By: Dave Williams and Ty Tagami
Buddy Carter declares for Senate bid
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island, has become the first Republican to jump into next year’s U.S. Senate race following term-limited Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to pass on the contest.
Carter announced his candidacy Thursday with a 30-second video ad posted on YouTube declaring the sixth-term congressman’s close ties with Donald Trump.
“Trump has a warrior in Buddy Carter,” the narrator says in the ad, which goes on to call Carter a “MAGA warrior.”
Carter, 67, a former mayor of Pooler and former member of the General Assembly, was elected to Congress in 2014. He represents Georgia’s 1st Congressional District, which covers all six coastal counties and all or parts of nine inland counties in southeastern Georgia.
The ad criticizes Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff for voting against securing the nation’s borders and opposing efforts at the federal level to ban transgender athletes born male from participating in girls’ sports. Both the illegal immigration and transgender sports issues have been high on Trump’s list of priorities.
With Kemp out of the race, the Republican field is expected to grow significantly larger. Other members of Georgia’s GOP delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives reportedly considering joining the fray include Mike Collins, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Rich McCormick.
Kemp announced last Monday that he would not running for Ossoff’s Senate seat. The governor was widely considered as having the best shot among Republicans at turning Ossoff out of office next year after a single term.
John King declares for race
John King, Georgia’s insurance commissioner -- not the assistant city manager of the city of Covington -- has joined the Republican primary election in hopes of unseating Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff next year.
King, a major general in the U.S. Army National Guard and a former police chief, is the first official elected statewide to join the race. He won the election for insurance and safety fire commissioner in 2022 after Kemp appointed him to the position in 2019.
The native of Mexico is the first Hispanic to have won statewide office in Georgia.
King came to America at age 17 and enlisted in the National Guard, rising from private to major general when he retired in 2023. He was deployed to Afghanistan, Africa, Bosnia, and Iraq. Over four decades in law enforcement, he rose from beat cop in Atlanta to police chief in Doraville.
In his announcement Monday, King emphasized these roles, his statement saying he “was shot and stabbed in the line of duty.” King also underscored his ties to President Donald Trump, noting that he was deployed to the southern border during Trump’s first term and co-chaired Trump’s 2020 campaign in Georgia.
Despite his statewide election success, King could struggle with national name recognition, which plays a role in campaign fundraising. Ossoff has proven a prodigious fundraiser, bringing in more cash than any sitting U.S. senator.
Still, King drew a veteran GOP strategist to his campaign. Dan McLagan, who worked for Gary Black’s campaign in the U.S. Senate primary won by Herschel Walker, is handling communications for King.
