Interview with David Worley, August 20, 2018

Collection: Two-Party Georgia Oral History Project

Dublin Core

Description

David Worley was born in Germany and grew up in Griffin and Jonesboro. He graduated from Harvard University in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in government. Worley worked for U.S. Representatives Dawson Mathis and Elliott Levitas in 1980. He earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1985 and began working at the law firm of Arnall Goldman Gregory (AGG). Worley, a Democrat, resigned from AGG in 1988 to run for Georgia’s sixth congressional district. He came within a few hundred votes of ousting U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich in 1990. He ran an unsuccessful campaign in Georgia’s third congressional district in 1992. He is past Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia and a member of the Democratic National Committee. He has served as a member of the Georgia State Election Board since 2004. He is currently a founding partner at Evangelista Worley.


Worley discusses his childhood and upbringing in the Atlanta area as well as his education and experience at Harvard University. He talks about his early interest in politics and work for U.S. representatives Dawson Mathis and Elliott Levitas. Worley reflects on his education, law career, and relationship with organized labor in Georgia. A large portion of the interview is devoted to Worley’s three congressional campaigns between 1988 and 1992, especially his 1990 campaign against U.S. Representative Newt Gingrich. He reviews his term as Chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia and subsequent work with the party. Worley closes the interview with an assessment of how the Democratic and Republican parties have changed over the last several decades. He analyzes the consequences of the 2016 presidential election on the state’s politics and offers thoughts on the forthcoming 2018 midterm elections.

Date

2018-08-20

Identifier

RBRL425TPGA-056

Coverage

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Files

Citation

David Worley and Ashton Ellett, “Interview with David Worley, August 20, 2018,” UGA Special Collections Libraries Oral Histories, accessed March 29, 2024, https://russelllibraryoralhistory.org/RBRL425TPGA/RBRL425TPGA-056.