GOP Senator Isakson of Georgia to Retire at End of 2019

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican and chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said he will retire at the end of this year, citing health issues.

Isakson, 74, said in a statement that he made his “very tough decision” after a four-year struggle with Parkinson’s disease, a fall in July and surgery this week to remove a growth from his kidney.

“With the mounting health challenges I am facing, I have concluded that I will not be able to do the job over the long term in the manner the citizens of Georgia deserve,” Isakson said.

He is now in his third term in the Senate, which ends in 2022. He won his last re-election with 54% of the vote. Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, said he would appoint a replacement “at the appropriate time.” The Georgia Secretary of State’s office said a special election would be held in 2020 to fill the remaining two years of Isakson’s term.

Isakson’s decision to leave at the end of 2019 sets up an unusual situation in which both of Georgia’s Senate seats, now in GOP control, would be on the ballot in 2020, a presidential election year.

Georgia is a state where Democrats are looking to take advantage of demographic changes to make inroads in what has been a reliably Republican-leaning state. In 2018, Democrat Stacey Abrams narrowly lost the governor’s race to Kemp. Abrams previously declined to challenge Senator David Perdue, who is up for election in 2020.

Abrams today tweeted a statement stating that she hasn’t changed her mind about running for the Senate from Georgia and will remain focused on an effort to help combat voter suppression through a newly created group.

Kyle Kondik, managing editor of the non-partisan Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia, said Republicans are favored to keep both of Georgia’s Senate seats next year. Still, it opens an opportunity for Democrats, who need to expand their targets for flipping Senate seats in order to have a chance at taking control of the chamber.

‘More Competitive’

“We see Republicans favored but not overwhelmingly,” he said. “Georgia is becoming a more competitive state.”

Isakson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease six years ago. In July, Isakson fell in his Washington, D.C., apartment and suffered four fractured ribs and a torn rotator cuff. He disclosed Wednesday that on Monday he underwent surgery in Marietta, Georgia, to remove a 2-centimeter renal cell carcinoma from one of his kidneys.

On the Veterans Affairs panel, Isakson has helped push through legislation overhauling veterans’ private health-care programs, allowing for an expedited process for firing Veterans Affairs Department employees, and streamlining the VA’s appeals process. He also chairs the Senate Ethics Committee.

He earlier served in the Georgia state legislature as both a House and Senate lawmaker, and also served for six years in the U.S. House.

--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis and Margaret Newkirk.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum

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