Georgia State Senator Colton Moore Was Arrested While Trying to Enter the House
Colton Moore was arrested after violating his ban from the House chamber.
Published Jan. 17 2025, 9:48 a.m. ET
Things are getting messy in the peach state. Georgia State Senator Colton Moore got arrested on Jan. 16 shortly before Governor Brian Kemp's State of the State address. Given that he is a part of the legislature, many wanted to better understand the justification for his arrest.
After the arrest went viral, Moore also posted a photo of him in a hospital bed, suggesting that he had been injured during the arrest. Here's what we know.
What happened to Colton Moore?
Colton, a MAGA senator who represents voters in Dade, Walker, and Catoosa Counties, was arrested for attempting to enter the State House chamber. Moore was banned from entering the chamber in 2024 after making disparaging remarks about the former State House Speaker David Ralston. The comment came in a debate over naming a building after Ralston.
"This body is about to memorialize, in my opinion, one of the most corrupt Georgia leaders that we are ever going to see in my lifetime," he said, leading politicians on both sides of the aisle to jump to the former Speaker's defense. The remarks were taken with such offense, in fact, that Moore received a lifetime ban.
It was that ban that Moore was attempting to violate when he tried to enter the chamber to attend the State of the State address.
Georgia State Police were the ones to make the arrest, saying that they made several attempts to de-escalate the situation, but Moore persisted in attempting to disrupt official business inside the chamber. Police say that he then pushed several state troopers, and was then taken into custody. He is being held in Fulton County Jail and will be charged with misdemeanor obstruction.
Moore's entire exercise seems to have been a political stunt.
Moore's arrest was, quite evidently, a political stunt designed to draw attention to the state senator.
"Senator Colton Moore, who exposed and defeated corrupt Fani Willis last year, has been arrested by the Anti-Trump Speaker of the Georgia House. Colton is being held in the same Atlanta jail as President Trump. We are working to ensure his expedient release. Please pray for all those standing up for freedom and peace for all Georgians," Moore's X account posted after the incident.
Moore's arrest has gone viral online, so it's clear that the "injustice" he claims to have faced has resonated with some. The photo he took of himself in a hospital bed only further reinforces the sense that he was somehow wronged, although it's unclear what injuries he actually sustained, if any.