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Jen Jordan
Member of the Georgia State Senate
from the 6th district
In office
December 15, 2017 – January 9, 2023
Preceded byHunter Hill
Succeeded byJason Esteves
Personal details
Born
Jennifer Lyn Auer

(1974-10-17) October 17, 1974 (age 50)
Jacksonville, North Carolina, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Lawton Jordan
​
(m. 2004)​
Children2
EducationGeorgia Southern University (BS)
University of Georgia (JD)

Jennifer Lyn Auer Jordan (born October 17, 1974)[1] is an American lawyer and politician who represented District 6 in the Georgia State Senate from 2017 to 2023. She is a member of the Democratic Party.[1]

Early life and education

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Jennifer Lyn Auer[2] was born on October 17, 1974,[3] at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune North Carolina to Winona Giddens Purser and Michael James Auer. Michael had been stationed at Camp Lejeune since high school. When she was in kindergarten, her parents divorced. After the divorce, Winona moved to Eastman, Georgia, with her two children, Jen and Jessica. Winona was employed as a hairdresser, and the family lived in a small apartment.[4]

Jordan was educated in the Dodge County School District.[5] She received her bachelor's degree from Georgia Southern University and a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law.[1] During her time at law school, Jordan was a member of the Georgia Law Review and of the school's award-winning moot court team. She is a master with the Joseph Henry Lumpkin Inn of Court.[6]

Career

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After graduating from law school, Jordan worked as a federal clerk for judge Anthony Alaimo of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.[7]

From 2002 to 2004, Jordan was an attorney with Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore LLP in Atlanta.[3] From 2004 to 2008, she was a trial attorney with the Barnes Law Group.[3] Jordan was part of the team to litigate Perdue v. Lake, a constitutional challenge to the 2006 Photo ID Act.[8]

From 2010 to 2014, Jordan served as Of Counsel for the Bird Law Group Professional Corporation.[3] From 2013 to 2015, she ran her own law firm, The Jordan Firm.[3] Since 2015, she has been a partner with Shamp, Jordan, & Woodward in Atlanta.[3] In 2018, Jordan won the Golden Rule Insurance Company case, against an insurance agency that had claimed that breast cancer was a pre-existing condition and refused to cover treatments for an insured patient.[9]

Georgia state senate

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2017 campaign

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In 2017, Jordan beat 7 competitors to compete in a runoff election against Democrat Jaha Howard for the Georgia State Senate's 6th district after Hunter Hill resigned in order to run for governor.[10] Jordan promised she would raise the minimum wage in Georgia to $10.10 per hour and give local municipalities the power to set their own wage standards.[11]

On December 5, 2017, she defeated Howard. Her victory in this election ended what had been a Republican supermajority in the State Senate.[10][12] Jordan defeated Howard by having 10,681 votes (64%), while Howard had only 6,017 votes (36%).[10]

Voting rights

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In early 2021, Jordan was outspoken in her opposition to SB 202, claiming that the bill amounted to a "hostile takeover of local elections boards."[13] When companies began to boycott Georgia after the bill was passed, Jordan said that she would rather have "people and companies in this state use their economic power for change than not come here at all."[14]

Environmental justice and Sterigenics

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Jordan's district, which includes a broad swath of the Northern Atlanta suburbs, includes a medical sterilization plant called Sterigenics. In 2019, testing revealed that neighborhoods around the plant were experiencing spikes in the amount of ethylene oxide, a chemical which can cause cancer, in the air.[15] Jordan sent information about the situation to Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr, asking for their help in resolving the situation in August 2019.[16] In September 2019, she sued the Georgia Environmental Protection Division in response to a consent order which permitted the plant to continue operating with some limitations despite releasing toxins, arguing that the company had unlawfully entered into an agreement which endangered her neighbors and constituents with the EPD.[17]

A temporary restraining order issued on April 1, 2020, allowed the plant to resume full operations despite the pending lawsuit due to increased need for medical sterilization during the COVID-19 epidemic.[18] On April 8, 2020, a federal judge issued a consent order allowing the plant to continue indefinitely under the terms of the restraining order. Jordan cited the Sterigenics lawsuit, and Chris Carr's refusal to become involved, as reasons she decided to run for Attorney General in the 2022 elections.[19]

Jordan sitting next to Bee Nguyen while discussing abortion laws. (May 15, 2019)

Abortion

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Georgia House Bill 481 was a bill that would have outlawed abortions 20 weeks after conception, in violation of Supreme Court precedent in Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood.[20] Jordan opposed the bill; giving a speech about her own experiences with pregnancy loss and prenatal medical care and asking Republican lawmakers not to "insert [themselves] in the most personal, private, and wrenching decisions that women make every single day."[21]

Following her speech against the bill, she testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in order to prevent Senate Bill 160 from being passed.

2018 and 2020 elections

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In 2018, Jordan won re-election against Republican Leah Aldridge with 58% of the vote.[22] In 2020, Jordan won re-election against Republican Harrison Lance with 62% of the vote.[22]

2022 attorney general campaign

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On April 14, 2021, Jordan announced she was running for attorney general of Georgia, against incumbent Christopher M. Carr.[23] She planned to fight for women's issues, defend voting rights, prevent pollution, create new gun control laws to prevent shootings, and protect children from child predators. If she won, she would've been the first female attorney general of Georgia.[24] She was endorsed by End Citizens United.[25] She lost the election and conceded to Carr.[26]

Personal life

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Jordan is originally from South Georgia but had moved to the Atlanta area for her law practice. She and her husband, Lawton, have two children.[27]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Georgia State Senator Jennifer Jordan (Democrat - 6)". Georgia State Senate. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  2. ^ University of Georgia School of Law (Class of 2001) Commencement
  3. ^ a b c d e f Jen Jordan's Biography
  4. ^ Marquez, Jennifer Rainey (February 11, 2020). "The Passion of Jen Jordan: How an unlikely politician became the new voice of Georgia's Democratic party". Atlanta Magazine. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
  5. ^ "Jennifer Jordan Bio January 2019 Senate Press Office" (PDF). January 2019.
  6. ^ Bill Nigut (Host). Political Rewind, Another Big Tuesday In Race To White House, Georgia Public Broadcasting, 3/10/2020, https://cpa.ds.npr.org/wjsp/audio/2020/03/fullshow.mp3
  7. ^ "Jen Jordan Bio" (PDF). Georgia State Senate. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  8. ^ "FindLaw's Supreme Court of Georgia case and opinions". Findlaw. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  9. ^ "Who We Are". Shamp Jordan Woodward - Trial Attorneys. Archived from the original on May 20, 2021. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c Gargis, Jon (November 25, 2017). "District 6 candidates Jaha Howard and Jen Jordan to court voters from both parties". Marietta Daily Journal. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  11. ^ Willis, Haisten (December 6, 2017). "Jen Jordan officially ends GOP supermajority in Georgia State Senate". Cobb County Courier. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
  12. ^ Williams, Ross (December 6, 2017). "Jen Jordan wins the 6th District". Marietta Daily Journal. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  13. ^ Jordan, Jen [@senatorjen] (March 27, 2021). "#SB202 is effectively a hostile takeover of Georgia's local elections boards and the state election board. #gapol https://t.co/OyJGUkKsqo" (Tweet). Archived from the original on June 11, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2022 – via Twitter.
  14. ^ Journal-Constitution, Patricia Murphy-The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionGreg Bluestein- The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionTia Mitchell- The Atlanta. "The Jolt: To boycott or not to boycott? Georgia Democrats' new question after SB 202". ajc. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  15. ^ Goodman, Brenda (September 22, 2020). "Ethylene Oxide: Tests Show Spike In Toxic Gas After Plant Reopened". Georgia Public Broadcasting. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  16. ^ Jordan, Jen [@senatorjen] (August 1, 2019). "Yesterday I sent packets of info to @BrianKempGA & @Georgia_AG Chris Carr. Hopefully upon receiving these they will join us in taking action. The ethylene oxide emitted by Sterigenics is more than a Smyrna problem - this affects Georgians in multiple parts of our state. #GAPol https://t.co/fhSRVZeKN7" (Tweet). Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2022 – via Twitter.
  17. ^ Manins, Rosie (September 6, 2019). "Senator files lawsuit against state regarding Sterigenics' Cobb facility". MDJOnline.com. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  18. ^ "Latest on Sterigenics Plant situation | Cobb County Georgia". www.cobbcounty.org. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  19. ^ Voices. Team Jen. April 14, 2021. Archived from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved December 5, 2022 – via YouTube.
  20. ^ EDT, Jenni Fink On 3/29/19 at 3:21 PM (March 29, 2019). "Georgia's strict anti-abortion bill could have a negative $9.5 billion economic impact, passes house". Newsweek. Retrieved April 24, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ Jen Jordan's dissent on HB 481. James Galloway. March 23, 2019. Archived from the original on November 9, 2022. Retrieved December 5, 2022 – via YouTube.
  22. ^ a b "Election Night Reporting". results.enr.clarityelections.com. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  23. ^ "Atlanta attorney Jen Jordan announces run for Georgia attorney general". Clayton News. April 15, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
  24. ^ "Atlanta Dem state senator to make run for Georgia attorney general". 11Alive.com. April 14, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2021.
  25. ^ "The Jolt: Senate may rethink its voting rights agenda after Warnock's pleas". ajc. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  26. ^ Staff (November 9, 2022). "Democrat Jen Jordan concedes in Georgia attorney general race". www.wrdw.com. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  27. ^ "Jen Jordan Bio" (PDF). Georgia State Senate. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
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Party political offices
Preceded by
Charlie Bailey
 Democratic nominee for Attorney General of Georgia
2022 		Most recent
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