Jen Jordan will be an Attorney General who fights every day for Georgians who don’t have power, money, or status. She’ll fight to give people a voice, who just need a fair shot to get ahead. She’ll fight for our fundamental rights — from defending voting rights, to protecting consumers, to ensuring access to quality, affordable health care, to fighting for environmental justice and working to reform the criminal justice system.
Senator Jen Jordan is a lawyer and mother of two who currently represents parts of Fulton and Cobb Counties in the Georgia State Senate. Although she and her family now live in Fulton County, Jen is originally from Eastman, Georgia, (population: 4,962). Growing up in rural Georgia made Jen Jordan who she is today. Raised by a single mom who worked as a hairdresser, Jen learned first-hand the value of hard work, grit, and community. After school, Jen would sweep floors at her mom’s beauty shop. It was Jen’s teachers who encouraged her to go to college. By studying hard, working multiple minimum wage jobs, and benefiting from the Hope Scholarship, Pell grants, and student loans, Jen not only graduated from college with honors but also went on to attend law school.
In 2001, Jen graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia, School of Law where she was a member of the Georgia Law Review and of the law school’s award winning National Moot Court Team. After graduating, Jen served as a federal law clerk to United States District Court Judge Anthony Alaimo. When her clerkship ended, she moved to Atlanta to begin her law practice at the firm of Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, and soon after, she married Lawton Jordan, whose uncle, Hamilton, had served as President Jimmy Carter’s chief of staff.
For the last 20 years, she has been actively practicing law, and for the last decade, she has had her own law firm. Consistently recognized as one of the top attorneys in the state, Jen specializes in complex civil cases. Her work in the courtroom on behalf of Georgia consumers has resulted in multiple successful verdicts and reported appellate decisions, most notably USA Payday Cash Advance Center #1, Inc. v. Evans and Georgia Cash America, Inc. v. Strong, cases where she represented consumers in multiple class action lawsuits against predatory payday lenders.
Jen has spent her life representing hard working families by holding the powerful, accountable. She took on an insurance company after it refused to cover the breast cancer treatments of one of its insured policyholders. The insurance company claimed that the cancer was a pre-existing condition so it didn’t have to pay for the life-saving treatment. Jen took the case all the way to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals – and won.
On a pro bono basis, Jen has taken on cases of significant public importance. In 2015, Jen brought suit against then Secretary of State Brian Kemp after she uncovered an unprecedented data breach where Kemp’s office unlawfully distributed the personal information of every voter in the state. That breach (known as the “Peach Breach”) affected over 6.5 million Georgians. Only after Jen filed suit did Kemp give the required legal notice to the victims of the breach and offer to provide credit repair insurance.
But that was not the first time that Jen had to go to court to protect voters and our rights. In 2005, Jen filed the lawsuit to delay enforcement of a newly passed voter ID law. If the law would have been enforced by elections officials that year, it could have potentially disenfranchised thousands of registered voters, many of whom were elderly voters of color.
Jen’s legal career took a different turn when she decided to run for office. In 2017, Jen won a special election to replace a Republican in the Georgia State Senate, flipping a Republican-held seat and ending the GOP’s super-majority in that legislative body. She was decisively re-elected in 2018 and 2020. Her win is often cited as marking the beginning of Georgia’s political transition from a red to blue state.
In the State Senate, Jen has gained a reputation as a skilled legislator and fierce advocate for the rights of all Georgians — working across party lines when possible. Her legal background has allowed her to expose and stop misguided legislation, through floor speeches, questioning of other legislators, and detailed legal analysis of the real-life effects of various bills. Jen has waged battles against efforts to dump more corporate money into our politics, restrict the basic rights of Georgians, and to politicize our elections system. She has promoted efforts to ensure quality education for all Georgia’s children and to ensure the adequate funding of our judicial system.
After the 2020 election, Jen led the fight in the State Senate to stand up to former President Trump’s disinformation campaign to overturn the November election results. Finding herself face to face with Rudy Giuliani and the Trump legal team at a senate hearing, Jen fought back against the “Big Lie” and defended Georgia’s election results. Jen was attacked and smeared by the right-wing conspiracy machine and received numerous death threats. But Jen remained steadfast in the defense of democracy and electoral integrity. The January 6th insurrection proved just how critical those efforts really were.
The genesis of Jen’s decision to run for Attorney General had started years before. When it was revealed that a factory in her district was emitting dangerous amounts of cancer-causing chemicals into the air, Jen led the fight to shut the plant down, filing a lawsuit against the state’s Environmental Protection Division that had failed to protect those living nearby. When she asked Georgia’s current Attorney General to act to make sure this factory operated safely, he refused, preferring instead to focus on headline-grabbing forays into national politics, despite the fact he was one of the few elected officials whose office had the power to make a difference. It was at that point that Jen made the decision to run. If the Republican Attorney General was unwilling to protect Georgians when they need it most, she decided it was time to fight for what’s right.
