October 1, 2026
On Jan. 12, the Georgia General Assembly will convene for its 2026 legislative session. This will be my 19th year of being at the Capitol, and I am looking forward to my 13th year representing Georgia Baptists.
This year will be the second of a two-year legislative cycle. Therefore, we will still be dealing with legislation that was introduced to the Georgia General Assembly last year. It is not uncommon that over a two-year period, Georgia Baptists could monitor as many as 30-50 pieces of legislation, covering up to 12 or more topics.
As many of you know, last year was another successful session in terms of passing good legislation and stopping bad legislation. We monitored up to 29 bills dealing with subjects such as the sanctity of life, religious freedom, gambling, child protection, and alcohol/marijuana expansion. See last year’s Georgia Baptist TOP Legislation Being Watched (4/4/25) - Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
We saw the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) passed and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp. Also, we were able to stop, once again, all state-sponsored predatory gambling and the expansion of alcohol and marijuana. And to top it all off, we were able to get legislation passed to protect girls’ sports by stopping biological males from participating! See this GBC Public Affairs Report: https://vimeo.com/1131319855?fl=pl&fe=sh
This year, once again, we will be facing the possibility of new bills covering a range of subjects on at least the usual six areas of focus.
Pro-life
Once again, we will be facing a legislative session in the wake of Roe v. Wade having been overturned by the Supreme Court. In addition, the 2019 Heartbeat Law that is now in effect could have the Georgia Supreme Court working again on another ruling.
With these facts in mind, we need to continue to support legislation and regulations that more effectively protect all innocent human life. Whether it’s updating the Heartbeat Law or restricting or stopping chemical abortions, we must be vigilant in doing all we can to protect the health and safety of all mothers and all babies.
We would love to see abortion ended in Georgia, but we must realize that until that can be accomplished, we need to continue to educate and legislate on this issue. We must make sure we do so with sound reason and prudence until we reach the ultimate goal.
HB 350 is a pro-life bill sponsored by Mike Cameron this past year. This law, called “The Baby Box Bill,” would allow a baby to be given up to a legal public facility such as a hospital, police station, fire department, etc., through the use of a safety device commonly known as a “baby box.” Parents could surrender their newborns, no more than 30 days old, at those locations. The baby would then go into foster care for proper protection and care.
This legislation passed out of the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee last year to the Rules Committee, but did not make it to the House floor for a vote before crossover. There was an attempt to attach it to other legislation before the final day, but it was not successful. This legislation is still available for this year’s session.
Religious Freedom
We are so thankful that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was passed last year and signed into law by Gov. Kemp. This makes Georgia the 40th state to have a RFRA!
The point of all of this is that nobody should have ever been against RFRA if they’re in favor of the First Amendment. It simply provides religious expression the same level of protection that we already have for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly. We can thank the Lord for getting a clean RFRA that didn’t have any extra things in it, to make sure the people of faith are protected from government, local, and state ordinances or laws that infringe on their rights.
In addition to the RFRA, last year, Sen. Blake Tillery sponsored the "Freedom of Speech and Belief Act." SB 57 is designed to protect the constitutional rights of our citizens by prohibiting discrimination in the provision of essential services based on the lawful exercise of those rights.
It is a great First Amendment bill that ensures that individuals are not denied essential financial and utility services based on their exercise of rights such as speech, association, and religious practice. We have seen banks that have denied services based on customers’ conservative religious beliefs.
While we are thankful that it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, we were disappointed that it failed to get enough votes to pass in the Senate. However, we are thankful that it is still alive to be considered for the 2026 legislation.
Gambling
This will be approximately the 16th year of intense effort by the gambling Industry to push more gambling on Georgians. This kind of gambling through the years has included activities such as casinos, pari-mutuel betting on horses, and sports betting. Hopefully, once again, none of these efforts will make it across the finish line! Georgia Baptist passed a new resolution on this subject at the 2025 Annual Meeting: 2025 RESOLUTIONS REPORT_APPROVED
We need to continue to make sure that state-sponsored predatory gambling does not get expanded in Georgia. You see, the popular gambling of our day would be more characterized as “predatory gambling.” This occurs when corporate gambling interests partner with the government in a way that can end up exploiting its citizens. It has an extremely negative impact on our society: Commentary: The facts about gambling expansion in Georgia from an academic perspective - The Christian Index
We saw once again last year that the gambling industry is not giving up its attempt to expand gambling in our state. Five bills were introduced during the 2025 legislative session that would have expanded gambling through things such as sports betting and casinos.
Last year, Sen. Carden Summers introduced SR 131, a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed Georgians to vote on legalizing both sports betting and casinos in a single ballot measure. He argued that polling showed voters wanted the opportunity to decide the issue.
While some polls did indicate that a majority of Georgians were open to voting on gambling expansion, those surveys did not explain what the proposal involved or address the potential negative impacts on communities and the state’s economy.
In reality, if most people were asked to name their top legislative priorities, gambling would likely not rank among their top concerns.
The legislation dealing with sports betting and casinos being put on a ballot initiative to amend the state constitution had a hearing in the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee, but it was overwhelmingly voted down.
Next, last year, legislation was introduced by Rep. Marcus Widower to put sports betting alone on a constitutional amendment for the people to vote on. The bill was HR 450, and the enabling legislation, HB 686, was titled the “Georgia Sports Betting Act.” This legislation passed the House Regulated Industries Committee and was voted on to the floor for a vote on crossover day. The good news is that it never got voted on.
Because Rep. Widower resigned after the session last year, I have read it reported that these two bills will have to be refiled under a new sponsor if they are to be considered in 2026.
There were two other gambling bills introduced last year that were introduced to add sports betting to the Georgia lottery without using a constitutional amendment. The first (SB 208) was introduced by Sen. Billy Hickman and the second (HB 910) was introduced by Rep. Matt Hatchett during the last week of the legislative session. Neither of these bills ever had a hearing.
There's no doubt that in 1992, when the lottery was approved by the voters, they did not think that sports betting would ever be a part of the Georgia lottery.
Therefore, there is also an integrity issue. When the people voted for the lottery, they were not considering sports betting. From a legal perspective, adding additional gambling to the law cannot be done without a constitutional amendment that has to be voted on by the citizens.
We must remember that these five gambling bills are still alive for the 2026 session. Now is the time to keep contacting your House and Senate members and let them know not to support ANY expansion of gambling in Georgia!
One other gambling bill had to do with stopping something that is already happening in Georgia: cock fighting. Senator Randy Robertson introduced SB 102 to update existing law to ban cockfighting and make it illegal to take a minor child to an animal fight.
Animal fighting has extensive links to serious crimes and blights on our community, such as money laundering, firearms trafficking, human trafficking, drug smuggling, gang violence, and illegal gambling. These activities are significant threats to public safety.
While we can be thankful the bill passed the Senate, had a hearing in the House Non-Civil Judiciary Committee, and passed out to the Rules Committee, we regret that it never did get voted on in the House. So, it is still available to be voted on again this year.
I would encourage you to educate your congregation and to contact your Georgia House and Senate members to seize the opportunity to close off this major avenue for criminal networks and moral turpitude.
Child Protection
As always, one of the top priorities of Georgia Baptists is legislation concerning child protection. Children are one of the most vulnerable groups of people in our nation. We're living in a day when children are suffering the most from the societal ills facing our culture.
Last year monitored up to 12 bills dealing with some facet of child protection. The legislation had to do with a wide range of issues.
One of those 12 bills had to do with the removal of a library exemption for obscene material to minors. SB 74, which is sponsored by Senator Max Burns, aims to remove public libraries from exemptions regarding laws regulating access to obscene materials by minors. Most Georgians don’t realize that libraries have an exemption to material that is obscene under Georgia law. That same material if handed out in public would result in a criminal charge, but if given in a public library it is legal!
Last year, SB 74 passed out of the Senate and had a hearing in the House Non-Civil Judicial Committee. It had another hearing but did not have a vote. Thankfully, this is still available this year!
The second example of this legislation has to do with banning the production of AI child pornography. HB 171, sponsored by Rep. Brad Thomas, makes it a felony for any person to knowingly distribute computer-generated obscene material depicting a child under the age of 16 years of age. This is basically pornography that would appear realistic to an average observer.
Most people may not realize the difference between an actual person portrayed or one who is created through an artificial intelligence system. Either way, it is humanly destructive to our society, and it motivates sexual perversion and predators against our children!
This bill passed the House and was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. There was a hearing where at least two amendments were added that lessened some of the restrictions. It passed out of committee and on to the Rules committee, but was not passed last year. It is still available for proper passage this year.
The third example of legislation that is important has to do with banning puberty blockers for the purpose of gender transitioning. Sen. Ben Watson has sponsored SB 30 for the purpose of dealing with puberty blockers for minors. Puberty in and of itself is a normal process of development for children, but it can be stopped through the use of puberty blocker medications that can cause problems that can never be reversed.
The gender dysphoria issue must first and foremost be understood from a Biblical perspective. Where there are underlying psychological causes, they should be dealt with from a psychotherapy position, rather than medical treatments that will be detrimental to the child's physical and emotional health. Georgia Baptists passed a resolution on this: Resolution on Gender Dysphoria.pdf
The bill passed last year out of the Senate and passed in the House Health and Human Services Committee. It had a substitute version with unfriendly changes, which passed out and was sent to the Rules committee and did not make it to the floor for a vote. It is still available for a better version this year.
Alcohol
Georgia Baptists have always opposed any expansion of alcohol sales. Our latest resolution dealing with alcohol was passed by the Georgia Baptist Convention in 2022.
In that resolution, the fact is emphasized that “the availability of alcohol leads to the increased sales of alcohol and that the increased sales of alcohol leads to increased consumption of alcohol and that the increased consumption of alcohol leads to an increase in the potential societal problems associated with the increased use of alcohol…”
We are thankful that no legislation that expanded the legalization of alcohol made it through last year.
We opposed four bills on the subject that are still available this year: Allowing Discounted Sales of Alcohol, SB 86; Loosing of Restrictions on Alcohol Sales Related to Small Businesses, HB 126; Craft Beer and Local Economy Revitalization Act, SB 122, and The Private Production of Distilled Spirits, SB.194.
Marijuana
Another area of concern is the expansion of marijuana sales and use in Georgia. Georgia Baptists have always opposed the legalization of recreational marijuana and marijuana cultivation in our state. Georgia Baptists passed a resolution in 2015 on the dangers of marijuana, and in 2025 we passed another resolution entitled: Resolution on Restricting Marijuana and Hemp Products (2025 RESOLUTIONS REPORT_APPROVED)
Georgia Baptists have been concerned about forms of marijuana (for example, hemp) not being restricted enough. If proper restrictions are not in place or properly maintained, it can lead to a de facto form of legalizing recreational marijuana.
Therefore, we want Georgia laws that limit things like the total amount of THC and other intoxicating cannabinoids — including intoxicating hemp products (e.g. gummies, vapes) — to levels that will not get people high.
Note the following bills we supported last year that are still available for this year: The Georgia Hemp Farming Act Amendment, SB 33; The Georgia Hemp Farming Act Amendment, HB 265; and Limits to Delta-9-THC in Hemp Products, SB 254.
We look forward to working with Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy to help keep the standards of public health and safety policy as high as possible on these kinds of issues.
Conclusion
These are just some of the bills we will focus on at the state Capitol during the 2026 legislative session. Please know how much I need and appreciate your prayers and support! Thank you for the opportunity to represent Georgia Baptists and the Biblical values for which we stand.
Also, I want to remind you of our annual meeting at the Capitol this year, Georgia Baptist Day at the State Capitol. It will be on Feb. 5, from 7:30 AM to 2:00 PM with some great speakers such as Sid Bream and David Barton!
Here is the registration link for more information and registration: Georgia Baptist Day at the Georgia State Capitol 2026 - Georgia Baptist Mission Board. Please mark your calendars and plan to be with us this year!
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Mike Griffin is the Public Affairs Representative of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board.
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