The Blue Wave Misses Big on Georgia’s Supreme Court
“As Trump-aligned extremists reshape the federal judiciary, state supreme courts are increasingly the last line of defense against the erosion of our rights,” Mini Timmaraju of Reproductive Freedom for All told Jezebel in a statement.
Photo: Getty Images Politics Georgia
Add Georgia to the list of states killing my Blue Wave High. The Peach State was one of six that voted in primary elections across the country on Tuesday—and in one of the country’s most critical races, voters failed to elect the two liberal candidates running for the state’s Supreme Court. Instead, and whether they meant to or not, they re-elected the state’s two conservative anti-abortion incumbents.
Per projected results from NBC News, Miracle Rankin and former state Sen. Jen Jordan are both to lose their bids to unseat the state’s conservative justices, Charles Bethel and Sarah Warren. Bethel and Warren—as well as Ben Land, who ran unopposed—have thus secured another six-year term, meaning the state will now hold onto the same conservative 8-1 majority that reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban in 2024. It was under this ban, which Bethel and Warren voted to uphold, BTW, that a hospital turned a brain-dead woman into a live incubator because she was pregnant.
Heading into Tuesday, analysts were projecting early-voting lead for Democrats—and one that evidently stressed out Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who accused Rankin and Jordan of “trying to make a nonpartisan race political.” “If you want people that will actually go up there and, you know, not try to interpret what the law is but follow the law and not try to make it, you should vote for our incumbent judges and justices,” he told journalists at a campaign event on Thursday. Ah, yes, nothing like “not trying to make the law” like protecting legislation that endangers the lives of pregnant people.
And yet the conservative Justice Bethel can openly advocate for the fetal personhood amendment, uphold a six week abortion ban, and accept the endorsement of Georgia Right to Life but were supposed to pretend he hasn’t made his views on abortion public? Come on.
— SJ Worrier (@sjworrier.bsky.social) May 18, 2026 at 4:42 PM
But accusing Rankin and Jordan of some dubious polarization has been a standing strategy used by the GOP throughout the race—and whenever reproductive rights groups sounded klaxons about Bethel’s and Warren’s anti-abortion history, they’ve retaliated by calling it “a partisan attack against our non-partisan Supreme Court.” Interestingly enough, party labels were missing from the ballots, come Tuesday.
With most of the votes in, Warren was leading Jordan 59% to 41, and Bethel leading Rankin 51% to 49%. Except… abortion remains popular on both ends of the aisle, and Democrats drove a record turn-out, so something seems fishy.
Losing both Georgia State Supreme Court elections hurts but one losing by 2 and one losing by 18 legitimately makes me wonder what the fuck is going on
— Bill McKay (@mckay4senate.bsky.social) May 20, 2026 at 5:17 AM
On Sunday, a Republican-appointed special committee called the Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC) attempted to condemn Rankin and Jordan for campaigning together (they used the word “we” in a campaign ad) and appearing at events regarding reproductive rights.
For this, the JQC said, the two violated conduct rules that prohibit judicial candidates from supporting each other ahead of elections, as well as rules that say they cannot pledge where they would stand on issues that come before the court. A federal judge blocked these bogus comments on Monday, and issued a restraining order against the JQC.
“Anti-abortion extremists should take note,” Timmaraju says. “As long as they continue coming after our rights and freedoms, we will continue holding them accountable and working towards electing champions up and down the ballot.”
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