An Athens mayoral debate will take place next Saturday. The debate is being organized by the podcast ATHChat, hosted by Drew Abney and Russell Edwards.

Abney and Edwards felt there was a community need for this event, “We really like these community events where we can hear from local candidates and get their ideas out there and we just noticed that there was nobody organizing an event like this.”

Abney says they reached out to anyone who had publicly declared their candidacy for Mayor or filed to raise money for a mayoral campaign.

Three candidates in the May 2026 Athens-Clarke County mayoral race are slated to participate: Board of Education member Dr. LaKeisha Gantt, former county commissioner and current Board of Education member Tim Denson, and former Clarke County Republican Party

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