Georgia Today: 14th District race; Bibb County jail; AI mental health usage

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, a Democrat shrinks the margin and a loss in Georgia's deep-red 14th Congressional District. Officials in Macon-Bibb County have approved funding to begin an expansion of the county's troubled jail, and AI therapists so far seem to lack what good therapists need. 

T.J. Tripp There's also just not that human empathy or ethical oversight, you know, is this actually based in science? The information they're getting versus it's the most popular trend. 

Peter Biello: Today is Wednesday, April 8. I'm Peter Biello, and this is Georgia Today. 

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Republican Clay Fuller will represent Georgia's 14th Congressional District in Congress after winning a runoff election. GPB's Sarah Kallis has more. 

Sarah Kallis: While Democrat Shawn Harris lost the race, he moved the needle in Georgia's most heavily Republican district. With well over 40% of the vote, Harris and the Democrats saw a reduction in the margin of victory from 2024, when Harris ran against former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and came in with 35% of vote. Some Harris voters, like Mary Rainwater, say:

Mary Rainwater: This country needs change. We need a big change. 

Sarah Kallis: Fuller has vowed to be an ally of President Donald Trump in Congress. He will finish out the remainder of Greene's term, which ends in January. Both Fuller and Harris have qualified to be on their respective party's ballots in the primary election in May. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis. 

Story 2: 

Peter Biello: And for more on what the results of the 14th District race can tell us about how voters feel now and what it might mean for November's general election, let's turn to Andra Gillespie, political scientist with Emory University. Welcome to the program. 

Andra Gilespie: Thanks for having me. 

Peter Biello: So, Democrat Shawn Harris shrunk the margin quite a bit. What do you think we can attribute this to? Is this the overall mood of the country, the strength of his campaigning, a combination of those two things, or maybe something else? 

Andra Gillespie: It is probably a combination of both. The mood is definitely sour on Republicans at this moment. There are many people who are dissatisfied with the Trump administration for various reasons, and it's not unusual in a midterm election season for the incumbent party to lose seats in an election. So even though Republicans hold on to this seat, It's not surprising that Democrats could actually overperform how they typically perform in this district as a barometer or an indicator of that national mood. 

Peter Biello: This is an unusual time to hold an election. How much do you think awareness of this election and turnout in the 14th District mattered in this case? 

Andra Gillespie: I think it does matter, especially for a special election runoff. There was actually a pretty robust voter turnout in this particular race. So, you're looking at upwards of 150,000 people casting ballots in this race. I usually don't expect that. So that suggests that both campaigns did a good job of getting the word out. There was certainly television advertising. There was a lot of news coverage. And I'm sure, though I wasn't witness to this as a nonresident of that district, that there was a lot of active campaigning that was going on in the district. 

Peter Biello: Republican Clay Fuller will finish Marjorie Taylor Greene's term, but he and Shawn Harris are going to run in their parties' primaries next month. They may face each other again in the November election. So in a district where the margin is tightening, would you expect to see Clay Fuller modify his message to maybe widen it again? 

Andra Gillespie: One of the things that's actually been really interesting is that today it seems he's got — he's going to have a primary challenge. And so there's already text messages that are going out trying to make light of the fact that Fuller didn't win by a large enough margin. 

Peter Biello: Meaning a primary might push him back farther towards the right again? 

Andra Gillespie: Possibly, but I think, you know, I think we also just need to look at kind of the logic behind this particular race. So for all intents and purposes, it's not clear, but because they mentioned Colton Moore's name, this seems like this is something that is somehow connected to Colton Moore. 

Peter Biello: Colton Moore, former state senator. 

Andra Gillespie: Former state senator. And you know, or whether or not it's somebody who supports him, we don't know. And Moore is trying to make the case that he would have been a stronger candidate last night. I actually think that that's highly questionable. So it's completely counterfactual, but Moore might make the case that he's more pure MAGA and could have excited more people. But he, with his profile of having been somewhat pugilistic and antagonizing even to Republicans in the General Assembly, might have actually made him more of a turnoff to moderate and independent voters. And we cannot discount the national mood that suggests that Republicans are going to underperform this year. So to say that you need to be more right-wing in order to do better in this particular election contest strikes me more as wishful thinking. So yes, I think that Clay Fuller is still going to have a harder primary contest than Shawn Harris is going to have, [but] I don't necessarily think that that's gonna dim his prospects, nor does that actually fundamentally change what the race will actually look like in a general election contest, which is still a race that is his to lose. 

Peter Biello: Democrats running in the 14th District have always said they're trying to lay the groundwork for future success. That's kind of what Marcus Flowers said in 2022 when he ran against and lost to Marjorie Taylor Greene. So how does Harris, a veteran and a farmer, play in that district? And to what extent can we say that Democrats are effectively doing that, laying the groundwork for smaller and smaller margins? 

Andra Gillespie: Well, I mean, if we look at Flowers' performance and then Harris' performance, you see an incremental improvement of about a percentage point, I believe. And then if we look at this particular improvement, we're looking at about an eight percentage point improvement from the special election. It's an apples to pears comparison, so, y'know, I don't want to put much stock in that. That being said, it does look like Harris is going to be in a really strong position to be able to do better than he did in 2024. Also, Fuller, though he will be technically the incumbent, won't have the same level of incumbency advantage that Marjorie Taylor Greene did when she ran in 2024. So I would not be surprised to see Harris actually do well in the November general election and perhaps hit a ceiling that's somewhere in the low 40s. So maybe not 44%, but we might be looking at something in the ,y'know, 40, 41% — kind of around where the first ballot was for this special election.

Peter Biello: Andra Gillespie, political scientist at Emory University, thank you so much for speaking with me. 

Story 3: 

Peter Biello: Artificial intelligence can be used to help teenagers recognize patterns of thinking and how to better express feelings. But an Atlanta-based psychiatrist warns that it cannot replace a clinical evaluation. GPB's Ellen Eldridge has more. 

Ellen Eldridge: New polling from KFF shows people are using both AI and social media to find health information, especially younger adults who are more likely to seek mental health information online. Dr. T.J. Tripp is a psychiatrist and co-founder of Serenity Mental Health Centers in Atlanta. He says AI chatbots are excellent at agreeing with you but they cannot replace an exam when symptoms are ongoing, worsening, or unclear. 

T.J. Tripp: There's also just not that human empathy or ethical oversight: You know, is this actually based in science, the information they're getting? Versus it's the most popular trend. 

Ellen Eldridge: Tripp says polling also shows more than half the people who consult AI for Health do not follow up with a therapist. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge. 

Story 4: 

Peter Biello: While Georgia's largest and only investor-owned electric utility, Georgia Power, has raised its rates in recent years, many of the state's smaller electric membership cooperatives have been following suit, and for many of these same reasons. Data from the Georgia Public Service Commission shows Georgia EMCs have raised their rates an average of 16% over the past four years. Chris Fettis of Coastal EMC says his company's 5.9% rate hike in May will be its first in more than a decade. 

Chris Fettis: The primary drivers for increasing the rates is really power supply costs. And then you couple that with the material cost increases, labor and workforce increased costs, and then financing and capital costs, the existing rates just weren't recovering enough revenue. 

Peter Biello: Flint Energies in central West Georgia raised their rates about 4% this month. Georgia's nonprofit EMCs serve nearly half of Georgia's population, mostly in rural areas. 

Story 5: 

Peter Biello: A small number of Georgia oyster growers began harvesting the salty bivalve over the summer for the first time last year. Now state officials want to extend the morning hours they can be in the water. Dominic Guadagnoli oversees the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Coastal Resources Division shellfish program. 

Dominic Guadagnoli: When it comes to oysters, we do have mechanisms and processes in place to be able to harvest oysters safely year round. But I do tell people to individually assess their own risk. 

Peter Biello: Warm temperatures can activate a harmful bacteria in oysters, but the new summer harvest takes place under controlled, well-researched conditions. Guadagnoli says there were no reported illnesses last year. The agency is taking public comments on the proposal to extend harvest hours this month. Georgia currently leases oyster-growing space in state estuaries to nine commercial harvesters. 

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Officials in Macon-Bibb County have approved funding to begin an expansion of the county's troubled jail. GPB's Grant Blankenship has more. 

Grant Blankenship: In recent years, the jail at the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center has seen extreme overcrowding and some deaths among detainees, including the tasing death of a mentally ill man who jailers were trying to subdue. Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller says the newly approved $1.2 million is just for a Phase 1 of a jail expansion. That's demolition of an older existing building at the jail site. 

Lester Miller: Phase 2 is going to be the interior work done there inside the jail, outside the mental health unit, for lack of better words, converting some of that and remodeling the jail. 

Grant Blankenship: Subsequent phases will include the expansion itself, adding about 150 detention beds. Mayor Miller says the total price tag for the project will become clear later this spring. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon. 

Story 7: 

Peter Biello: The publisher of one of America's oldest African-American-owned newspapers is being honored by her alma mater. Spelman College will present an honorary degree to Savannah Tribune publisher Shirley James this week. She's being recognized for her decades of work in journalism, education, and public service. She spent more than 30 years at Savannah State University and helped revive the historic paper. She'll be honored during Spelman's Founders Day Convocation tomorrow. 

Story 8:

Peter Biello: The Plane Train at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is set for major upgrades. A subsidiary of the Japanese firm Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said yesterday that it has signed a contract to renovate the system, including providing new trains and replacing old ones. The nearly 3-mile underground system connects the concourses and terminals at the world's busiest airport. It moved 95 million passengers in 2025. That's according to its operator, Paris-based Alstom. Those numbers would make it one of the busiest public transit systems in the country, serving about three times more rail passengers than metro Atlanta's public transit agency, MARTA. 

Story 9: 

Peter Biello: The Masters Golf Tournament begins tomorrow, which means today is Family Day. That's when golfers bring their kids and spouses for what's billed as a relaxing, enjoy-the-moment kind of event. In a nine-hole competition, the children of the competitors stand in for their parent and putt on the green, make sand angels in the sand traps, and get cheered by the crowd. The children usually dress in custom white caddy bibs. And after today, the real competition begins. Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Tom Watson again are scheduled to hit the ceremonial tee shots at about 7:30 tomorrow morning before the opening round. Scottie Scheffler remains the betting favorite. Tiger Woods said last week he is stepping away to seek treatment after his vehicle crashed in Florida and he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. He will miss the Masters for the second straight year. 

Story 10:

Peter Biello: And in baseball news, the Braves faced the Angels in Anaheim for the last of a three-game series. Last night's win against the Angels came in the aftermath of a brawl that had stolen the spotlight. Braves starting pitcher Ronaldo Lopez had already given up a home run to Angels outfielder,Jorge Soler in their first matchup, and Lopez hit Soler with a pitch on the second. The third time Soler stepped into the batter's box, Lopez threw a fastball up and inside. Soler and Lopez exchanged words, and then Soler charged the mound. Benches cleared. The video shows Lopez striking Soler in the face or helmet with a baseball in his fist, and it also shows 62-year-old manager Walt Weiss tackling Soler at his knees. In the end, both Soler and Lopez were ejected from the game, and it was a sad moment for Braves fans who remember Soler's towering home run that helped the Braves win the 2021 World Series. But it was also a memeable moment. Images of Walt Weiss tackling Soler are now circulating on social media, with calls to build a statue of Weiss ASAP — or maybe allow him to be drafted by the Falcons. For his part, Weiss says he doesn't let his pitchers intentionally hit batters, and no, Lopez did not intend to hit Soler, but overall, Weiss says that he was, quote, "proud of our guys, the way we handled everything tonight."

Outro:

Peter Biello: And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. Thanks so much for tuning in. Come on back tomorrow. Subscribe to this podcast so you don't forget to come back and check out gpb.org/news for any updates to the stories that you heard today. And if you've got feedback, we'd love to hear from you. And the best way to reach us is by email. When you email georgiatoday@gpb.org, your note goes to the whole team. Again, that's georgiatoday@gpb.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We will see you tomorrow. 

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