DECATUR, GA — Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is term-limited, and cannot seek re-election. The coming open seat has attracted a strong field of candidates, four Republicans and seven Democrats, thus far. 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 were not the initial front-runner. The first Kemp campaign comes easily to mind, then Secretary of State Brian Kemp was trailing a popular Lieutenant Governor, Casey Cagle, who won the GOP Primary by a plurality, but during the runoff with Kemp, and following a series of campaign missteps by Cagle, Kemp trounced the LG in the second election, with Cagle only carrying two of 159 counties.

I am starting my candidate reviews with Georgia’s Attorney General, Chris Carr, who also leads 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 Attorney General, the state’s de facto Chief Legal Officer. Prior to that, Carr served in the administration of Governor Nathan Deal as Georgia’s Commissioner of Economic Development. During his tenure there, Georgia received the recognition of being the Best State for Business, a designation which has now held for a dozen consecutive years, and while honors and recognition matter, it is the results by which you are measured when growing an economy. During Carr’s three years at the wheel of GDEcD, the state agency worked with other local and regional partners to land 1,069 projects across the state, representing an approximate total investment of $14.4 billion, and the creation of more than 84,000 jobs.

Carr learned how to drive teams to deliver results. And he 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, to build strong teams, 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. Not entirely surprising coming from a graduate of the renowned Marist School in Brookhaven, Georgia, nor his later successes in Athens as a double-Dawg at the University of Georgia, first with his undergraduate degree from the Terry College of Business, and later receiving his Juris Doctorate of Law in 1999 from UGA’s Lumpkin School of Law

During 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. The work to eradicate sex trafficking in Georgia is also a passion and ongoing effort of Georgia’s popular First Lady, Marty Kemp. In 2022, Carr created Georgia’s first statewide Gang Prosecution unit, which has obtained more than 100 convictions across our state thus far.

Additionally, Carr began a Statewide Opioid Task Force, to deal with the ongoing epidemic consumption and sale of the illegal drugs, and while involving more than 300 public, private and nonprofit entities in this work. 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 the 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.

It remains to be seen, as public polls are not yet in circulation, where this field will initially settle. Carr should be calling for regular and frequent candidate forums and debates across the state, now with his fellow GOP contenders, and in the fall with the eventual Democratic nominee. The front posting and inside lane at the moment would appear in the hands of the Lieutenant Governor, but as Casey Cagle can relate...momentum shifts and debate missteps can be costly.

Carr has a lane he can drive to victory, if he can avoid distraction and seek out debates, while advocating for the rule of law, improving public safety and creating some space when reasonable from the White House, he will also be more strongly positioned for the fall of 2026.