BRACK: Egad! Oodles of candidates running for governor

By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum

OCT. 21, 2025 | At least 12 people have announced that they will be candidates to succeed Bryan Kemp as Georgia’s governor in the 2026 election. Today we will give a brief description of them, to give you a glimpse of who they are.

First, here are the Republican candidates.

Chris Carr: He is the current attorney general of Georgia. Chris Carr, 53, was born in Michigan and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1995 and a law degree in 1999 from the University of Georgia. He served as Sen. Johnny Izakson’s chief of staff in Washington.

Clark Dean, a businessman, founded Transwestern’s Transaction Sciences Group, and studied biomedical engineering at Harvard, where he played varsity football. His background includes consulting and financial structuring. He is past president of the Rotary Club of Atlanta.

Burt Jones, 46, current lieutenant governor, is a businessman and six-generation native of Jackson. His family’s business is Jones Petroleum, and he founded JP Capital and Insurance, Inc. As a walk on, he was a four year letterman for the University of Georgia football team. He has been president of the Butts County Rotary Club.

Gregg Kirkpatrick has announced he is seeking the governorship. He is a native of Crosby, North Dakota, who graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. He has been in mentorship marketing with Amway.

Leland “Jake” Olinger, 51, of Locust Grove is a native of Elkhart, Indiana and has an associate degree from Elkhart Area Career Center. His career experience includes working in the manufacturing and service industries, and as an activist. His non-profit is Big Daddy J Breaking Cycles.

Brad Raffensperger, 70, of Johns Creek is the current secretary of state. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Western Ontario and a Master of Business Administration from Georgia State University. Raffensperger is the chief executive officer of Tendon Systems, LLC, a contracting and engineering firm that operates in Columbus, and Forsyth County.

Now for the announced Democrats seeking the governorship.

Keisha Bottoms, 55, an Atlanta native, served as the 60th Mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Florida A&M University. She later received her J.D. from Georgia State University and has been an attorney in private practice. She previously served as the executive director of the Atlanta and Fulton County Recreation Authority. Bottoms joined the Biden Administration as senior advisor and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Geoff Duncan, 50, is from Cumming. In 2025, Duncan announced he was leaving the Republican Party and joining the Democratic Party. A native of New Kensington, Penn., he is a graduate of Georgia Tech, where he was a pitcher on the baseball team, and played four years of minor league baseball. He has been chief executive officer for Wellview Health, a Nashville-based health care navigation company. He is a frequent commenter on CNN.

Jason Esteves, 42, of Atlanta earned a degree from the University of Miami, and holds a law degree from Emory University. He’s been a middle school social studies teacher with Fonville Middle School in the Houston (Texas) Independent School District. vice president of legal and an assistant general counsel with Equifax, and an associate with McKenna Long and Aldridge. He’s a member of the Georgia Hispanic Bar Association. He has been chair of the Atlanta Public Schools Board. He served one term as a state senator.

Derrick Jackson, 59, from Tyrone, is a General Electric marketing executive, and spent 22 years as an officer in the U.S. Navy. He is a graduate of Virginia Wesleyan University, and holds a master’s degree from Troy University. He has served two terms in the House of Representatives.

Ruwa Romman, 32, was born in Amman, Jordan, and lives in Duluth. She graduated from South Forsyth High and earned a bachelor’s degree from Oglethorpe University in 2015 and a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University in 2019. Romman’s career experience includes working as a senior consultant with Deloitte, the communications director of CAIR-Georgia, and a development coordinator with Points of Light. Romman is the first Muslim woman and first Palestinian elected to the Georgia House of Representatives.

Michael Thurmond, 72, a native of Athens, served as Georgia Labor Commissioner from 1999 to 2011. He was also previously the chief executive officer of DeKalb County and a representative in the Georgia General Assembly. He also was interim superintendent of the DeKalb County School District from 2013 to 2015. He graduated cum laude from Paine College and later earned a degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law. He also completed the Political Executives program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.