(The Center Square) – Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King said Monday he is running for the U.S Senate seat held by Democrat Jon Ossoff, setting up a primary battle between Republicans.
U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter announced Thursday that he would enter the race to unseat the one-term Democrat.
King is the first Hispanic elected to statewide office in Georgia after winning the 2022 election.
He was appointed to the post in 2019 by Gov. Brian Kemp after Jim Beck was indicted on federal fraud charges related to his tenure as general manager of operations for the Georgia Underwriting Association.
King is a military veteran, former Doraville police chief and former Atlanta police officer.
“I’ve never shied away from a fight but what truly scares me today is having Jon Ossoff for six more years,” King said in a video announcement on social media.
King’s announcement comes after a post from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who said Friday she would not run for the Senate seat. She said she believed she could defeat Ossoff in a general election but did not want to be in the Senate.
“I won’t fight for a team that refuses to win, that protects its weakest players, and that undermines the very people it’s supposed to serve,” Greene said in the post.
Ossoff was elected in 2021 after beating incumbent David Perdue in an early January runoff. Neither candidate won 50% of the vote in the November 2020 election; Libertarian candidate Shane Hazel siphoned off 2% of the vote in the close race.
