State Sen. Blake Tillery on Monday entered the race for lieutenant governor, stepping on all the bases required of any Republican candidate as Georgia gears up for next year’s fiercely contested GOP primaries.
In Savannah, the first of seven stops across the state to announce his candidacy, the 41-year-old, four-term lawmaker from Vidalia reaffirmed his opposition to “woke” ideologies, mandates for diversity, equity and inclusion, “gender extremism,” personal income taxes, drug cartels, street gangs and sanctuary cities that don’t make undocumented immigrants accountable for their crimes.
“I’m running to protect Georgia for my kids and for your kids, and the Georgia that they will inherit,” Tillery said at a news conference at a private terminal at Savannah-Hilton Head International Airport that was attended by state Rep. Ron Stephens, Chatham County Republican Party chair Brittany Brown and two dozen other people.
“I want my kids to grow up in a Georgia that still knows right from wrong, where we stand with law enforcement, that we stand against radical woke agendas,” he said.
In boasting of his conservative credentials, Tillery cited in particular his sponsorship of a bill that would open the way for lawsuits against banking institutions that deny services to customers who are exercising their constitutional rights.
The measure, Senate Bill 57, stemmed from criticism of Daniel Defense, the Bryan County-based gun manufacturer, in the aftermath of the 2022 mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. One of the company’s guns was used in the shooting.
The measure stalled in the Senate, but Tillery said Monday he had fought a good fight:
“When conservative voices were being silenced right here in Savannah, like that [of] Daniel Defense, a gun manufacturer who was having their bank accounts closed time and time again just because they were making a product that’s otherwise legal in the United States, I stood up and fought against that.”
The job that Tillery is seeking is an influential one in state politics. The lieutenant governor also serves as president of the state Senate, and thus not only wields influence over that chamber’s legislative agenda but over the entire General Assembly’s.
Tillery, chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has held the District 19 seat since 2017. He has faced election opposition in the district, which covers the counties of Wayne, Appling, Jeff Davis, Wheeler, Montgomery, Toombs, Tattnall and Long, only twice out of eight primary and general elections. Next year’s GOP primary contest will be far different.
Four Republican state lawmakers — Senators Steve Gooch and John F. Kennedy, along with Rep. Dave Clark — have announced they are running for lieutenant governor. So has Dr. Brenda Nelson-Porter, a former candidate for secretary of state.
The only Democrat so far in the race is Sen. Josh McLaurin of Sandy Springs who, like Tillery, first announced his candidacy in Coastal Georgia, in May.
On his “whistle stop” tour of the state Monday, Tillery flew aboard an eight-seat, two-engine private jet registered to Washington Road Properties LLC, which is owned by George Snelling of Martinez, Ga.
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