As 2021 Session Ends, Some GA Lawmakers Set Sights on Higher Office
Some Georgia lawmakers are gearing up to launch campaigns for higher office
The 2021 Georgia legislative session is set to come to an end on Wednesday, concluding a session dominated by election restrictions, budget cuts and sports gambling.
But as the 40-day session comes to an end, some state lawmakers are already turning their attention towards 2022. Not the 2022 legislative session, but the 2022 elections.
Every statewide office, plus a U.S. Senate seat and all 14 U.S. House seats, will be on the ballot in 2022. This has set off a game of musical chairs under the Gold Dome, as some lawmakers are trying to decide which office to run for. Here’s an early look at some lawmakers who are mulling statewide campaigns.
Jen Jordan
State Sen. Jen Jordan (D-Atlanta) is widely expected to enter the race for Georgia Attorney General. An Atlanta lawyer, Jordan represents the heart of Atlanta’s wealthy northern suburbs. She was first elected to the Georgia Senate in a 2017 special election and has emerged as an outspoken voice against abortion bans and voting restrictions. If she enters the race, she will not have the field to herself. 2018 Democratic nominee Charlie Bailey entered the race nearly a week after the Democratic victories in the January U.S. Senate runoff elections. And he has some pretty prominent endorsements, such as U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Marietta) and former Gov. Roy Barnes. The winner of the primary will face off against incumbent Republican Chris Carr next November in what is set to be an extremely competitive race.
Burt Jones
A staunch Trump ally who backed attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, State Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) has been mentioned as a statewide candidate in 2022, though it is unclear which office he will seek. Reports say that he is likely to launch a primary challenge to Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (R), who has been critical of the direction of his party in the aftermath of the 2020 election. As President of the Georgia Senate, Duncan has also stripped committee chairmanships from Republican State Senators who backed Trump’s attempts to overturn the election, including Jones. So it’s not hard to see why Jones would want to run against Duncan. He may also consider running against Gov. Brian Kemp, a one-time Trump ally who has since become a pariah in the former President’s inner circle for not refusing to certify Joe Biden’s 12,000-vote victory in the state.
Bill Cowsert
With U.S. Rep. Jody Hice (R-Greensboro) running for Secretary of State, a long list of ambitious Republicans are quietly lining up to run for his eastern Georgia congressional seat. Among them: State Sen. Bill Cowsert, an Athens attorney who represents the Senate district that was once held by a home builder named Brian Kemp. The 62-year-old Cowsert, who is actually Gov. Kemp’s brother-in-law, served as the Senate Majority Leader for four years but was removed from the position by the Republican caucus shortly after the contentious 2018 governor election. Several of Cowsert’s Republican colleagues supported Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle in the 2018 Republican primary, and Cowsert’s removal was seen by many as retaliation for his personal and political relationship with the Governor-elect.
Houston Gaines
State Rep. Houston Gaines (R-Athens) is also said to be eyeing a run for Hice’s congressional seat. Gaines, 26, is a former student body president at the University of Georgia and is one of the youngest members of the Georgia Legislature. He was one of the lead sponsors of a 2019 bill that would have banned most abortions in Georgia after six weeks of pregnancy. He has also authored bills that implement paid paternal leave and protect funding for local police departments. He has remained tight-lipped about his 2022 plans, but told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he is “humbled by the outpouring of support and encouragement.”
Erick Allen
A few weeks ago, we learned that State Rep. Erick Allen (D-Smyrna) was considering a run for Lieutenant Governor. He has now filed paperwork to seek Georgia’s second highest office, and will make an announcement soon after the 2021 legislative session ends. A consulting firm owner, Allen was first elected to the Georgia House in 2018 after two unsuccessful campaigns in 2014 and 2016, respectively. He has criticized the Republican incumbent, Geoff Duncan, for not doing enough to stop the recently-passed election restriction bill. Shortly after the bill passed, he said on Twitter that Duncan’s envision of a “Republican 2.0” has failed, and that Georgia needs a Lieutenant Governor who won’t coward to the Big Lie.
Matthew Wilson
State Rep. Matthew Wilson (D-Brookhaven) is preparing to run for Insurance & Safety Fire Commissioner. While it may not be the flashiest office on the ballot next year, the ISF Commissioner is a pretty important job. The office is in charge of regulating insurance companies, investigating insurance fraud and inspecting buildings to prevent fires. Wilson, an attorney from DeKalb County, would also make history if he is elected: he would be the first openly LGBTQ statewide officeholder in Georgia history. The current ISF Commissioner is a Republican named John King, a former police chief who was appointed to the job by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 after the incumbent, Jim Beck, was indicted in a multimillion-dollar fraud case.
Bruce Thomspon
Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler (R) has been criticized by both parties for a reported backlog in unemployment claims during the pandemic. One woman in Savannah told WGCL that she submitted a claim in November and has still not received any benefits. Butler has faced calls to resign over the Department of Labor’s handling of jobless claims, and these criticisms could prove to be a liability for him next year. Not just in a general election, but in the Republican primary. State Sen. Bruce Thompson (R-White) is reportedly considering entering the race. Butler has not said whether he will he will run for a fourth term, but Thompson has hinted that he will enter the race regardless of what Butler decides to do. No Democrats have publicly expressed interest in challenging Butler yet, but embattled incumbent is in for a very tough race next year.
Bee Nguyen
State Rep. Bee Nguyen (D-Atlanta) could soon enter the race for Georgia Secretary of State. The first Vietnamese-American to ever serve in the Georgia Legislature, Nguyen currently hold the DeKalb County House seat that was previously held by Stacey Abrams. She is also a part of the Georgia Democratic Party’s leadership team. In the wake of the horrific shootings at Atlanta-area spas that left six Asian-American women dead, Nguyen has become a leading voice against the rise in Asian-American hate crimes, from speaking at protests to making appearances on primetime cable news. She has criticized incumbent Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) for supporting the election restrictions recently signed by Gov. Brian Kemp. She also fact-checked former President Trump’s false claims of a rigged election last year. It is unclear when she will enter the race, but she will likely have a long list of high-profile endorsements when she does.
Jodi Lott
A registered nurse who serves as one of Gov. Brian Kemp’s legislative floor leaders, State Rep. Jodi Lott (R-Evans) is another possible candidate to succeed Jody Hice in Congress. Lott, who co-owns a physical therapy practice, was first elected to the Georgia House in 2014. This year, she co-sponsored a bill that would ban transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports. Georgia is one of several states that have proposed these types of bills this year. Gov. Kemp has four floor leaders in the Georgia House, of which Lott is the only woman. “Rep. Lott has been a strong advocate for the CSRA [Central Savannah River Area] in the General Assembly and invaluable to my administration as a floor leader during my first two years as governor,” Kemp said of Lott when he renominated her as a floor leader. “Jodi worked hard to pass conservative budgets, meaningful health care reform and legislation to crack down on gangs and human traffickers.”