Current:Home > MyLeader of Georgia state Senate Democrats won’t seek office again this year-LoTradeCoin
Leader of Georgia state Senate Democrats won’t seek office again this year
View Date:2024-12-23 21:43:26
ATLANTA (AP) — The leader of the Democrats in Georgia’s state Senate says she won’t run for office again this year.
Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler of Stone Mountain announced her retirement on Tuesday.
“I’ve had an extraordinary journey at this Capitol,” Butler, 82, told senators. “I didn’t have a clue that I would stay longer than the designated 10 years I gave myself.”
Butler was first elected to the state Senate in 1998, and now represents a district that includes parts of DeKalb and Gwinnett counties in suburban Atlanta. In 2020, fellow Democrats elected her as the first Black woman to lead the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Butler said didn’t set out to be a role model for women “but it turns out that I will be.”
She’s one of only a few Democrats still serving from when the party was in the majority before Republicans took over in the Senate in 2002. Today, 23 of 56 senators are Democrats.
“You have to work harder, much harder when you are in the minority,” Butler said. “You have more things to do. You have to keep your eyes peeled on every single thing that’s going on.”
Butler’s retirement marks just the latest turnover among Georgia’s legislative leadership. Senate Republicans got new leadership after Burt Jones was elected to the lieutenant governorship in 2022, and Republican senators chose John F. Kennedy of Macon as Senate President Pro Tem. Republican Jon Burns became speaker of the House last year after David Ralston’s death. The longest serving legislative leader is now House Minority Leader James Beverly, a Macon Democrat who took over his caucus in November 2020 after former House Minority Leader Bob Trammell lost his bid for reelection.
Butler said she thought her strength as minority leader has been in building consensus among fellow Democrats.
“As the leader, I think that I’ve had the ability to pull out members together, to work together to discuss without being angry,” she said.
veryGood! (496)
Related
- Are banks, post offices, UPS and FedEx open on Veterans Day? Here's what to know
- A legal battle is set to open at the top UN court over an allegation of Israeli genocide in Gaza
- Which NFL teams would be best fits for Jim Harbaugh? Ranking all six openings
- The family of an Arizona professor killed on campus reaches multimillion-dollar deal with the school
- Oregon's Dan Lanning, Indiana's Curt Cignetti pocket big bonuses after Week 11 wins
- Unsealing of documents related to decades of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of girls concludes
- Human remains believed to belong to woman missing since 1985 found in car in Miami canal
- “We are on air!” Masked gunmen storm TV studio in Ecuador as gang attacks in the country escalate
- American arrested in death of another American at luxury hotel in Ireland
- With California’s deficit looming, schools brace for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s spending plan
Ranking
- Skiing legend Lindsey Vonn ends retirement, plans to return to competition
- Japan’s nuclear safety agency orders power plant operator to study the impact of Jan. 1 quake
- Sports gambling creeps forward again in Georgia, but prospects for success remain cloudy
- 'Holding our breath': Philadelphia officials respond to measles outbreak from day care
- Bodyless head washes ashore on a South Florida beach
- Ford recalls 130,000 vehicles for increased risk of crash: Here's which models are affected
- Maryland lawmakers to wrestle with budgeting, public safety, housing as session opens
- 'This is goodbye': YouTuber Brian Barczyk enters hospice for pancreatic cancer
Recommendation
-
Tesla Cybertruck modifications upgrade EV to a sci-fi police vehicle
-
Cesarean deliveries surge in Puerto Rico, reaching a record rate in the US territory, report says
-
Full House Cast Honors Bob Saget on 2nd Anniversary of His Death
-
This Avengers Alum Is Joining The White Lotus Season 3
-
Today's Craig Melvin Replacing Hoda Kotb: Everything to Know About the Beloved Anchor
-
Melania Trump’s Mom Amalija Knavs Dead at 78
-
Why are these pink Stanley tumblers causing shopping mayhem?
-
A legal battle is set to open at the top UN court over an allegation of Israeli genocide in Gaza