Georgia selects first Black woman to serve as house speaker

As we continue here on the 3 p.m. streaming hour on Fox Local, we're going to talk about somebody else who's making history. Columbus State Representative Carolyn Hewley is making history today as Democrats pick her to become the first black woman to serve as Georgia House Speaker. Joining us now is Chuck Williams, the newly appointed editor and publisher of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. Chuck has spent more than a decade, four decades I should say, covering Columbus politics and has watched Hughley's rise at the Gold Dome since day one. Chuck, good afternoon. Thanks so much for joining us today. You've covered Carolyn Hughley since she entered the House in 93. What about her sort of early style in Columbus signaled that she could one day run the entire chamber? Just going to pause you one second. You're probably muted on your device there. So if you could unmute yourself, then we could hear you a little bit better. Muted. Yeah, there you go. Now we can hear you loud and clear. Okay. So you're answering that question. Did you notice things about her way back when that sort of set the stage for her rise in Georgia politics? I think there were some very powerful legislators from the Columbus area. Thank When she went in and elected in 92, started in 93, you had Tom Buck, who was Speaker Murphy's right-hand man. You had Calvin Smiley, who went in in the early 70s and became the dean of the Georgia House. You had Pete Robinson, you. who became one of the most powerful lobbyists in the state Georgia. She came in and kind of bided her time is the wrong way to say it, but She paid attention. She had a lot of mentors. And, um... I don't think anybody could, I've talked to a bunch of people today, I don't think anybody saw this day coming. You know, if you had told me Calvin Smiley was the Speaker of the Georgia House, I'd have said, wow, okay, Calvin had climbed the ladder to that for a Columbus lawmaker just like Carolyn. But to say Carolyn Hughley's rise is meteoric, it's unbelievable. It's a 34-year overnight sensation. Our new governor-elect, Hughley, will become the first black woman to serve as Georgia House Speaker. How significant is this for the state and for the people she represents back home? She represents House District 141, predominantly African-American district in East Columbus. Here's what's significant about it. Her husband will be sworn in on January the 4th, Isaiah Hughley, as the first black elected mayor of Columbus. And then she will take over that same week, I'm assuming, or certainly the next week as the first black and female speaker of the Georgia House. Can you imagine that under one roof? That's the significance of this is you talk about power couples. That's redefining it in my book. Yeah, we got a black mayor, excuse me, a black governor down in Florida, the first female Black governor. I believe in the nation's history here in Georgia. That's right. House Speaker under the Gold Dome. I mean, I mean, politics, you could say, and a Latina woman in Texas is definitely becoming more reflective of the demographic of our country. Now, that's the good news. The bad news is for her, at least politically, she's got. Barely a margin under the gold dome in the House with the Democratic majority, a Republican Senate. So how effective will she be at being a Tip O'Neill, a dealmaker, a power broker with this divided Georgia House of Representatives? Only time will tell. She's not. I mean. We don't know what the General Assembly is going to look like. You've still got a runoff in a South Georgia seat that could go either way. You had the seat involving Gerald Green down Cuthbert below there that we thought he had lost election night. It turns out there was a memory card that had not been uploaded, so he has reversed that. I mean, I don't know how. She goes about making deals. I think she has to get her feet wet. She will have great mentors. Calvin Smyre is the former dean of that chamber you're looking at right there. Calvin is one of the most respected men in Georgia politics. And though he was a Democrat. Governor Kemp and others leaned on him from time to time. He can work across the aisles. I suspect Calvin, who was one of Representative Hugley's speaker-elect, Hugley's mentors, I suspect that Calvin Smyre will be there anytime she needs his counsel. So she's got people that can help her. I think, you know, I think she and Governor-elect Bottoms could be a very powerful one-two punch. I mean, the Speaker has enormous authority in the state of Georgia. And Columbus has always had people that were in the room with the Speaker. This is the first time the city of Columbus has ever had somebody who had that gavel. And with that gavel comes great power. Hmm. I just want to take advantage of the fact that you've been covering politics in Georgia for 40 plus years. Well, 25, but 40 years as a journalist. All right. Well, all right. You've been out there listening to the pulse of this state and the beat of the drum, so to speak. Thank Hughley is what kind of Democrat? In other words, does she politically fall on the more? you for A progressive wing, would you say, of the Democratic Party, or is she a more center-leaning Democrat, of which you see many in Georgia? joining I'm not sure that's a fair question us this that you can easily put her in a bucket. I think today at the press conference, she said Medicaid expansion was going to be her top priority. week. There are a lot of centrist Democrats and even some Republicans that are coming around to that. Yeah. She's a Democrat. Make no mistake about it. She is absolutely a Democrat. But one thing I have seen is Georgia Democrats are a little different than the more left-leaning Democrats. They have to work. I mean, we have an incredible business climate here in Columbus. AFLAC is headquartered here. You know, Pinnacle Bank has got a large presence here. We've got Fort Benning and all that that entails. So, So, you know, this is not, this is a center, Columbus is blue. There's no question about it. Muscogee County has voted blue for the last, you know, since 08 for sure. And she's blue. But I'm not sure you can put her in any other bucket other than she's a Georgia Democrat. All right. But you made a good point in distinguishing her from, say, some of the Northeast Democrats or California Democrats. Thank you, Democrats. Um, it's, I love disseminating politics. I know where, uh, I love to sort of explore where people fall ideologically, um, how they, um, might operate in a state that, that sort of vacillates between purple and red and blue, um, and how they navigate, uh, those political lanes. It's going to be an interesting process to watch, and we appreciate your perspective very much. And by the way, we do want to mention that the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, part of the Georgia Trust for Local News, the nonprofit is a newspaper community that serves Middle, West, and South Georgia. So we very much, Chuck, appreciate you being with us this afternoon for your experience and perspective, and we'll see how this new legislative session rolls out. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. It's a new day in Georgia. Indeed it is. Appreciate it, sir.