Macon’s Clark runs for lieutenant governor, supports Cooke as successor

After stepping down as county commissioner earlier this month, Seth Clark will run for lieutenant governor, leaving behind his seat that represents the Napier Heights, Ingleside, Pleasant Hill and Vineville neighborhoods.

Although a special election for Clark’s District 5 seat has yet to be scheduled, the former commissioner has already announced his endorsement of a potential successor.

Clark is supporting mental health advocate Andrea Cooke in the contest, which will need to be scheduled by the county commission. Cooke announced her run Tuesday at the Wesleyan Leadership Lab on Cherry Street.

She runs Macon Mental Health Matters, a county-sponsored initiative, and is also co-founder and development director for the Southern Center for Choice Theory, a company providing holistic care services with mental health as its focus.

Cooke said she has resigned from these roles to focus on her campaign. She said a primary focus of her candidacy will be on improving urban development in District 5 neighborhoods, with a special focus on housing and employment opportunities in Napier Heights.

“This campaign is not about ambition. It is about responsibility. It is about taking decades of lived experience in this district and years of professional service and putting it to work for the people who call District 5 home,” she said.

Clark said “there is still so much work to be done,” but “Andrea is the person to fill this role, to finish this term and to deliver for my neighbors.”

Clark’s statewide campaign

The lieutenant governor hopeful told reporters he felt compelled to run for state office because of the “void in leadership” and how that affects working families.

He said he is “fed up with lip service at the state’s Capitol” and will tackle Georgia’s affordability crisis.

Clark said tax codes written by billionaires, including a proposal supported by Republicans that would abolish the state’s income tax, would lead to thousand-dollar tax increases for families and reduce tax obligations for the wealthy.

He said families are begging for help to address grocery and utility costs and are increasingly concerned about the potential impacts of data centers.

The former county commissioner said he thought “state government and career state politicians who have been in the state Capitol for years and years and years could learn a thing or two from local elected officials.”

Clark was heavily involved with the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative, which aims to make the historic park a national park — the 64th in the U.S. and the first in Georgia — and the surrounding area a protected area. He resigned from the initiative to run for the state office.

“I think that the working folks of Georgia deserve an advocate,” he said. “They deserve someone who’s worked on their issues for the vast majority of his adult life, and they deserve an advocate — they deserve somebody who isn’t going to be a tool for billionaires and corruption.” 

Clark is running as a Democrat. Primaries are May 19, and the general election is Nov. 3.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story noted Clark resigned in December but has been corrected to note Clark resigned in January 2025.