TIFTON — It comes as no surprise that Nita Cagle knows who she’s voting for in the Georgia governor’s race.

“He [Casey Cagle, current Lt. Governor and candidate for the Republican nomination for governor] just wants to make a difference. He is ready for this. It’s time. He’s the best one to do the job.”

Stopping in Tifton on a recent south Georgia tour, Nita talked about why she wants to see Casey as governor.

“I would say experience,” said Nita. “Wisdom. Just the vision he’s got of what Georgia could be, the positivity. He’s a born leader and is ready to do it.”

She points to his life experience: growing up with a single mother working two jobs, shuffling around to seven different elementary schools, becoming a small business owner in his early 20s before getting into politics.

“He knows poverty,” she said. “He’s lived it. His heartbeat is to use the education system in Georgia to be the hub of improving lives for those children, and teaching them work skills they can use.”

Education is one of the issues she wants to focus on herself if she becomes Georgia’s next first lady.

“I, of course, would like to come up behind him with education and support that in anyway I can. Literacy, of course. And the pre-K parts of our education are at my heartbeat. I’ve very proud of our Georgia pre-K, all the things that they’ve done to help education for our younger ones.”

She’d also like to focus on the opiate crisis.

“We’ve had some personal issues, some extended family issues with that. It’s not discriminate. A lot of times it starts out in a very innocent way: from a back injury or having a baby, something very simple and then becomes a problem.

“I hope to be able to open some doors for some help to come for people who may be facing that.”

She also wants to “champion and bring a spotlight to the local small businesses.”

Early on in their marriage, Nita and Casey ran two bridal shops, Gene’s Bridal and Tux, in Gainesville and Athens.

They’ve since sold them, but running the two shops gave them an appreciation for the challenges small business owners face, she said.

She’s not worried about the recent rise in “outsider” candidates, people with little to no political background running for office, sometimes upsetting candidates with years of experience.

“I understand that,” she said. “I’ve heard that. It’s funny, because in the private sector and in every other area of life, wisdom and longevity are respected and admired and sought after.

“Just because you do a job a long time doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing.”