprintable because this is a small town, so just take the SMN article as indicative. Tucker is well-liked and well-prepared for the job. He has a 25 year legal career that includes work as a prosecutor, as a legal aid defense lawyer, and in private practice. He will be a breath of fresh air.

18. Board of Education President — Dionne Hoskins Brown

Long-time Board of Education member Dr. Dionne Hoskins Brown is challenging incumbent Board President Roger Moss. Dr. Hoskins Brown is a 14-year member of the school board, and also a research scientist and professor at SSU. Here’s a Savannah Morning News article interviewing them both about their priorities, and, in case you are inexplicably hungry for more politics after reading a 10-page voting guide, here’s a 2 hour video of students interviewing them.

Hoskins Brown is an experienced educator who is knowledgeable about the school system. She’s supported by people I trust a lot, particularly long-time youth advocate Coco Papy. Notably, there are folks who support her who don’t feel able to do so publicly because of local politics. Campaign finance filings for this race are not yet available, but here’s the data from 4 years ago. What you’ll find there is a deluge of money being poured into Moss’s campaign by Savannah’s wealthiest residents — the kind that don’t use the public schools but do fund a lot of initiatives around town. And that’s just the folks we know about. A text ad blasting Hoskins Brown went out this week funded by “American Values First Pac.”’ I looked them up and it’s untraceable dark money that historically gets spent with The Stoneridge Group, a Repubican campaign shop out of Alpharetta. Spending dark money in a local school board race is truly reprehensible — Shame on you, you cowardly twats. Upshot — the monied support makes it difficult for folks to oppose Moss, even though in private conversations Hoskins Brown is widely acknowledged to be the stronger candidate — the one who will bring more educational expertise to the table and push harder for improvements to an imperfect system.

Fun Bonus Content

You made it to the end! Go, You! Go, Me! Here’s your reward.

1. The Savannah Steel, our new pro women’s basketball team, opens their season with games on May 22nd and May 24th. You can **get tickets here** and support Loop It Up Savannah at the same time!

2. My synagogue, Congregation Mickve Israel, which also houses a museum, just **opened a new exhibit on religious freedom in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. You may not know this, but we’re the third oldest congregation in the United States. Jews were welcomed into the colony by General Oglethorpe and religious freedom in Georgia served as a model for the rest of the country. Doesn’t this feel like a good time to talk about the foundations of religious liberty? [Come take a tour**!](https://www.mickveisrael.org/booktour)

3. Lev Rosen writes a **series of historical mysteries** that take place in San Francisco’s queer community in the 1950’s. They’re really good.

4. This isn’t fun but… **Lalka Beauty** is closing their doors on May 24th, so stop by before then to say goodbye — everything is 25% off. If you were thinking about getting a make-up lesson but have been putting it off, now’s the time. Can confirm that this is helpful for make-up neophytes.

5. Stevie says Hi: