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.

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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