State Rep. Ed Lindsey announced on Thursday that he will run for the U.S. House of Representatives, seeking to represent Georgia’s 11th District.
Lindsey, a Buckhead Republican, had hinted at a possible run for several weeks, beginning at the end of this year’s session of the state Legislature.
At a recent Buckhead Business Association meeting, he said Washington D.C. needed fixing. The general election will be in 2014 and Lindsey already has one primary challenger, former U.S. congressman Bob Barr.
Here is Lindsey’s official announcement:
Dear Friends and Neighbors:
We are all in.
After lengthy discussions with my wife Elizabeth and our boys, we have decided that I will seek the Republican nomination for the 11th Congressional District of Georgia.
I have deep roots in rural, small town, and urban Georgia. My mother is a farmer’s daughter from Wilcox County and my dad was a businessman from Atlanta. I grew up in both worlds and I began my law career in Toccoa, Georgia. My family tree includes farmers, merchants, teachers, businessmen, and retail workers – no lawyers until my generation. I worked my way through college and law school doing everything from highway construction to waiting tables to running a vending machine business with my dad. In 1990, I started my own law firm in Atlanta with three friends and we have grown to having approximately 80 employees in three states. In short, I understand the values of hard work and the struggles of small business because I have lived it.
The 11th District is a wonderful and diverse district where over 700,000 of us have chosen to live, work, play, worship, and strive for better opportunities for our families. It stretches from Cartersville in Bartow County, through Cherokee County, to West Cobb County including Acworth, Kennesaw, Marietta, Smyrna, and Vinings, and finishes in Buckhead and the new city of Sandy Springs. In many ways, the 11th District is a microcosm of our state’s rich historical past and the hope for our future.
That future is at risk. America is at a crossroads. Now more than ever, we need the voice of our people heard in the halls of power in Washington.
There are many on the national level who believe that the secret to success lies in top down edicts from Washington. I have seen the same thing at our Gold Dome in Atlanta, and I have consistently opposed this kind of big government arrogance.
I have always believed that the best leadership comes from bringing the wisdom of my constituents to the proverbial table where policy decisions are made. Washington could learn a thing or two from the common sense, conservative values of the citizens of the 11th District.
Since taking office in 2004 and today as the Georgia House Republican Majority Whip, I have listened and then I rolled my sleeves up and fought for strict fiscal responsibility, fundamental tax reform, open and clean government, greater school choice and meaningful education reform, improved water resources, and tough criminal sanctions against those who would prey upon our young or elderly.
I don’t quit when things got tough. I don’t stomp my feet and yell a lot of heated, empty rhetoric. I simply roll up my sleeves, and dig in to get things done — because that is the only way things will ever get accomplished.
The naysayers that say our country is in decline and our conservative values are irrelevant are wrong. This is America. We are the bright, shining beacon of liberty and prosperity for the entire world. The only thing that can defeat us is ourselves, but you and I working together will not let that happen.
We will get our nation back on track when we send conservative reformers to Congress with the guts to stand up to President Obama — and the forces of retreat in our own party — and fight for our conservative principles and policies.
The road ahead is filled with the difficult tasks of restoring fiscal responsibility, revitalizing our economy and job growth, enhancing personal responsibility, protecting our children’s future, and preserving our personal liberties. Join me in this important journey.
I ask for your thoughts and prayers. I ask for your vote. I ask for your active support. Let’s bring hard work and real conservative reform to Washington!
For Our Families’ Future,
State Representative Edward Lindsey
Georgia House Republican Majority Whip
A Conservative Reformer for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District
Here is video of Lindsey speaking at the Buckhead Business Association on April 4.