ATLANTA — Jason Carter, grandson of the 39th president Jimmy Carter, is not ruling out a run for governor in 2026.
The former state senator and chair of the board of trustees at The Carter Center made the comments during an interview on 11Alive's Sunday politics show, The Georgia Vote.
He previously ran unsuccessfully for governor as a Democrat in 2014. When asked if he plans to make another run for the office in 2026, Carter said he's "not ruling it out."
"My last experience didn't go how I wanted, so it's a much more difficult decision to make personally," he said. "It's important to see what the world looks like, how we're all bringing things together, and whether we have the kind of candidates (in 2026) that are going to connect with people and do the work that needs to get done."
He said he's currently "hyper-focused on this 2024 election."
Carter said both he and his grandfather will be supporting President Joe Biden.
"I think when we get to the fundamentals, by the time we get to November, you're going to see an economic record from Biden, you're going to see a real record on so many other issues, and you're going to compare that to Trump's record and those voters that right now are sort of not feeling the vibes maybe around Biden I think are going to come back," said Carter.
"I think the people who voted to fire Donald Trump last time are going to be there to support Biden this time," he added. "Including, by the way, my grandfather. And me."
Carter also reflected on how Georgia politics have changed in the decades since Jimmy Carter was campaigning for state office.
"When we ran for governor, he lost in 1966 and ran again in 1970, and he told me that in that interim four years, he shook 600,000 hands," said Jason Carter. "Just saw people where they were, met them, said 'hi, I'm Jimmy Carter.' And that kind of, even if it's fleeting, that little personal connection was real. And today, our politics is so driven by fundraisers and donors and isolated candidates who are dealing with social media and other things that the biggest fear that I have--and I even felt it when I was running ten years ago--is that candidates just get isolated from regular people."
