Promising A Moderate Voice, Michelle Nunn Announces Run for U.S. Senate

Nunn says she’s running to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington, create jobs, and put a stop to partisan bickering.

“What I hear from people is not so much a sort of allegiance to one extreme or another in terms of party but a real yearning for common sense and for a voice that’s about getting things done and a moderate, independent voice.”

Nunn founded HandsOn Atlanta, a nonprofit promoting community service. In 2007, the organization merged with former President George H.W. Bush’s Points of Light volunteer foundation.  

Nunn says that background is an asset.

“I’ve seen the power of people to work together across differences, to roll up their sleeves and to get things done and that’s the spirit that I want to bring to this campaign and that’s the spirit I think we need to bring to Washington.”

Another asset could be her last name. Her father, Sam Nunn, was a U.S. Senator for Georgia for more than two decades.

“This is going to be my campaign but he’ll definitely be an advisor and he’ll want to roll up his sleeves to help out. He will absolutely be able to, I know, be of great support to me.”

On President Obama’s signature health reform law, Nunn is concerned about its effect on small business, but remains frustrated with Georgia’s refusal to implement one of its key elements – the Medicaid expansion.   

“I think it’s an example of where we’re playing politics unnecessarily. We’re having Georgians send their tax dollars out and they’re not coming back in and as a result we have hundreds of thousands of people that won’t be covered, including 25,000 veterans.”

On gay marriage, Nunn agrees with the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that left the definition of marriage to individual states.

“I respect every faith organization’s and church’s opportunity to define marriage within its own belief system. At a personal level, I support everyone’s opportunity to make a commitment of marriage under the law just as my husband and I have for the last 12 years.”

No Democrat holds statewide office and it’ll be Nunn’s first political campaign.  

To appeal to moderates, Emory political science professor Merle Black says Nunn will have to treat hot-topic issues delicately.

“There’s a lot you can learn from running nonprofits and all that’s a big plus but it’s just not the same thing as a partisan political campaign. Her battle will be to keep the Republicans from defining her as a liberal Democrat.”

Nunn will face two relatively unknown candidates in the Democratic primary: Atlanta physician Branko Radulovacki and Todd Robinson, an ROTC director from Columbus.