Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr launches Republican bid in 2026 governor’s race
ATLANTA– Georgia’s Republican Attorney General Chris Carr said Thursday he will run for governor in 2026, becoming the first major candidate from either party to announce a bid.
Prominent Republicans and Democrats are eyeing their seat, which will open in two years after the Republican administration becomes term-limited. Brian Kemp leave the office. Other potential Republican contenders include Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Carr portrays himself as the best candidate to continue the stable Republican leadership in the form of the late U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, former Governor Nathan Deal and Kemp.
“I’ve seen what it takes to be successful,” Carr told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “And I want to run as the proven conservative who will create jobs for hardworking Georgians, keep our families and neighborhoods safe, and fiercely defend our Constitution and freedoms.”
Carr has close ties to Kemp, but could face opposition from newly elected President Donald Trump and his supporters in primaries. Jones has had a close relationship with Trump and is likely to be looking for his support. Trump, on the other hand, supported key opponents who ultimately lost to both Carr and Raffensperger in 2022, fueled by his displeasure that neither Carr nor Raffensperger supported. Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss in Georgia.
Carr said he was confident he could win on issues and appeal to enough voters to win a Republican primary, despite his past disagreements with Trump.
“This race isn’t about how loudly someone yells or screams, it’s about a conservative record,” he said. “And I’m the one who has that.”
It is exceptionally early to announce a political bid for 2026. Normally, statewide candidates in Georgia would announce themselves sometime after the 2025 legislative session. But Carr announced more than a year ago that he was gathering donors for a run. That’s partly because Jones and Raffensperger are much richer than Carr.
Carr filed papers with the Georgia Ethics Commission on Thursday and formed a campaign committee to raise money for the governor’s race. By announcing now, Carr could help retain donors, especially since he can’t raise money for his state campaign account during the three-month legislative session that begins Jan. 13.
The attorney general’s office in Georgia traditionally deals with defending civil lawsuits against the state and can only assist in a prosecution if a local prosecutor requests help. But Republican lawmakers have given Carr increasing powers to directly prosecute criminals.
In 2019, lawmakers gave Carr the authority to create a human trafficking prosecution unit. Carr’s office says the unit has convicted 50 people, participated in 325 investigations and assisted more than 200 victims.
In 2022, lawmakers directed Carr to create a statewide gang prosecution unit that now has offices in Atlanta, Albany, Augusta, Columbus, Macon and Southeast Georgia. That unit has secured more than 40 convictions and indictments against more than 140 people.
“No one is going to come here to look for a business or a job if they don’t feel safe,” said Carr, who called his office’s expansion of prosecutions “very successful.”
After working as an attorney and vice president of the conservative Georgia Public Policy Foundation, Carr got his start in politics when he joined U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson’s staff in 2004 and became Isakson’s chief of staff in 2007.
Gov. Nathan Deal chose Carr to become economic development commissioner in 2013 after another longtime Isakson hand, Chris Cummiskey, left to work for the Southern Co., the Atlanta-based utility giant. Deal placed a major emphasis on economic development as Georgia tried to emerge from the wreckage of the Great Recession, and Carr helped facilitate projects worth more than $14 billion in investments that helped create more than 83,000 jobs .
Deal promoted Carr to attorney general in 2016 after Sam Olens resigned to become president of Kennesaw State University. Carr had not made money as a lawyer in years and had never personally tried a case. But he was unchallenged in the 2018 Republican primary and narrowly defeated Democrat Charlie Bailey in the general election.
In 2022, Carr destroyed right-wing primary challenger John Gordon, despite Gordon receiving Trump’s support, and then defeated Democrat Jen Jordan with the narrowest victory of any Republican in the statewide vote that year.
Georgia’s attorney general has no term limits, meaning Carr could have chosen to run for re-election in 2026.
Republicans have won six straight gubernatorial races in Georgia since Sonny Perdue became the first Republican elected in modern times in 2002. Democrats had hoped to break that streak under Stacey Abrams in 2022 after she narrowly lost to Kemp in 2018, but Kemp defeated her by a comfortable margin in their rematch.