The congressman from the 12th District is Democrat John Barrow, whose family has been rooted in Georgia for seven generations. His father handled school desegregation cases as a lawyer and as a Superior Court judge in the Athens area. A graduate of the University of Georgia and Harvard Law School, Barrow became a trial lawyer and made his name in local politics by winning four terms as an Athens-Clarke city-county commissioner. In 2004, he decided to run against Republican Rep. Max Burns, who had won the 12th District seat in an upset in 2002.

Although most Democratic voters in the district are black, all four candidates in the Democratic primary were white. Barrow raised more than $700,000 and, with the endorsements of former Sen. Max Cleland, the Sierra Club, and the Georgia AFL-CIO, extended his appeal beyond his home base. He won 51% of the vote and all 14 counties, enough to avoid a runoff. In the general election, Barrow distanced himself from Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and the national party. He focused on Burns’s support of a national retail sales tax to replace the income tax. He attacked the proposal as a tax increase that was anti-family and labeled it “the Max Tax.” Burns accused Barrow of distorting his proposal and called his opponent a “liberal trial attorney” controlled by “Atlanta party bosses.” Burns ran well in rural areas, but Barrow won big margins among African-American voters in the three counties that cast two-thirds of the district’s votes—62% in Richmond, 58% in Chatham, and 58% in Clarke. Overall, Barrow won 52%-48%.

In the House, Barrow ranks among the most conservative Democrats. He took a hard line against illegal immigrants and cast votes in 2007 against proposals to limit war funding in Iraq. He sponsored a bill to give tax credits equal to 50% of an employer’s health insurance costs. Also in 2007, Democratic leaders gave him a leading role in pushing for an increase in the minimum wage, and he secured a seat on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee. In 2008, after an explosion at a sugar refinery near Savannah, Barrow won House passage of his bill to force the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to tighten rules on industrial dust.

Barrow’s political life was made more difficult by the 2005 redistricting, which moved his Clarke County base into the heavily Republican 10th District. He said he would run in the new district that included the largest part of his former district, which turned out to be the 12th. Barrow moved his residence to Savannah and emphasized his independence. “No boss, no leader, no caucus can tell me how to vote. And none of them has,” he declared. Burns ran against him and got fundraising help from national Republicans. The outcome was even closer this time, and Burns waited nine days before conceding. In his 50.3%-49.7% victory, Barrow won only eight of 22 counties, but he captured 62% of the vote in Chatham and 65% in Richmond, the two largest counties.

In 2008, Barrow faced state Sen. Regina Thomas, an African-American, in the July primary. A liberal political action committee ran ads criticizing Barrow for supporting President Bush on tax cuts and the Iraq war. He ran strongly across the district and won 76%-24%. In November, he won re-election easily, losing only two counties en route to a 66%-34% victory over Republican John Stone.