Leader of Georgia state Senate Democrats won’t seek office again this year

ATLANTA (AP) — The leader of the Democrats in Georgia’s state Senate says she won’t run for office again this year.

Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler of Stone Mountain announced her retirement on Tuesday.

“I’ve had an extraordinary journey at this Capitol,” Butler, 82, told senators. “I didn’t have a clue that I would stay longer than the designated 10 years I gave myself.”

Butler was first elected to the state Senate in 1998, and now represents a district that includes parts of DeKalb and Gwinnett counties in suburban Atlanta. In 2020, fellow Democrats elected her as the first Black woman to lead the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Butler said didn’t set out to be a role model for women “but it turns out that I will be.”

She’s one of only a few Democrats still serving from when the party was in the majority before Republicans took over in the Senate in 2002. Today, 23 of 56 senators are Democrats.

“You have to work harder, much harder when you are in the minority,” Butler said. “You have more things to do. You have to keep your eyes peeled on every single thing that’s going on.”

Butler’s retirement marks just the latest turnover among Georgia’s legislative leadership. Senate Republicans got new leadership after Burt Jones was elected to the lieutenant governorship in 2022, and Republican senators chose John F. Kennedy of Macon as Senate President Pro Tem. Republican Jon Burns became speaker of the House last year after David Ralston’s death. The longest serving legislative leader is now House Minority Leader James Beverly, a Macon Democrat who took over his caucus in November 2020 after former House Minority Leader Bob Trammell lost his bid for reelection.

Butler said she thought her strength as minority leader has been in building consensus among fellow Democrats.

“As the leader, I think that I’ve had the ability to pull out members together, to work together to discuss without being angry,” she said.