Jump to content

Jan Jones (Georgia politician)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by CommonsDelinker (talk | contribs) at 09:12, 27 November 2022 (Removing Jan_Jones.jpg; it has been deleted from Commons by Túrelio because: Copyright violation:.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Jan Jones
74th Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives
Assumed office
November 16, 2022
Preceded byDavid Ralston
Speaker pro tempore of the Georgia House of Representatives
In office
January 11, 2010 – November 16, 2022
Preceded byMark Burkhalter
Member of the Georgia House of Representatives
Assumed office
January 13, 2003
Preceded byRoger Hines
Constituency38th district (2003–2005)
46th district (2005–2013)
47th district (2013–present)
Personal details
Born (1958-01-28) January 28, 1958 (age 66)
Warner Robins, Georgia, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
SpouseKalin Jones
Children4
EducationUniversity of Georgia (BA)
Georgia State University (MBA)

Jan Slaughter Jones (born January 28, 1958) is an American politician in Georgia. A Republican, she been a member of the Georgia House of Representatives since 2003, and has been speaker of the House since 2022. Jones was formerly speaker pro tempore of the House, holding the position from 2010 until 2022. She is the state representative for Georgia's 47th House district, which covers some of the northern Atlanta suburbs, including parts of Milton, Roswell, Alpharetta, Mountain Park, and unincorporated Cherokee County.

Early life, education, and family

Jones was born in Warner Robins, Georgia. She is the granddaughter of two Laurens County, Georgia farmers and the daughter of a career soldier. She graduated with a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Georgia.[1] She later received an M.B.A. from Georgia State University. She is a former marketing manager for HBO.

Georgia House of Representatives

Jones was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 2002, taking office on January 13, 2003. In the 2005-2006 legislative session, she briefly served as the House Republican Majority Whip.

Jones is currently the state representative for Georgia's 47th House district, which covers some of the northern Atlanta suburbs (including parts of North Fulton County, such as Milton, Mountain Park, Alpharetta, and Roswell, as well as a portion of unincorporated eastern Cherokee County).[2]

Jones' district became more heavily Republican in 2021, during the 2020 redistricting cycle; by taking in a part of Cherokee County, her district went from one that voted 53.4% for Donald Trump in 2022 to one that voted 57% for Trump in 2020.[3]

Speaker Pro Tempore (2010–2022)

In January 2010, Jones was elected Speaker Pro Tempore of the Georgia House (the second-highest leadership position in the chamber), becoming the first female to serve in the role and the highest-ranking woman in Georgia legislative history.[1][4]

In 2014, Jones supported legislation to block Medicaid expansion in Georgia.[5]

In 2016, Governor Nathan Deal and others encouraged Jones to seek the Republican nomination in the 2017 Georgia's 6th congressional district special election, for the U.S. House of Representatives seat vacated by Tom Price. Jones declined to run.[6]

In 2019, after Republican U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson announced his intent to resign from the Senate, Jones was one of many well-known Republican applicants who sought an appointment to fill the vacancy (others included Price, Jack Kingston, and Randy Evans). Governor Brian Kemp ultimately chose Kelly Loeffler to fill the vacancy.[7]

In early 2020, Jones opposed legislation to ban books in schools deemed "obscene"; the proposal targeted various works that address issues of race and gender, such as Toni Morrison's novel Beloved and Maia Kobabe's memoir and graphic novel Gender Queer. In late 2021, however, Jones reversed positions, backing an "anti-obscenity" bill similar to the one she had previously opposed.[8][9]

After Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and Trump refused to concede while making false claims of fraud, Jones supported a controversial effort to change Georgia's election laws. Critics deemed the Georgia election legislation an effort to restrict voting rights (see Republican efforts to restrict voting following the 2020 presidential election).[10] Jones was later involved in efforts to initiate a performance review of local election officials in Fulton County (a heavily Democratic county), which could later be used to remove the election officials.[11] Trump and his Republican allies targeted Fulton County when they were making false claims of fraud.[11]

Speaker of the House (2022–present)

In November 2022, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston died in office.[12] Jones was temporarily elevated to speaker following Ralston's death, becoming the first female speaker of the Georgia House.[12][13] Jones decided not to seek to run in the November 2022 Republican caucus election for speaker; she chose, along with the rest of Ralston's Republican leadership team, to support Majority Leader Jon G. Burns' bid for speaker.[13][14] Jones instead chose to seek reelection as president pro tem.[14]

Personal life

Jones and her husband, Kalin, have four children. They reside in Milton, Georgia.

References

  1. ^ a b Tharpe, Jim (January 18, 2022). "Jan Jones could bring big changes to Georgia House". Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  2. ^ "Representative Jan Jones". www.house.ga.gov.
  3. ^ Ross Williams, GOP lawmakers stake out wins in Atlanta suburbs as state-level redistricting wraps, Georgia Public Radio (November 16, 2021).
  4. ^ Sturgeon, Kathleen (October 1, 2019). "House Speaker Pro Tem Jones Applies For U.S. Senate Appointment". Alpharetta-Milton, GA Patch. Retrieved December 3, 2020.
  5. ^ Andy Miller, Georgia House committee passes bill to block Medicaid expansion, Athens Banner-Herald (February 25, 2014).
  6. ^ Greg Bluestein, Jan Jones, the No. 2 in Georgia House, won't run for Tom Price's seat, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (December 6, 2016).
  7. ^ Greg Bluestein, Inside how Kemp picked Loeffler for the U.S. Senate, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (December 5, 2019).
  8. ^ Greg Bluestein, Georgia GOP leader backs 'obscenity' legislation that echoes what she once opposed, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (December 7, 2021).
  9. ^ Patricia Murphy, Greg Bluestein & Tia Mitchell, The Jolt: Book ban battle headed for Georgia General Assembly, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (December 7, 2021).
  10. ^ Service, Beau Evans Capitol Beat News. "Controversial Georgia election laws tackled in U.S. Senate hearing". Albany Herald. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  11. ^ a b Fredreka Schouten and Dianne Gallagher. "Georgia Republicans inch closer to a takeover of elections in state's largest county". CNN. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Nunez, Gabriella. "Georgia House speaker David Ralston dies". WXIA-TV. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
  13. ^ a b Patricia Murphy, Greg Bluestein & Tia Mitchell, The Jolt: State House Republicans to pick Ralston successor, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (November 14, 2022).
  14. ^ a b Jeff Amy, Some candidates drop out, endorse Burns as Georgia speaker, Associated Press (November 10, 2022).

External links

Georgia House of Representatives
Preceded by
Roger Hines
 Member of the Georgia House of Representatives
from the 38th district
2003–2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of the Georgia House of Representatives
from the 46th district
2005–2013 		Succeeded by
John Carson
Preceded by Speaker pro tempore of the Georgia House of Representatives
2010–2022 		Succeeded by
Vacant
Preceded by Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives
2022–present 		Incumbent
Preceded by Member of the Georgia House of Representatives
from the 47th district
2013–present
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jan_Jones_(Georgia_politician)&oldid=1124097940"