Buddy Carter
Official portrait, 2025
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromGeorgia's1st district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2015
Preceded by	Jack Kingston
Member of theGeorgia State Senate from the1st district
In office November 22, 2009 – 2014
Preceded by	Eric Johnson
Succeeded by	Ben Watson
Member of theGeorgia House of Representatives from the 159th district
In office January 10, 2005 – September 15, 2009
Succeeded by	Ann Purcell
Personal details
Born	Earl LeRoy Carter (1957-09-06)September 6, 1957 (age 68) Port Wentworth, Georgia, U.S.
Party	Republican
Spouse	Amy
Children	3
Education	Young Harris College (AA) University of Georgia (BS)
Website	House website Campaign website
Carter's voice Carter onJewish American Heritage Month Recorded May 25, 2023

Earl LeRoy "Buddy"Carter (born September 6, 1957)^[1] is an American politician serving as theU.S. representative forGeorgia's 1st congressional district since 2015. The district is based inSavannah and includes most of the state's coastal southern portion. A member of theRepublican Party, Carter was elected to Congress afterJack Kingston decided to run for Senate.

Carter announced in May 2025 that he would not seek re-election to the House in 2026, instead seeking theRepublican nomination for Senate, to challenge Democratic incumbentJon Ossoff.

Carter graduated in 1975 from Robert W. Groves High School inGarden City, Georgia. He earned anassociate degree fromYoung Harris College in 1977 and aBachelor of Science inpharmacy from theUniversity of Georgia in 1980.

Carter served on the planning and zoning commission for the city ofPooler from 1989 to 1993 and on Pooler's city council from 1994 to 1995. He served as Pooler's mayor from 1996 to 2004.

Carter served as aGeorgia state representative (2005–2009) andGeorgia state senator (2009–2014).^[2][3] He sat on the Senate Appropriations, Health and Human Services, Higher Education, and Public Safety committees.^[2]

Carter gave up his state senate seat in 2014 to run for Congress after 22-year incumbentJack Kingston announced he was running for theUnited States Senate. He finished first in the six-way Republican primary–the real contest in this heavily Republican district–with 36% of the vote, short of the 51% required for outright victory.^[4] He then defeated Bob Johnson in the runoff with 53% of the vote.^[5] In the general election, he defeated the Democratic nominee, Brian Reese, with 60.9% of the vote, carrying all but two counties in the district.^[6] In 2016, he was unopposed in both the primary and general elections, and received over 99% of the vote against a write-in candidate.^[7][8]

Carter was reelected in 2018, 2020, and 2022.^[9]

For the119th Congress:^[10]

• Committee on Energy and Commerce
  • Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
  • Subcommittee on Environment
  • Subcommittee on Health (Chair)
• Committee on the Budget

• Congressional Blockchain Caucus^[11]
• Congressional Western Caucus^[12]
• House Baltic Caucus^[13]
• Republican Study Committee^[14]
• Republican Governance Group^[15]
• United States Congressional International Conservation Caucus^[16]
• U.S.–Japan Caucus^[17]

Carter has announced his candidacy in the Republican primary for the2026 United States Senate election in Georgia. In his campaign announcement, Carter cited securing the border and ending transgender athletes' participation in school sports as priorities, criticizing incumbent DemocratJon Ossoff's approach to these issues.^[18]

Carter supportedDonald Trump'sattempts to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election and has promotedTrump's false claims of a stolen election. He called for the results of the2020 U.S. presidential election in Georgia to not be certified,^[19][20] and was part ofa group of Republican legislators who unsuccessfully challenged votes forJoe Biden during the2021 United States Electoral College vote count, even though federal agencies and courts overseeing the election found no evidence of electoral fraud.^[21]

Carter supported theU.S. Supreme Court's decision inDobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overruledRoe v. Wade. He believesabortion laws should be made by individual states.^[22]

In 2023, Carter was among 16 House Republicans who signed a letter to theHouse Agriculture Committee opposing the inclusion of the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act in the 2023farm bill. The EATS Act would have invalidated certain state and local laws regulating agricultural products sold across state lines, including farmanimal welfare laws likeCalifornia's Proposition 12, which requires that pork, egg, and veal products sold within the state adhere to minimum animal space requirements. The letter argued that the legislation would infringe onstates' rights and harm U.S. national security by unfairly advantaging the Chinese-owned pork producerWH Group and its subsidiarySmithfield Foods.^[23] 

In 2017, Carter renewed his push to drug-test people who receive unemployment insurance.^[24]

On April 1, 2022, Carter voted against theMarijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which would have decriminalized cannabis at the federal level, allowing states to set their own policies.^[25][26]

Carter voted to provideIsrael with support following the2023 Hamas attack on Israel.^[27][28]

In 2025, Carter introduced a bill authorizing President Trump topurchase or otherwise acquire Greenland and rename it "Red, White, and Blueland".^[29]

Carter is a supporter of gun rights, and has an "A" grade from theNational Rifle AssociationPolitical Victory Fund for his stances on gun issues.^[30]

In February 2018, during a town hall inHinesville, when asked about mass shootings in America, Carter told attendees to not look to Congress for answers about gun violence, saying Congress is not responsible for gun violence in America.^[31]

Carter supports the repeal of theAffordable Care Act (Obamacare).^[32]

On July 26, 2017, Carter was asked during a live television interview if he supportedTrump's criticism of U.S. SenatorLisa Murkowski for her opposition to the procedural vote to begin the Senate's healthcare debate. Carter said he did, adding, "Somebody needs to go over there to that Senate and snatch a knot in their ass."^[33] The incident prompted widespread media coverage.^[34][35][36]

Carter co-sponsored a bill that would let illegal immigrants serve in the U.S. military in exchange for legal residency.^[37]

Carter supported Trump's 2017executive order to temporarily curtail immigration from seven countries until better screening methods are devised. He said, "While I believe there needs to be thoughtful clarifications on the executive actions similar to Secretary Kelly’s announcement about lawful permanent residents, the number one priority of the federal government is to provide for the common defense."^[38]

Carter wants to prohibit all federal funding fromsanctuary cities in Georgia (sanctuary cities prohibit city officials from asking about a person's immigration status when they report an unrelated crime).^[39] He also said he would like to test the huge backlog of rape kits in Georgia, except in sanctuary cities.^[40]

Carter spearheaded efforts to expand privatized immigrant detention and processing in Georgia, coordinating withCharlton County and the D.Ray James Correctional Facility.^[41]

In 2017, Carter said he supported a ban ontransgender people serving in the military.^[42][43]

Carter voted for theTax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,^[44] saying he believed it would make businesses in his district more competitive in a global market. He also said it would help his constituents earn and/or save more money.^[45] Carter is a sponsor of "H.R.25 The FairTax Act of 2023" which would abolish the current US tax structure and replace it with a yearly adjustable variable "national sales tax" (value-added tax) starting at 23% in 2025 to be administered by the states and remitted to theU.S. Treasury Department.^[46]

During the2026 Iran massacres, a group ofIranian Americans inAtlanta, Georgia, protested the employment of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani - daughter of Ali Larijani, who has been described as the mastermind of the massacres^[47] - outside her place of employment at theWinship Cancer Institute.^[48][49] Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani was fired from her position following the protests.^[50][51] Carter has demanded that Ardeshir-Larijani's medical license to treat patients in the United States be revoked, calling it a threat to national security.^[52][53]

Carter and his wife, Amy, have three adult sons.^[54]

Carter is aMethodist.^[55] He is not related to late former U.S. PresidentJimmy Carter, who was also from Georgia.^[56]

Carter was conferred the honoraryDoctor of Humane Letters degree by Young Harris College at its 2024 commencement ceremony.^[57]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toBuddy Carter.

Wikiquote has quotations related toBuddy Carter.

• Congressman Buddy Carter official U.S. House website
• Buddy Carter for Congress
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Biography at theBiographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at theFederal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at theLibrary of Congress
• Profile atVote Smart

• 1957 births
• 20th-century mayors of places in Georgia (U.S. state)
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