Atlanta Gold Dome sees historic speaker nomination

And the blue wave has Georgia Democrats in control of not just the governor's mansion and lieutenant governor's office, but the House of Representatives for the first time in two decades. The switch has cleared the way for history to be made this afternoon at the Gold Dome. So Fox 5's Kevin Stewart joins us with these groundbreaking developments. Kevin, quite a lot of firsts for our state. Oh, absolutely. A big momentous day back here at the Gold Dome. Columbus Democrat Carolyn Hughesley becoming the first woman and first black person to be nominated as Speaker of the House. I want you to take a look. The vote took place behind closed doors, but once members of the House Democratic Caucus emerged, the excitement was clear. Lots of smiles, cheers, and hugs. Hughley had most recently been the majority leader and in the General Assembly for three decades, so So this move is not a complete shock to the Speaker. I feel like, once again, focus on that priority one for Democrats will be affordability. They intend to take on Medicaid expansion. She also took time to address the history she and the state made today. It weighs heavily on my mind. It's such a tremendous opportunity. And as I think about the speakers who've come before me and the strong women in this House that have come before me, I owe them a debt of gratitude, and I also look forward to the little girls who are at home. Alright, a lot of moves made today. I want you to take a look at this nominee leadership group list. All from North Georgia. Diverse. A lot of veteran lawmakers here. We're talking about Speaker Pro Tem Elect Billy Mitchell of DeKalb County. Majority Leader Elect Stacey Evans of Cobb County. You remember she ran for governor a few years ago. Majority Whip Elect Sam Parker. of Gwinnett County and Majority Chair Spencer Fry of Athens-Clarke County. Another interesting side note here about the history here, the unique power couple has emerged here. The Speaker's husband will be sworn in as the next mayor of Columbus. We're live in downtown Atlanta. Kevin Stewart, Fox 5 News. Wow, Kevin, that is pretty incredible. A family that wants to make a difference, you know, both serving in their own respective ways. We were chatting about this at 2 o'clock today. I know you said that they have a lot of goals as they are in power, right? One of the big ones being the expansion of Medicaid and just cost of living and quality of life issues. Yeah, they made it very clear that that is what they're going to focus on, and there are a lot of lists of wants, and they were asked during this news conference, hey, how do you manage all of this? And they said that, hey, we're going to have to be disciplined. You can't get everything done immediately, but that is something that they're going to try to get as much done, but the number one thing, without a doubt, is affordability. Yeah. Affordability, a big issue, Kevin. And I know they're asking for a little bit of patience saying that, hey, we have leadership in place now. This election has happened. But at this point, we want to make sure that we have the time to get done some of these goals. So we'll have to see how that works out. But Kevin, thank you for keeping us updated. No doubt you'll be keeping us updated along the way. So Kevin Stewart, thank you.