Jason Carter addresses supporters at the Melting Point Sunday afternoon, May 4, 2014
The charismatic Democratic candidate faces no primary opposition in the May 20 Democratic horse race, unlike his likely opponent in incumbent Governor Nathan Deal (who faces two primary challengers in former Georgia School Superintendent John Barge and Tea Party endorsed Mayor David Pennington of Dalton).
I would highly urge each and every reader of this blog to vote in the Republican primary May 20 and cast their vote against Nathan Deal. Furthermore, please consider voting for any of the Republican Senate candidates besides Paul Broun.
Georgians have a real chance to get rid of Paul Broun once and (probably not) for all if he finishes third or lower in the Republican primary.
Polls seem to indicate that there will be a run off between David Perdue and possibly Karen Handel or Jack Kingston in the Georgian Republican Senate primary.
I cast a vote for Art Gardner for US Senate in Georgia and John Barge for Governor on the first day of advance voting. There had not been many people in the polling place in Watkinsville, and this is the last week of advance voting before the May 20th primary.
Carter was born at Emory University Hospital in 1975. He is a 9th-generation Georgian. He is the son of Juliet Langford andJack Carter, who challenged Republican U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada in 2006, losing that race to Ensign, 55%-41%. After graduating from Duke University, Jason Carter served in the Peace Corps stationed in South Africa. He lived in Lochiel, South Africa, where he worked on education issues in rural areas. He learned to speak Zulu and Siswati.[3] He wrote a book, titled Power Lines, about his experiences there.[4] He went on to earn a law degree at the University of Georgia School of Law, graduating summa cum laude in 2004.[5]
He currently works as an associate for the law firm of Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore in Atlanta.[6] He won the Stuart EizenstatYoung Lawyer Award, given by the Anti-Defamation League, for his pro bono work defending voting rights.[7] He represented the National Football League Players Association.[3]
2010 election[edit]
In a May 11, 2010 special election for the Georgia Senate in the 42nd district, Carter won with 65 percent of the vote.[8] The seat had been vacated by David Adelman, who became the United States Ambassador to Singapore.[9] Carter became the first member of the Carter family to win elected office since his grandfather, Jimmy Carter, was elected President of the United States.[8] Carter was later re-elected to the Senate in the 2010[10] and 2012[11] general elections.
Committee assignments[edit]
- Judiciary
- Science and Technology
- Special Judiciary
- Transportation
- Urban Affairs[12]
In 2013, Carter commissioned a poll of a potential race against Nathan Deal in the 2014 Georgia gubernatorial election.[13] He subsequently announced that he would run for the Democratic nomination.[14]
His wife, Kate, is a current high school teacher and a former award-winning journalist at the Athens Banner-Herald. They have two sons, Henry and Thomas, ages 7 and 4.[3][9]
Jason Carter, who is seeking election as governor of the state of Georgia, visited Athens on Sunday to discuss issues important to Georgians and meet with supporters at the Melting Point.
Carter, who is the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, is running under the Democratic nomination against Republican incumbent Nathan Deal. Carter serves as a member of the Georgia State Senate. After graduating from Duke University and serving in the Peace Corps in South Africa, Carter graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 2004.
“The fact that you all are here is really meaningful to me, I really appreciate it and I'm glad to be back in Athens,” Carter said.
Among those is in attendance were students, members of the Athens community and mayor of Athens, Nancy Denson.
Arthur Lynch, former football player for the University of Georgia and graduate of 2013, introduced Carter at the event.
“After researching both candidates, it was easy to jump on board with Jason,” he said.
“I think what Georgia is lacking is a strong, centralized support system for public schools,” he said.
Carter began his speech by furthering the discussion Lynch started about education.
“One of reasons I am running for governor is because my children are 7 and 5, my wife is a public school teacher and what I have seen in the past several years has essentially been the worst contraction of public education in the history of our state," Carter said.
He then explained some specific issues facing the education system.
“We have 9,000 fewer teachers than we did five years ago, two-thirds of our school districts have cut instructional days and we have more kids,” he said. “We are moving in almost the exact wrong direction.”
Carter also addressed the problems the economy potentially faces because of changes made to the HOPE Scholarship Program under the Deal administration.
“Because of changes in the HOPE Scholarship Program, we lost 45,000 technical college students in one year. That's a disaster, not just for those families, but an economic disaster for everyone waiting to happen and we are starting to reap what we sow.”
Carter noted that businesses in Georgia that require technical training are suffering because they cannot find qualified people to do the job.
“There are so many extremist that have real positions of power that exert a giant amount of influence of our state government that we cannot get done the things that matter,” he said.
Carter said that even though the legislature in Georgia has a Republican majority, they would still get more done with him as Governor because a balanced government would allow for more important issues to be addressed.
“I think one of the fundamental problems with the folks that are in charge of the state government right now is that they do not actually believe that they can succeed at anything.”
Georgia's policies on the environment are long overdue for an update, Carter said.
“A good governor makes a giant difference on issues like the environment because we have not updated our environmental regulations in decades,” he said.
Carter also discussed the controversial "guns everywhere" bill and explained why he voted for it to be law. He explained that because of the differing opinions across Georgia, he felt that communities should make the decisions for themselves.
“I believe that this issue is the most geographically polarizing issue in our state," he said. “There are communities where people just do not feel comfortable with guns in any context and there are other communities across this state who feel very comfortable, in fact more comfortable, when they have guns around.”
Carter also said that he worked hard to remove the part of the bill that would allow for guns on college campuses and ensured that churches would have a choice to allow guns on their property.
Many members of Young Democrats of UGA attended the event, including Alex Rowell, a junior from Valdosta majoring in international affairs and economics.
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