The Kudzu Vine’s late-September episode opens with David, Tim, and Bernita easing into fall and reviewing recent shows, including an appearance by Tim Cairl and coverage of a Barack Obama fundraiser and South Fulton’s municipal elections.

After brief sports chatter—Falcons, fantasy football, and a brewing NFL upset—the hosts turn sharply to politics, starting with rising frustration over Representative Jim Marshall’s vote against expanding children’s health care (S-CHIP). Bernita and Tim criticize Marshall’s rationale, particularly claims involving undocumented immigrants, and argue that he increasingly votes like a Republican despite representing a Democratic district. The trio debates whether Democrats should continue supporting representatives who routinely break with core party positions, especially on issues like children’s health care, which enjoy bipartisan public backing.

They explore wider intra-party tensions: the DCCC’s allocation decisions, Republican attacks on vulnerable incumbents, and the limits of political triangulation. The conversation expands to concerns about Representatives Sanford Bishop and David Scott, both recently ranked among the “worst” Black members of Congress in an outside assessment—prompting discussions on ideology, representation, and shifting reputations.

Shifting local, the hosts examine political fault lines in Jonesboro, highlighting the candidacy of Dr. Donna Sartor, who is running a progressive, community-focused campaign in a city divided between “Jonesboro Pride” and “Friends of Jonesboro.”

The episode’s featured guest, Dr. Bonnie Byrd Gardner, then joins to discuss her background as an educator and administrator and her run in the special election for Georgia House District 127. She outlines priorities including children’s health care (peach care reauthorization), agricultural fairness, and restoring withheld state education funds—arguing that Georgia needs more educators in the legislature to uphold constitutional commitments to its schools.