Republican state Sen. Brian Strickland of McDonough told Cobb County Republicans Saturday that Georgia’s next top legal officer must enforce state law, support law enforcement and treat the office as a working job rather than an activist platform.
At the Cobb GOP’s monthly breakfast in Marietta, Strickland said he was ready to “do the job,” the Marietta Daily Journal reported. His campaign later said Georgia needs an attorney general who “actually wants to do the job, not an activist” and fights for families every day.
The office reaches beyond the familiar “top cop” label. Georgia’s official description says the attorney general advises the executive branch, represents the state in civil cases and capital felony appeals, prosecutes public corruption and may initiate civil or criminal actions at the governor’s request.
Strickland, a McDonough attorney and Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, has centered his campaign on public safety. His priorities include expanding gang and drug task forces, combating fentanyl, supporting gun rights, enforcing immigration laws and protecting seniors and businesses from fraud.
He faces Democratic state Rep. Tanya Miller of Atlanta in the Nov. 3 election. Miller, a former federal and Fulton County prosecutor, emphasizes violent crime, trafficking and consumer protection. The candidates differ over how aggressively the office should enter national political and corporate disputes.
That divide surfaced in July when Miller urged Attorney General Chris Carr to join a multistate antitrust lawsuit challenging a major media merger. Strickland responded that Georgia does not need an activist attorney general filing lawsuits for headlines, while saying each matter should be judged on whether it protects Georgia families.
Carr is not seeking another term, leaving voters to choose a new leader for the Georgia Department of Law and its statewide prosecution, consumer protection and civil litigation work.
