LISTEN: The Fulton County lawmaker launched his campaign in the port city of Savannah, criticizing recent tariff policy as a "needless tax on consumers and working people." GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.
Democratic Georgia Sen. Josh McLaurin announced his candidacy Monday for lieutenant governor, traveling to Savannah from his home district in northern Fulton County to launch his bid for the state's second-highest office.
Standing along the city's historic riverfront with the Port of Savannah looming in the background, McLaurin framed next year's race as a referendum on the Trump administration — especially its economic policy of tariffs on many imported goods.
"The first reason I'm here today is to recognize that Savannah, Ga., is the front line in the war that Georgia should be fighting against these senseless tariffs," McLaurin said. "But right now, our state leaders are doing anything but stand up to Trump's tariffs. If anything, they are sucking up to Trump and trying to pretend that everything that he's doing is hunky-dory."
The second reason McLaurin launched his campaign in the Hostess City, he said, was to demonstrate the importance of reaching out to voters well beyond metro Atlanta — an area which he said often hogs the political limelight.
"Sometimes metro Atlanta candidates get a bad rap because the rest of the state says, 'Hello? There's more than just Atlanta,'" McLaurin said, adding that "all of Georgia matters: Coastal Georgia and the rest of those places that often don't get as much airtime" as the capital city.
On the same day, McLaurin's campaign announced endorsements from 29 state and local elected officials, including state Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook, a Democrat whose district covers parts of Savannah and surrounding Chatham County, including a portion of the Port of Savannah.
"We want to keep that prosperity flowing throughout our region," Westbrook said of the port's historically bustling traffic. "Now, that is not assured right now: our way of life, our prosperity, our system of government — nothing is assured right now. And that is because of what is coming out of Washington and what is unfortunately infecting so much of state government here in Georgia."
The Port of Savannah is the East Coast's second-busiest container port, behind only the Port of New York and New Jersey, and sources much of its imports from China, a country whose goods are currently subject to a 145% tariff.
When asked by GPB who in his party he would like to see run for governor, McLaurin declined to issue an endorsement, stressing that each office is elected independent of one another rather than on a single ticket, unlike many other states.
"I'm not making a formal endorsement in the gubernatorial race, just because I think that you really owe it to voters to focus — if you're running a statewide race — on your race and explain your case and your vision," he said.
The most recent Democrats to serve as Georgia's governor and lieutenant governor were, respectively, Roy Barnes, whose gubernatorial term ended in 2003, and Mark Taylor, who held the lieutenant governor's office until 2007.
