Incumbent
Charlie Bethel
IncumbentCharlie Bethel
GA Supreme Court: Bethel seat winner?
$44.5K
MAY 20, 2026
General Election
Voters choose the office holder.
Overview
Current roleJudge
PartyRepublican
Political ideologyConservative Republican
Age50 years old (Mar 3, 1976)
GenderMale
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LocationGeorgia
BackgroundJudge
EducationUniversity of Georgia, B.B.A. (1998)
Notable personal detailsCharles Jones (“Charlie”) Bethel is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal in 2018 and elected to a full six-year term in 2020. He previously served as a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals (2017–2018) and as a Republican member of the Georgia State Senate representing District 54 (2011–2016). Bethel earned both his B.B.A. and J.D. from the University of Georgia and has worked as an attorney, including public-service legal roles in Dalton.
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Positions
Economy & Taxes
Opposes property-assessment caps as a policy response to rising property taxes and argues they distort markets and favor long-term owners and corporations; supports targeted relief (a circuit-breaker style program) to protect low- and fixed-income homeowners rather than broad assessment freezes. Emphasizes market-oriented solutions to tax policy and cautions against measures that create disparate tax burdens or disincentives to investment.
Healthcare
Charlie Bethel has sponsored and supported legislation expanding certain insurance coverage and behavioral health program changes (for example autism coverage and revisions to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities). He also sponsored an interstate Health Care Compact bill that emphasizes state authority over health policy, indicating support for state-level/regulatory approaches. Overall his record contains both government-led coverage expansions and state-centered market/regulatory reforms, producing a mixed set of signals on healthcare policy.
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Immigration & Border
Charlie Bethel, as a Georgia state senator, sponsored legislation to require Georgia jails to participate in the federal Secure Communities program and supported cooperation between state/local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. This record indicates a preference for stronger immigration enforcement and state-level cooperation with federal removal processes rather than expanded legal pathways or asylum protections.
Abortion & Reproductive Rights
As a Georgia Supreme Court justice, Charlie Bethel was among the majority that reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban; his judicial record therefore aligns with upholding strict limits on abortion access in Georgia. His public judicial philosophy emphasizes judicial restraint and applying existing law, which informed those votes.
Climate & Energy
While serving in the Georgia Senate, he sponsored legislation (Senate Bill 311) to create an interstate compact that would prohibit member states from submitting Clean Power Plan compliance plans, reflecting opposition to the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and support for state-level resistance to federal greenhouse-gas regulation.
Endorsements
Endorsers of Charlie Bethel for GA Supreme Court: Bethel seat winner?
Brian Kemp
Public figure
Donald Trump endorsed Georgia Supreme Court justices Charlie Bethel and Sarah Warren.
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