(Georgia Recorder) — Long-time Athens GOP state Sen. Bill Cowsert has jumped into the race for Georgia’s next attorney general.
The seat is being vacated by sitting Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, who launched his campaign for governor late last year. Carr has been the state’s top law enforcement official for nearly a decade.
Cowsert, who was first elected to the Senate in 2006, touted his work on a special investigative committee focused on Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whose office indicted President Donald Trump and 18 others in the 2020 election interference case. Willis was disqualified last year by the Georgia’s Court of Appeals for misconduct because of a relationship she had with the special prosecutor in the case, and that case has largely stalled.
A controversial bill sponsored by Cowsert this year expands that committee’s scope to also examine groups affiliated with Stacey Abrams after the New Georgia Project, a left-leaning voter engagement organization she founded, settled long-running ethics allegations in January.
If elected, Cowsert said he would work to make sure “illegal immigrants, sex traffickers, violent gangs and fentanyl pushers are too afraid to cross the state line.”
He also took a swipe at his hometown.
“Let me be clear. I will use every power allowed by law to slam the door shut on sanctuary cities like my hometown of Athens,” he said. “Our Georgia will no longer tolerate the musings of extremist liberals more concerned with hurting the feelings of Venezuelan gang members in our country illegally than they are with keeping young women from being brutally murdered and raped. Her name was Laken Riley. We will say her name, and we will not allow this to happen again in Georgia.”
Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student who was killed in February 2024 while jogging at the University of Georgia. A Venezuelan immigrant authorities say crossed into the U.S. illegally, Jose Ibarra, was sentenced to life in prison last year. Riley’s murder became a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration.
Cowsert, who grew up in Macon, is the founding partner of Cowsert Heath LLP in Athens, a “small town” law firm that handles cases from northeast Georgia down to Macon, according to its website. He also chairs the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee.
Cowsert will face fellow Sen. Brian Strickland in the GOP primary for the seat. Strickland, a McDonough Republican and attorney who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, became the first candidate for attorney general when he filed his paperwork early this month just before lawmakers wrapped up the 2025 legislative session.
No Democrats have announced a bid for the office yet.
Qualifying for the 2026 election is still a year away, but the prospect of open seats in a competitive state has prompted many candidates to get a jumpstart on the campaign trail.
