John Barrow

John Jenkins Barrow (born October 31, 1955) is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for GA's 12th congressional district from 2005 to 2015.

The district includes much of the Georgia side of the Central Savannah River Area and includes counties as far south as Coffee County and as far west as Laurens County.

He is a member of the Democratic Party.

As a Democratic congressman in an increasingly Republican district, Barrow was targeted for defeat by Republican strategists from the time he was first elected.

Twice the GOP-controlled Georgia General Assembly redrew his district, forcing him to move first from Athens to Savannah and then from Savannah to Augusta to remain a resident of his district.

Barrow graduated from the University of Georgia with a political science degree in 1976.

While a student, he was a member of the university's Demosthenian Literary Society.

In 1979, he earned a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School.

After graduation, he entered private practice as a lawyer, working until his election to public office.

Barrow is married to the former Angèle Hawkins of Atlanta.

Together they have 5 children: Charlie, Manette, Alex, James, and Ruth.

Barrow is a Baptist.

In 1990, voters from the City of Athens and Clarke County voted to consolidate the two governing bodies.

Barrow was elected to the newly created Athens-Clarke County Commission, representing the county's fourth district.

He won re-election in 1992, 1996, and in 2000.

Barrow sponsored 59 bills of his own, including:

The 12th had been one of the districts Georgia gained as a result of the 2000 United States Census, and stretched from Athens to Augusta.

The district, with its 40% African-American population, had supposedly been drawn for a Democrat.

However, Republican college professor Max Burns had won the seat in 2002 because of ethical questions surrounding the Charles "Champ" Walker, Jr., the Democratic nominee that year.

This time, however, Barrow won a four-way primary and went on to defeat Burns by 52% to 48%.

At the same time Barrow was elected, the Republicans won control of both houses of the Georgia state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction.

One of their first acts was a rare mid-decade redistricting that targeted Barrow and the other white Democrat in the Georgia delegation, Jim Marshall.

In 2004, Barrow entered the Democratic primary for Georgia's 12th District.

Barrow's 2006 candidacy faced not only the mid-decade redistricting but also two visits by President George W. Bush to the district, campaigning by national figures on behalf of Burns (including RNC Chair Ken Mehlman and U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert) and popular Governor Sonny Perdue's reelection bid.

In the 2008 election, Barrow faced a primary challenge from State Senator Regina Thomas, who represents a majority-black district in Savannah.

Barrow won the Democratic nomination with 76% of the vote over Thomas with 24% of the vote, 96% of the precincts reporting.

He easily defeated his Republican challenger, former congressional aide John Stone, with 66% percent of the vote.

Barrow aligned himself closely with Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential primary.

One proposed map, seriously considered, would have drawn his home in Athens into the heavily Republican 9th District of seven-term incumbent Nathan Deal, while throwing the other half of Athens into the equally Republican 10th District of six-term incumbent Charlie Norwood.

The final plan was somewhat less draconian, but shifted all of Athens to the 10th District.

Rather than face certain defeat, Barrow moved from his ancestral home of Athens to Savannah in the newly redrawn 12th.

The new 12th was slightly less Democratic than its predecessor.

It now included several Republican-leaning Savannah suburbs that had previously been in the heavily Republican 1st District.

Barrow faced Burns in the general election and won by only 864 votes — the narrowest margin of any Democratic incumbent nationwide.

However, he trounced Burns in Chatham and Richmond counties — home to Democratic-leaning Savannah and Augusta, respectively (as well as more than half the district's population) — by a total of over 17,000 votes.

He was ultimately defeated in his 2014 bid for re-election.

Barrow was the Democratic nominee for Georgia Secretary of State in 2018, but lost in a run-off election.

Barrow was born in Athens, Georgia, to Judge James Barrow and his wife, Phyllis (Jenkins) Barrow, who both had served as military officers during World War II.

His family has deep roots in the Athens area, and according to his staff he is a great-great-nephew of David Crenshaw Barrow Jr., for whom nearby Barrow County was named.

Through his Barrow ancestors he is related to 19th-century Georgia Gov. Wilson Lumpkin.