Georgia GovernorBrian Kempis term-limited and cannot seek re-election. The coming open seat has attracted a strong field of candidates, so far including four Republicans and seven Democrats. Though both fields appear somewhat set, we are still just over a year from that general election day, which is a lifetime in politics.
Having been a part of multiple statewide campaigns that span four decades, I have also often seen them run and won by nominees who werenotthe initial frontrunner. The first Kemp campaign easily comes to mind, when then-Secretary of State Kemp was trailing a popular lieutenant governor inCasey Cagle,who won the GOP primary by a plurality. However, during a runoff with Kemp, and following a series of campaign missteps by Cagle, Kemp trounced the LG in the second election, with Cagle carrying only two of Georgia’s 159 counties.
I am starting my candidate reviews with Attorney General Chris Carr, who alsoleads by alphabet on the GOP side, and will thus have first ballot position, with an acknowledgment of his strong resume.Though still a young man, Carr has the longest and most established track record in state and federal government service. By the time of the fall 2026 election, Carr will have spent a decade as AG, the state’s de factochief legal officer.Prior to that, he served in the administration of Gov.Nathan Dealas commissionerof economic development. During his tenure there, Georgia received the recognition of being theTop State for Business, a designation it has now held for a dozen consecutive years. Still, while honors and recognition matter, it is results by which you are measured in growing an economy.
During Carr’s three years at the wheel of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, the state agency worked with other local and regional partners to land 1,069 projects across the state, representing approximately $14.4 billion total investment and the creation of more than 84,000 jobs.
Carr learned how to drive teams to deliver results.He also has learned from the best; Carr served a half-dozen years as chief of staff for U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson,and along with another mentor — Brian Kemp — Carr learned to listen, build strong teams while taking their counsel as well as from outside subject-matter experts, and to make policy decisions and then move the ball forward and down the field.
It’s not entirely surprising coming from a graduate of the renownedMarist School in Brookhaven, nor from later successes in Athens as a University of Georgia double-Dawg, first with Carr’s undergraduate degree from the Terry College of Business, and later his Juris Doctorate of Law in 1999 from UGA’s Lumpkin School of Law.
In 2019, Carr created a Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, which has since assisted and rescued more than 200 children who were being trafficked, as well as securing convictions and lengthy prison sentences for their traffickers. Three years later, Carr also created Georgia’s first statewide Gang Prosecution unit, which has obtained more than 100 convictions so far.
Additionally, Carr began a statewide opioid task force to deal with the ongoing epidemic use and sale of illegal drugs, while involving more than 300 public, private, and nonprofit entities.This initiative has largely been funded by multiple national litigation settlements with opioid manufacturers, distributors, and even some retail pharmacies, with Carr securing in excess of $1 billion in judgements and awards for state and local governments to fund interdiction efforts as well as critical treatment, prevention, and recovery services for the many who became addicted to opioids.
As public polls are not yet in circulation, it remains to be seen where this gubernatorial field will initially settle.Carr should be calling for regular and frequent candidate forums and debates across the state, starting now with his fellow GOP contenders, and in the fall with the eventual Democratic nominee.
Carr has a lane he can drive to victory, if he can avoid distraction, seek out debates, advocate for the rule of law, tout improving public safety, and by creating some space when reasonable from the White House. At the moment, the front posting and inside lane would appear to be in the hands of the lieutenant governor; however, as Casey Cagle can attest, momentum shifts and/or debate missteps can prove costly at the polls.