Key Takeaways
- Geoff Duncan, former Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia, is running for governor as a Democrat, focusing on financial security and political moderation.
- Duncan criticizes Donald Trump, calling him an extremist and has previously rejected Trump’s claims about the 2020 election results.
- After endorsing Kamala Harris in 2020, Duncan was expelled from the Georgia Republican Party for ‘forfeiting’ his Republican status.
- Duncan’s campaign emphasizes helping families with high child care costs and the struggle between paying for medicine and food.
- He will compete against prominent Democrats for the nomination while facing a Republican primary between Chris Carr and Burt Jones.
Geoff Duncan, Georgia’s former Republican lieutenant governor, is running for governor as a Democrat, putting financial security and political moderation at the center of his campaign.
Duncan says in a brief YouTube video that he wants “to make Georgia the front line of Democracy and a backstop against extremism.”
He puts President Donald Trump in the extremist camp.
Duncan has been jabbing at Trump for years, attracting the president’s ire by rejecting his assertions that he had won the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
In 2021, Duncan published the book, “GOP 2.0,” which urged a pivot from Trump’s brand of politics.
Since then, he has shared his anti-Trump message as a commentator on CNN and as a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In January, after he had endorsed Kamala Harris’ failed campaign for president, the Georgia Republican Party expelled him.
“By his pattern of conduct, Duncan has forfeited any claim to being even a nominal ‘Republican,’ ” the state GOP’s executive committee wrote in a resolution that was passed unanimously by its members.
In his YouTube announcement, which appeared on the platform Monday, Duncan welcomes attacks from Trump, calling them “a badge of honor.”
Duncan also focuses on family finances. He says he wants to help moms who cannot return to work because of skyrocketing child care costs and families that must choose between paying for medicine and food.
He will be contesting three leading Democrats for that party’s nomination: Jason Esteves, who announced last week that he was stepping down from his Atlanta-based state senate seat to focus on his campaign; former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms; and Michael Thurmond, who has been elected statewide as labor commissioner, has served in the General Assembly, and recently ended his second four-year term as the elected CEO of DeKalb County.
Whoever emerges from the Democratic primary will face the winner of the Republican nomination, where state Attorney General Chris Carr is campaigning against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who was recently endorsed by Trump.
How to Read and Understand the News
Truth doesn’t bend because we dislike it.
Facts don’t vanish when they make us uncomfortable.
Events happen whether we accept them or not.
Good reporting challenges us. The press isn’t choosing sides — it’s relaying what official, verified sources say. Blaming reporters for bad news is like blaming a thermometer for a fever.
Americans have a history of misunderstanding simple things. In the 1980s, A&W rolled out a 1/3-pound burger to compete with McDonald’s Quarter Pounder. It failed because too many people thought 1/3 was smaller than 1/4. If we can botch basic math, we can certainly misread the news.
Before dismissing a story, ask yourself:
- What evidence backs this?
- Am I reacting to facts or feelings?
- What would change my mind?
- Am I just shooting the messenger?
And one more: Am I assuming bias just because I don’t like the story?
Smart news consumers seek truth, not comfort.
