Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s field director, Brad Hughes, sat in on lobbying meetings between the governor, his policy staff and two political groups that Hughes is affiliated with, emails from a public records request show. Frontline Policy Action, the lobbying arm of an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group that Hughes helps lead, endorsed and funded efforts to reelect Kemp in 2022, finance records show. Hatewatch previously reported that in 2024, the group also gave $350,000 to Kemp’s Georgians First Leadership Committee.

Anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is engaged in an ongoing crusade to force private businesses to adhere to conservative Christian theology, in part by spreading the false narrative that private sector banks have been dropping conservative religious clients since the Obama administration. The conspiratorial claim, which ADF calls “debanking,” has arisen out of an ongoing effort from ADF to ban or disrupt private sector investments in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and environmental sustainability.