Garland Turk Byrd interviewed by Hal Henderson. Byrd served as lieutenant governor of Georgia from 1959 to 1963. In this interview, topics include Byrd's opinion of Vandiver’s overwhelming victory in governor’s race in 1958, interest groups, the…
In this interview Zell Miller discusses his early life and political career. Miller served as lieutenant governor of Georgia from 1975 to 1991, was elected governor of Georgia in 1990, and served as a United States senator. As governor he founded the…
John Charles Foster was elected to the Georgia Senate as a Democrat in 1974. He served as chairman of the Education Committee during his entire tenure in the senate. Under Governor Joe Frank Harris, Foster sponsored the Quality Basic Education Act…
Louise McBee was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives from Athens-Clarke County in 1991. McBee served on and chaired several committees, including the Appropriations Committee, the Retirement Committee, the World Congress Center Overview…
Thurbert Baker worked in Fulton County in the public defender’s office. He then worked as a lawyer for the Environmental Protection Agency. In 1989, he ran his first campaign for the Georgia House of Representatives, where he subsequently served five…
George Hooks was elected as a Democrat to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1980. Under Governor Joe Frank Harris, he served as the assistant administration floor leader. He served five terms in the house, and was elected to the Georgia State…
Marie Dobbs Barnes married Roy Barnes in 1970. In 1974, Roy ran a successful campaign for the Georgia State Senate; Marie was active in this and subsequent campaigns, while also raising their three children. Marie became an active advocate for early…
DuBose Porter ran a successful campaign as a Democrat for the Georgia House of Representatives, in 1982. In 1987, Porter and Griffin Lovett bought Dublin’s daily newspaper, The Courier Herald. Porter oversees the business and publishing aspect of the…
Steve W. Wrigley worked as a senior policy analyst for the Georgia State Senate in 1987 and advised Senator Zell Miller on the Mountain Protection Act. When Miller was elected lieutenant governor, Wrigley served as his executive assistant. From 1993…
Mary Margaret Oliver served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 1987-1992, and the Georgia Senate from 1993-1998. When Oliver was elected to the senate, she was appointed to chair the Judiciary Committee during her freshman term, and was the…
Peter Louis Banks worked as a congressional intern for U.S. Representative John James Flynt, Jr., from Georgia during law school. After graduating from law school, he worked as an attorney for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. He was elected to the…
W. Daniel Ebersole moved to Atlanta in 1974 to work as a volunteer aide to Atlanta city council member Charles Helms. He worked on Zell Miller’s campaigns for lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate against Senator Herman Talmadge in 1980. From 1980-1990…
Cynthia Diane Wright served as a research associate with the University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute of Government. She also served as corporate counsel to the Georgia Housing and Finance Authority and was assistant legal counsel to Governor…
Kathy Blee Ashe was first elected to the Georgia General Assembly House of Representatives in June of 1991. As a member of the Georgia House of Representatives for House District 56, Ashe served on the Education, Children and Youth, Higher Education,…
For the past 15 years, Dick Yarbrough has gained a large following with his syndicated newspaper column which reaches some 600,000 households and more than 1.3 million readers each week throughout Georgia. In March, 2013, Gov. Nathan Deal named Dick…
Casey Cagle was elected to the Georgia State Senate in 1994 at the age of twenty-eight. He served in the Senate for 12 years before being elected Lieutenant Governor of Georgia in 2006. In this election, Cagle defeated Ralph Reed, a prominent…
Johnny Isakson was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and has served in politics since his election to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1976. Since then, he has served in the Georgia Senate and both houses of Congress, and has run a successful real…
Sam Doss was elected to the Georgia State Senate as a Democrat in 1968. In the legislature, he served on the Higher Education and Appropriations Committees. He was responsible for advocating for the legislation that led to the establishment of the…
Charles Graves worked in the news industry, as a local reporter and then as the press secretary for U.S. Congressman George Davis. He also served as a Georgia State Representative and then Executive Director of the Georgia Democratic Party. In this…
Stacey Abrams served as State Representative for Georgia’s 89th House District and was selected to the role of House Minority Leader for the Georgia General Assembly. In this interview, she discusses issues facing Georgia, including the public…
John Linder grew up in Minnesota and served in the U.S. Air Force from 1967-1969. He moved to Georgia to pursue a dentistry practice, and he settled in North DeKalb County where he became involved in Georgia Republican Party politics in the 1970s.…
Bob Bell grew up in Atlanta in the 1930s-1940s. He served in the U.S. Army from 1950-1952 and received his Bachelors of Business Administration from the University of Georgia's Atlanta Division in 1954. Bell ran as a Republican for the Georgia House…
