Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr files for 2026 gubernatorial race

ATLANTA, Ga. — Republican Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said Thursday he is running for governor in 2026, becoming the first major candidate from either party to announce a bid.

Prominent Republicans and Democrats are eyeing the seat, which will open two years after term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp leaves office. Other potential Republican challengers include Lt. Gov. Bert Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Carr is positioning himself as the best candidate to continue the strong Republican leadership modeled by the late U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, former Gov. Nathan Deal and Kemp.

“I saw what it takes to be successful,” Carr told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “And I want to run as a proven conservative who will create jobs for hardworking Georgians, keep our families and neighborhoods safe, and vigorously defend our Constitution and freedoms.”

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Carr has worked closely with Kemp but could face opposition from President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters in the primary. Jones was close to Trump and would probably like to win his support. In contrast, Trump supported primary opponents who ultimately lost to both Carr and Raffensperger in 2022, fueled by his dissatisfaction that neither Carr nor Raffensperger supported Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat in Georgia.

Carr said he is confident he can win the issues and appeal to enough voters to win the Republican primary, despite his past differences with Trump.

“This race isn’t going to be about how loud someone yells or screams, it’s going to be about the conservative record,” he said. “And I have this.”

It is exceptionally early to announce a political bid for 2026. Georgia candidates typically announce it sometime after the 2025 legislative session. But Carr signaled more than a year ago that he was gathering donors for the race. Part of this is because Jones and Raffensperger are much richer than Carr.

On Thursday, Carr filed paperwork with the Georgia Ethics Commission to create a campaign committee to raise money for the governor’s race. Announcing now could help Carr isolate donors, especially since he won’t be able to raise money for his statewide campaign account during the Jan. 13 three-month legislative session.

The attorney general’s office in Georgia has traditionally been tasked with defending civil lawsuits brought against the state and could only assist in prosecutions if the local district attorney requested assistance. But Republican lawmakers gave Carr additional powers to directly prosecute criminals.

In 2019, lawmakers gave Carr the authority to create a unit to prosecute human trafficking. 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, which now has offices in Atlanta, Albany, Augusta, Columbus, Macon and southeast Georgia. The unit has secured more than 40 convictions and charges against more than 140 people.

“Nobody comes here and finds a business or a job if they don’t feel safe,” Carr said, calling his office’s expansion of criminal prosecutions “very successful.”

After working as a lawyer and vice president of the conservative Georgia Public Policy Foundation, Carr entered politics when he joined U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s staff in 2004 and became Isakson’s chief of staff in 2007.

Gov. Nathan Deal selected Carr to become economic development commissioner in 2013 after another old Isakson aide, Chris Cummiskey, left to work for Southern Co., the Atlanta-based utility giant. Deal focused heavily on economic development as Georgia struggled to emerge from the ruins of the Great Recession, and Carr helped implement more than $14 billion in investments that helped create more than 83,000 jobs.

Deal appointed Carr as attorney general in 2016 after Sam Olens resigned to become president of Kennesaw State University. Carr had not practiced law for a living for many 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 trounced right-wing primary challenger John Gordon, despite Gordon receiving Trump’s endorsement, and then defeated Democrat Jen Jordan for the narrowest victory of any Republican on the state ballot that year.

Georgia’s attorney general has no term limits, meaning Carr could 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. with a comfortable lead in the rematch.

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