Duncan Runs For Gov As A Dem, Businessman Dean As Republican.
Businessman Clark Dean is running for Governor on the Republican side of the aisle:
Republican business executive Clark Dean has filed paperwork to run for Georgia governor, setting the stage for an outsider-themed campaign against a field of GOP rivals with long experience in elected office.
Dean, who plans to formally launch his campaign within days, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Saturday that he was encouraged to join the race to succeed Gov. Brian Kemp after recent speaking engagements at political events.
“As an outsider and business leader, I will stand firm in our shared conservative American principles, put Georgia families first and deliver real results,” he said.
A Harvard-trained business consultant, Dean is an executive managing director at real estate firm Transwestern, where he leads the transaction sciences practice. He’s also active in civic life, including work with the Shepherd Center rehabilitation hospital.
How much, if any, personal money will Dean put into his campaign? In a race with two (maybe three?) candidates already elected statewide, with huge name ID, Dean will need to spend a lot of money to get his name and message out there. He mentions that he’s an outsider and he certainly is, but I don’t think the hunger for an outside is as strong as it was a few years ago.
Meanwhile, former LG Geoff Duncan did what many expected him to do, announce a run for Governor on the Democratic side of the ledger.
“I’m the only candidate in this primary that can actually show up in November 2026 and garner the votes to win,” he told “Politically Georgia” in an interview. “It’s an important win for Democrats, because at the end of the day, Donald Trump will be the default governor of this state if one of his hand-picked puppets wins.”
His vision of becoming the first Democrat to win Georgia’s top job since Roy Barnes in 1998 collides with his long track record of supporting conservative causes — including Trump’s 2016 and 2020 White House bids.
Once a close ally of Gov. Brian Kemp, Duncan helped shepherd GOP-backed measures such as abortion restrictions, gun expansions and other conservative priorities through the Legislature. Now he’s positioning himself as a consensus-builder working to reverse some of the policies he helped pass.
As I mentioned on the podcast a few weeks ago, Democrats yearning for a “non-woke,” moderate candidate for Governor already have one in Michael Thurmond. With all due respect to my friend, and yes, I still consider Geoff a friend, I don’t see a path for him. However, I’ve been wrong before, and I might be wrong here. I know this about Geoff Duncan, the more people tell him it can’t be done, the harder he works to prove them wrong.
