The grandson of former President Jimmy Carter won’t run to represent Georgia in the Senate, instead endorsing a fellow Democrat seeking to flip the seat from red to blue.
Jason Carter, 44, a former state senator and gubernatorial nominee, announced his support of Teresa Tomlinson on Friday in her bid to oust incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue, 70.
“I’m tired of the dysfunction in D.C. Georgia needs to send someone to D.C. who knows how to unravel the mess that we are in,” Jason Carter said in a statement. “Teresa is uniquely qualified for this role because as a successful attorney and mayor of one of the state’s largest cities she shows how to get results for the people she serves,” he added of Tomlinson, 54, the former mayor of Columbus, Georgia.
Help us welcome Jason Carter to #TeamTomlinson. He served in the @GASenateDems from 2010 to 2015 and was the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia in 2014. Carter’s grandfather is former Georgia Governor and President Jimmy Carter. pic.twitter.com/ZlazSeZcGr
— Teresa Tomlinson (@teresatomlinson) January 23, 2020
Tomlinson is one of many Democrats seeking the seat in the “jungle primary,” including Jon Ossoff, 32, who previously ran in the marquee 2017 special election to replace then-Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in the House.
A jungle primary means that parties do not nominate a candidate to take part in a general election through a primary process. Rather, all candidates run together, and in the event that no candidate receives a majority, the top two finishers meet in a runoff, so the finalists could be two Republicans or two Democrats.
In addition to the race for Perdue’s Senate seat, Georgia is also hosting a concurrent special election after Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson, 75, resigned at the end of 2019 due to health concerns. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, 49, was appointed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, to succeed Isakson through November 2020. The special election will be for the final two years of Isakson’s term, which ends after the 2022 elections.
Jason Carter was a state representative in Georgia for five years, leaving the Statehouse in January 2015. The former Peace Corps volunteer and lawyer was slammed for his inexperience by then-Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, when he sought the governor’s mansion in 2014.
Jason Carter is the son of Jack Carter, one of four children of former President Jimmy Carter, 95, and Rosalynn Carter, 92. Jimmy Carter is the oldest living president and the longest-surviving ex-president. Inauguration Day 2021, Jan. 20, will mark 40 years since the one-term Democratic president left office.
