Jan Jones (Georgia politician)

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 redistricting cycle; starting in the 2022 elections, her district took in a part of Cherokee County, shifting her district from one that voted 53.4% for Donald Trump in 2020 to one that voted 57% for Trump in 2020.[3]

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]

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's bid for speaker.[13][14] Jones instead chose to seek reelection as president pro tem.[14]

Jones is a longtime school voucher proponent, and was leading figure supporting a push in the 2023 legislative session to give $6,500 per student in state-funded vouchers for private school tuition and homeschooling;[15] students zoned for public schools scoring in the lowest 25% would be eligible.[16] The proposed program would cost $110 million, if 1% of Georgia public school students participated.[16] The bill was supported by conservative advocacy groups, such as the right-wing groups such as Americans for Prosperity and opposed by public education groups and teachers' organizations.[17][18] The bill stalled in March 2023, with the House voting 95–70 to table it;[16] an amended version of the bill also later failed, 85–89, in the final hours of the session, after more than a dozen Republican representatives (mostly representing rural districts) joined almost all Democrats in voting against it.[17][18]