Jason Carter, a Democratic state senator and grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, announced Thursday he’s running for governor.
“I’m running for governor because I believe in Georgia at its best and Georgia at its best requires us to invest in education instead of cutting billions from our classrooms. It requires us to have an honest government that works for everybody, not just well-placed friends, and it requires an economy that works for the middle class and right now we’re not getting that.”
The 38-year-old attorney said he thinks Gov. Nathan Deal is vulnerable.
“Democrats and Republicans agree that our education system is on the brink. You have the state school superintendent who is an elected Republican who can’t take it anymore and is running against the governor in his own primary and at the end of the day if we want to have and prepare for the future that we all want we’ve got to make a change today.”
The governor’s office responded in short order and defended Deal’s education record.
Meanwhile, some say Carter should wait another election cycle or two for demographic trends to present a better opening for a Democrat running statewide. Carter dismisses that.
“The bottom line is we can’t wait as a state…I believe that the people of Georgia are a lot more independent-minded than folks who want to talk about red states and blue states give credit for.”
Carter, who represents portions of Decatur, Atlanta, and Avondale Estates, was first elected to the state Senate in 2010. He touted his work there.
“I’ve led successful bipartisan coalitions to preserve money for public education, to keep higher education affordable and I’ve also been a fiscal conservative because that’s what I believe and I believe we can have a small and effective government but what we’ve lost track of in Georgia is the effective part.”
Earlier this year, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was criticized from within his own party for saying Georgia Democrats in 2014 should focus on the open U.S. Senate seat, not the governor’s race. Despite that, Carter said Reed would be a key supporter.
“Kasim Reed and I are friends and he’s done a great job of working across the aisle with Governor Deal but again I believe that Kasim Reed and I can do that together when I’m the governor and he’s the mayor. Kasim Reed is going to be my partner in this and I’m really glad about that.”
He also said his grandfather, who himself was a Georgia legislator and governor, would be an asset.
“I think at the end of the day that there are partisan people who talk about my grandfather but outside of the hyper-politicized bubble, I almost never meet somebody who thinks he wasn’t a good man.”
Carter won’t step down from his state Senate seat while running. Former state legislator Connie Stokes, who was previously the only other Democrat in the race, said Thursday she’d instead run for lieutenant governor.
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