Georgia early voting opens October 13, and Election Day is 34 days out. In this guest-hosted hour of The Jenny Beth Show, Robert McNeily, Director of Broadcasting and Grassroots Engagement at Tea Party Patriots Action, sits in for Jenny Beth Martin and puts the midterm math on the table: from 1902 to 2022 the president's party lost House seats in 28 of 31 midterm elections, yet in the five modern midterms that flipped the House, the Senate changed hands only twice. Three organizers explain what that means on the ground. Carmen Bergman, Senior Advisor to Greater Georgia, says about 50,000 Georgia voters stop at the top of the ballot and never reach the down-ballot races, which is why Greater Georgia built KnowYourBallotGA.com. Tom Zawistowski of Freedom for All PAC explains how a billboard company's refusal to sell to Trump supporters in 2020 became free billboards on barns along Ohio's interstates, 103 of them in 2024, and why the message reads "Free for them, taken from you." Dr. Kendra Biegalski, Chair of the DeKalb County Republican Party, describes running a Republican party in deep blue DeKalb County: property taxes up almost 50 percent in five years, and a county election board that voted 3 to 2 against cleaning its voter rolls. The hour closes with this day in American history and the call to action: IWillSaveAmerica.com, and Georgia's October 5 voter registration deadline. Learn more at teapartypatriots.org and jennybethshow.com.
Guest host: Robert McNeily is Director of Broadcasting and Grassroots Engagement at Tea Party Patriots Action and a former newscaster. He hosts this hour in for Jenny Beth Martin.
Guest: Carmen Bergman is Senior Advisor to Greater Georgia, the voter registration, education and mobilization organization former United States Senator Kelly Loeffler founded in 2021. Greater Georgia launched KnowYourBallotGA.com in September 2026 as a voter guide covering every race and constitutional amendment on Georgia's ballot.
Guest: Tom Zawistowski leads Freedom for All PAC, a federal political action committee, and the We the People Convention, the Ohio organization that grew out of the Portage County Tea Party. Since 2020 his group has produced free billboards for farmers and building owners along high-traffic roads, 103 of them in Ohio in 2024, and it is now offering them nationwide at freedomforallpac.org. He has worked alongside Jenny Beth Martin and Tea Party Patriots since the movement's first bus tour.
Guest: Dr. Kendra Biegalski is Chair of the DeKalb County Republican Party in Georgia. She is a nuclear engineer, a former homeschool mother, and has taught college classes at the undergraduate and graduate level and children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Key topics:
• 34 days to Election Day: why the host says so goes Georgia, so goes the nation, in a midterm year too
• The midterm record: the president's party lost House seats in 28 of 31 midterms from 1902 to 2022, but the Senate flipped in only two of the five modern midterms that flipped the House
• 1994 and the Contract with America, 2006, 2010 and the birth of the Tea Party movement, 2018 and 2022
• Does the top of the ticket carry the down-ballot races in Georgia, or the other way around?
• About 50,000 Georgia voters stop at the top of the ballot, and what KnowYourBallotGA.com does about it
• Early voting opens in Georgia on October 13; Illinois and Virginia are already voting
• Greater Georgia's three jobs: registration, education and mobilization
• The SAVE America Act, and Georgia's approach to election integrity as never one and done
• Reports that Georgia ballots could be matched to the voters who cast them, and the response from the Secretary of State, the Georgia Republican Party and the Republican National Committee
• Poll watchers and poll workers from both parties, and the difference between the two
• Party voters, single-issue voters, high-information voters and Georgia's split-ticket voters
• Persuasion and turnout: you cannot win Georgia without both
• Tom Zawistowski's free barn billboard program: why the billboard companies would not sell in 2020, and why 103 billboards survived 2024
• Ohio's Senate race: Sherrod Brown against Jon Husted, and President Trump's Dayton visit for Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy
• Why the billboard does not say vote for Republicans, and holding Republicans to the SAVE America Act
• Apathy as the biggest political challenge, and defining communism in eight words: Free for them, taken from you
• 60 cents per thousand impressions against 65 dollars for television; three million exposures a day in Ohio
• Censorship by text carrier, local news nobody trusts, and silos within silos
• Reagan's Eleventh Commandment, data centers, fracking, and the grizzly bear and the tiger
• A narrow House majority, redistricting, Ohio's Ninth District and the 2030 census
• Ohio 2016: 30,000 volunteers, a poll that said Trump by 8, and a win by 8.2
• Running the Republican Party in deep blue DeKalb County: affordability, property taxes up almost 50 percent, schools, public safety
• Data centers as a national security issue, from a nuclear engineer who wants communities heard
• DeKalb's election board votes 3 to 2 against cleaning the voter rolls; Marc Elias and Democracy Docket
• A county 200 police officers short, potholes, and a string of school superintendents
• Working with Democrats on nonpartisan issues: education, two school board candidates, poll watchers
• The DeKalb candidate slate, meet-and-greets, and a voter registration event at Disability Link
• Phone banks, a pizza and postcard party with Tea Party Patriots, and 60,000 Republican votes in DeKalb
• This day in American history: the Continental Congress moves to York, the first hydroelectric central station, Wyoming's suffrage constitution, the Hoover Dam, and the first televised World Series
• The call to action: IWillSaveAmerica.com, ten things you can do in five minutes, and Georgia's October 5 voter registration deadline at mvp.sos.ga.gov
Timestamps:
00:00 — Cold open: 34 days to the midterms, common sense versus crazy
01:39 — So goes Georgia, so goes the nation: 28 of 31 midterms cost the president's party House seats
03:27 — 1994, 2006, 2010, 2018, 2022: the Senate changed hands only twice
05:17 — Carmen Bergman joins: the top of the ticket and the down-ballot races
06:18 — KnowYourBallotGA.com and the 50,000 voters who stop at the top
06:56 — Early voting opens October 13; Greater Georgia's three goals
08:17 — The SAVE America Act and election integrity in Georgia
09:20 — Reports that ballots could be matched to voters
10:20 — Poll watchers and poll workers; a statewide field organization
11:28 — KnowYourBallotGA.com launch; every constitutional office open
13:28 — Party voters, single-issue voters, split tickets
15:16 — Persuasion and turnout: both sides of the equation
16:11 — IWillSaveAmerica.com: ten things in five minutes
17:02 — Poll worker or poll watcher: the difference
18:27 — Tom Zawistowski joins: freedomforallpac.org
19:54 — 2020: the billboard companies would not sell; barns along the interstates
20:36 — 103 billboards in 2024: Free for them, taken from you
21:50 — Ohio Senate: Sherrod Brown against Jon Husted; President Trump to Dayton
23:16 — Why the billboard does not say vote for Republicans; the SAVE America Act; codifying executive orders
24:56 — The biggest political challenge: apathy
26:10 — No one under 60 knows what a communist is: eight words or less
27:14 — 60 cents per thousand impressions against 65 dollars for TV; 3 million exposures a day
28:35 — Our voice has been muted; billboards in Alaska
29:55 — Local news nobody trusts: 61 million visits down to 41 million; silos within silos
32:36 — Reagan's Eleventh Commandment, data centers and fracking
34:04 — Property taxes, the SAVE America Act and voters saying I am not going to vote
34:28 — The grizzly bear and the tiger
37:04 — Codifying with a narrow majority; Ohio's Ninth District; the 2030 census
38:26 — Josh McKoon on early in-person voting
39:34 — What inspires Tom: Ohio 2016, the NRA, 30,000 volunteers
42:32 — Farewell to Tom; IWillSaveAmerica.com
44:24 — Kendra Biegalski joins: DeKalb County Republicans, small but active
45:31 — Affordability, the gas tax, property taxes up almost 50 percent
46:57 — Data centers as national security, from a nuclear engineer
48:16 — Clean voter rolls voted down 3 to 2; Marc Elias
49:38 — How the county party sets priorities
50:48 — The budget: schools, superintendents, potholes, 200 officers short
52:46 — Growth, data centers and town halls
55:53 — Democrats at the breakfast: education, school board, poll watchers
58:51 — The DeKalb candidate slate
59:57 — Meet-and-greets and Disability Link
01:01:23 — Low-propensity voters: phone bank, pizza and postcards, 60,000 votes
01:03:35 — This day in history: York, Vulcan Street, Wyoming, the Hoover Dam, the first televised World Series
01:06:46 — Braves batting practice, Eddie Perez and Eugenio Suarez
01:08:06 — The call to action: IWillSaveAmerica.com; Georgia registration closes October 5
01:09:49 — Last Tuesday's episode, the communism series, and only American citizens should decide American elections
Links mentioned:
jennybethshow.com
teapartypatriots.org
iwillsaveamerica.com
knowyourballotga.com
freedomforallpac.org
mvp.sos.ga.gov