A far-right Republican state senator said he plans to ignore his banishment from the state House and attend Thursday’s State of the State address by Gov. Brian Kemp.
State Sen. Colton Moore, a Trenton Republican and former House member, called House Speaker Jon Burns a “tyrant” in a social media post and pledged that he will “be there tomorrow.”
That came the day after Burns sent a letter to Moore reminding him the ban is still intact after his “vile, disparaging and false comments” about the late House Speaker David Ralston unless he delivers a “sincere apology” to the family and friends of the chamber’s longtime former leader, who died in 2022.
The public feud follows quiet efforts this week to defuse the situation. Moore told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he met with Burns privately on Wednesday to discuss the ban but left “agreeing to disagree.”
Moore told the AJC Burns does not have the constitutional authority to ban him from the chamber, citing a resolution passed by both chambers calling for the joint session of the House and Senate on Thursday. In a letter posted to the social media site X, Moore threatened “direct legal action” against the speaker if he is not allowed in the House.
“No where in the language did it exclude Colton Moore, so he cannot override the will of the House and the Senate,” Moore said. “We haven’t seen this type of tyranny since Gen. Oglethorpe.”
James Oglethorpe was an English military official and politician who is recognized as the founder of Georgia.
Burns, also a Republican, said in his dispatch to Moore that the ban was still in effect because “House rules require me to uphold the decorum of the House and decency of speech.”
Credit: Michael Blackshire/AJC
Credit: Michael Blackshire/AJC
The conflict stems from comments Moore made last year as the Senate considered a resolution urging the University of North Georgia to name a new academic facility on its Blue Ridge campus after Ralston, a Blue Ridge native.
With Ralston’s family watching from the Senate gallery, Moore referred to the former speaker as “one of the most corrupt Georgians we’ve seen in our lives.” Burns swiftly announced that Moore would indefinitely be banned from the House. That ban remains in effect, he said.
Moore has also faced backlash in his own chamber. He was exiled from the Senate Republican caucus in 2023 after berating fellow Republicans for refusing his call for a special session to punish Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Tension between Moore and Ralston began in 2019 when Moore was a member of the House. That year, the AJC published an investigation that found Ralston, who was a defense attorney, appeared to use a policy called “legislative leave” to perpetually keep cases off the docket, potentially thwarting justice and putting the public at risk.
Legislative leave is a more than 120-year-old policy that requires judges and prosecutors to defer to the legislative schedule of any practicing attorney who serves in the General Assembly.
Moore was one of a handful of Republican lawmakers who called on Ralston to step down as speaker after the AJC investigation. That put Moore in the crosshairs of the powerful speaker, who targeted him for electoral defeat.
Moore did not seek a second House term and ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2020. Two years later, he won the seat. He easily defeated a Republican challenger last year who centered her campaign on his history of provocative accusations.
