Roy Barnes

Roy Barnes

Roy Barnes (born March 11, 1948 in Mableton , Cobb County , Georgia ) is an American politician and former governor of the state of Georgia (1999-2003).

Youth and political advancement

Barnes graduated from South Cobb High School in 1966 and then studied law at the University of Georgia . In 1972 he successfully completed this course with the grade Cum laude . He has been politically active since 1974. This year, he was for the Democratic Party in the Georgia State Senate voted. He held this mandate until 1990. In the Senate, he was a member and temporarily chairman of the legal committee. In 1990 he applied for the governor of Georgia for the first time. In these elections, however, he was defeated by Zell Miller . He then successfully ran for the Georgia House of Representatives . There he was active in various committees until 1998. That year he ran again for the office of governor. This time he was able to assert himself within his party and he also managed to beat Republican Guy Millner in the actual elections with 53% to 44%.

Georgia Governor

As governor, he focused on two issues: education and health reform. In education, the average number of students per class has been reduced and academic standards raised. In the field of health care, he worked to ensure that patients can freely choose their doctors. Another law made health insurances responsible for all consequences of refusals or delays in necessary treatments. The governor wanted to achieve better medical care for the population. During his tenure, the national flag was redesigned, which led to protests in the population and later (2003) to a renewed revision of the flag. In 2002, Barnes ran again; this time he was defeated by his Republican opponent Sonny Perdue .

After the end of the term

Today Roy Barnes is back as a lawyer in a large Atlanta law firm . He has been married to Marie Dobbs since 1970, with whom he has three children.

In July 2010, Roy Barnes won the Democratic Party's primary for that year's gubernatorial election by a clear margin over Thurbert Baker , the Attorney General of Georgia. However, in the main election on November 2, 2010, he was defeated by his Republican challenger Nathan Deal with a result of 53% to 43% of the vote.

Web links

• The New Georgia Encyclopedia (English)
• Roy Barnes in the National Governors Association (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ CNN election center