Candidate News: Carter Jumps In Senate Race. Bottoms Inches Toward Gov Run. McLaurin for LG. Dem For SD 21. GOPers for SD 14 & 46
Finally, we have a Republican running for U.S. Senate. Congressman Buddy Carter is the first GOPer to toss his hat in the ring.
Carter, a six-term Savannah-area incumbent, announced his campaign just days after Gov. Brian Kemp passed on a run, triggering what’s expected to be a GOP free-for-all to challenge the Democrat. About a dozen other Georgia Republicans are also considering bids.
Carter telegraphed his strategy with an opening ad that attacked Ossoff’s immigration stance and blasted the Democrat’s vote against a GOP-led measure to bar transgender girls from competing in women’s sports.
“Jon Ossoff is on the wrong side. Trump has a warrior in Buddy Carter,” said the ad, which features footage of Trump praising the Georgia lawmaker. “Buddy helped Trump secure our border and put America first. And he knows the difference between a man and a woman.”
Peach Pundit Readers/Listeners will not be surprised, but it’s official now: Democratic Senator Josh McLaurin announce a run for Lt. Governor in Savannah earlier this week.
McLaurin was elected to the state House in 2018 before his election to the Senate in 2022.
His campaign launch is being co-hosted by state Sen. Derek Mallow, a Savannah Democrat who has served in both the House and Senate with McLaurin.
“I think Sen. McLaurin has demonstrated he can work across the aisle and deliver for farmers in rural Georgia, protect the Okefenokee in Coastal Georgia, support economic development in rural Georgia, stand with northwest Georgia as they face immense tragedy, and help metro Atlanta folks by reforming booting,” Mallow said.
In his time in office, McLaurin has captured the attention of national news outlets on a few occasions.
Last year, he made the national media rounds to discuss his time as the roommate of now-Vice President JD Vance. The two lived together while attending Yale Law School.
McLauren leaves behind an open Senate seat. Long-timer GOP member Mike Dvorscak called to tell me his running for that seat, SD 14.
In other news, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms formed an exploratory committee, inching closer to a run for Governor on the Democratic side.
Democrat Debra Shigley is running to take the place of the soon to resign Brandon Beach, according to an email I received from the Senate Dems.
This isn’t Shigley’s first race. She lost to Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones this past November.
The Walton Tribune reports that Marc McMain has announced a run for SD 46, made open by Senator Bill Cowsert’s run for Attorney General.
There are sure to be many more announcements for races across the state. The dominoes have only begun to fall.
