Georgia House Democratic leader James Beverly won’t seek reelection in 2024

ATLANTA (AP) — The Democratic leader in Georgia’s state House won’t seek reelection this year.

House Minority Leader James Beverly of Macon told The Associated Press in a Thursday interview that he’s stepping down to seek other ways to serve the public. Beverly said the decision was driven in part by a redrawn district that introduced new territory and the recognition that Democrats are unlikely to win a majority in the 180-member House in this year’s legislative election.

Beverly is the second top legislative Democrat to announce he’s stepping down. Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler of Stone Mountain announced her retirement last month.

But unlike the 82-year-old Butler, Beverly is 55. He said there’s a chance he’ll run for office again in the future, although probably not as a House member.

“I think just a pause, see what I can do, and see if there’s a reason to jump back in this,” he said.

Beverly is an optometrist who also holds business and public affairs graduate degrees. He said he wants to focus more on his business, anti-poverty and affordable housing efforts in Macon, to “get back to what you came up here for — and that is really trying to do what’s right by the community.”

One motivation for his decision is that Democrats, who now hold 78 seats House, did not benefit strongly enough from recent court-ordered redistricting to give them a realistic chance to win a majority in this year’s legislative elections.

“I don’t know that we flip the House, so being speaker or something like that, probably not in the stars at this point,” he said.

First elected to the House in a 2011 special election, Beverly took over his caucus in November 2020 after former House Minority Leader Bob Trammell lost his reelection bid. With