THOMASVILLE — As Geoff Duncan announced he was not running for re-election as lieutenant governor, Butch Miller was throwing his hat into the ring.

Miller, the president pro tem of the Georgia Senate, said the decision was almost simultaneous and he was spurred by Duncan’s reluctance to call Senate Bill 202 for a vote. SB 202 has been criticized by voting rights groups and hailed by conservatives espousing voter and election integrity.  

“As presiding officer, you have opportunity to call up any bill. It was the first bill I called,” Miller said. “As president pro tem, not only did I think it was my duty, I thought it was my honor. We got it across the finish line and got it signed into law.”

Miller, a Gainesville Republican who has been in the state Senate since 2010, faces opposition for the party’s nomination from state Sen. Burt Jones of Jackson and longtime party activist Jeanne Seaver from Savannah. The Democratic field includes state Rep. Erick Allen, party strategist Kolbey Gardner, state Rep. Derrick Jackson, Bryan Miller, former Gov. Zell Miller’s grandson, and state Rep. Renitta Shannon.

Miller said the relationships he’s built across the Capitol have meant he’s gotten bills through both chambers. He recalled there was a bill stalled in the House that the Senate wanted moved through. He went to see Speaker David Ralston and with the late Jay Powell’s help, the bill sailed through and was voted on before the clock struck sine die.

“It was about building bridges,” he said. “That’s what I have done in my personal life, my business life and my political life. I did the hard work to get the job done. And that’s why I want to be lieutenant governor.”

Miller is the owner of Milton Martin Honda, having joined the business in 1993 and bought it in 1997. He and his wife Teresa have three sons, Cole, Carey and Charlie. Cole and Charlie were both diagnosed with cerebral palsy and Cole died at 14 years old.

“I gathered myself up and moved on,” he said. “The people of Georgia picked me up and I got back on track in that devastating time of my life.”

His father was a doctor in Buford, and Miller said he find ways to accompany his father on house calls out in what was then farm and pastureland. 

“I’m not in a rural hospital setting now. But that’s how I learned how important rural hospitals were,” he said. 

His experiences with his father and with having two sons with disabilities have led him to have a passion for service, he said. Among his other endeavors are Relay For Life and Meals on Wheels. 

While Miller is from a booming area, he said he has an attachment to the rural parts of the state. One of his priorities is to expand broadband service in rural areas.

“That’s where my heart is, rural Georgia. You cannot have rural health care without broadband,” he said. “We have entire counties without a doctor. One of the most critical issues is rural broadband, rural health care and rural growth.”

Expanding rural broadband could allow the next generation to not have to leave their area in search of careers.  

“They can come home and go to work,” Miller said. “If there is no job there, no broadband there, no health care there, they are forced to go into the cities. We want to grow all of Georgia.” 

Miller added that the conservative principles put in place over the last 20 years have made Georgia the top state in which to do business, raise a family and to which to retire. 

“Conservative policies have served Georgia extremely well,” he said. 

Miller said the current Democrats are not like the Democrats he watched growing up, such as Joe Frank Harris and Sam Nunn. Today’s Democrat party is much more extreme, he said.

“I feel like we are at a crossroads in our state, in our nation and in our culture,” Miller said. “We have to continue our conservative policies, our conservative legislation and our conservative way of life, because that has attracted people from all over the country and all over the world. The reason is those conservative policies. 

“We have other states that went another direction and what they have done? They have robbed their children of a year of education. 

We are not a socialist society. We believe in hard work and clean living. That is what made Georgia great and what made the United States great.” 

Miller also said he won’t use the office of lieutenant governor as a rung on the political ladder.  

“The lieutenant governor needs to be making decisions that are pertinent to that office, not using that office as a stepping stone to something else,” he said. “I want to be lieutenant governor because I want to lead the Senate, not because I want to use it to get somewhere else. I think that’s what a lot of people have done. It’s a disservice to the legislature, it’s a disservice to the constituents and a disservice to the state of Georgia.”