Jennifer Lyn Auer Jordan (born October 17, 1974) is an American lawyer and politician who has represented District 6 in the

Georgia State Senate The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Legal provisions The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, with the lower house being the Georgia ...

since December 15, 2017. She is a member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

Early life and education

Jennifer Lyn Auer was born on October 17, 1974,Jen Jordan's Biography
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Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune () is a United States Armed Forces, United States military training facility in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Its of beaches make the base a major area for Amphibious warfare, amphibious assault training, and its ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

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 Eastman is a city in Dodge County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,962 at the 2010 census. Named after one of the founders who contributed a site and paid for the county courthouse, the city was established in 1871, and is the county ...

, with her two children, Jen and Jessica. Winona was employed as a hairdresser, and the family lived in a small apartment. Jordan was educated in the Dodge County School District. She received her

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

from

Georgia Southern University Georgia Southern University (GS or Georgia Southern) is a public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia. The flagship campus is in Statesboro, and other locations include the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hine ...

and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

, ''magna cum laude'', from the

University of Georgia School of Law The University of Georgia School of Law (Georgia Law) is the law school of the University of Georgia, a Public university, public research university in Athens, Georgia. It was founded in 1859, making it among the oldest American university law sc ...

. During her time at law school, Jordan was a member of the ''

Georgia Law Review The Georgia Law Review is the flagship publication of the University of Georgia School of Law. It was established in 1966 and is run by second- and third-year law students, operating independently from the School of Law faculty and administration. ...

'' and of the school's award-winning moot court team. She is a

master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

with the Joseph Henry Lumpkin Inn of Court.

Career

Legal career

After graduating from law school, she worked as a federal clerk for judge

Anthony Alaimo Anthony Alfred Alaimo (March 29, 1920 – December 30, 2009) was a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. Education and career Born in Termini Imerese i ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia The United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia (in case citations, S.D. Ga.) is a federal court in the Eleventh Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appeal ...

. From 2002 to 2004 she was an attorney with Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore LLP in Atlanta. From 2004 to 2008, she was a trial attorney with the Barnes Law Group. Jordan was part of the team to litigate ''Perdue v. Lake'', a constitutional challenge to the 2006 Photo ID Act. From 2010 to 2014 she served as Of Counsel for the Bird Law Group Professional Corporation. From 2013 to 2015 she ran her own law firm ''The Jordan Firm''. Since 2015, she has been a partner with Shamp, Jordan, & Woodward in Atlanta. 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.

Georgia state senate

2017 campaign

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 A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. 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. On December 5, 2017, she defeated Howard. Her victory in this election ended what had been a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

supermajority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...

in the State Senate. Jordan defeated Howard by having 10,681 votes (64%), while Howard had only 6,017 votes (36%).

Voting rights

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." 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."

Environmental justice and Sterigenics

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 Ethylene oxide is an organic compound with the chemical formula, formula . It is a cyclic ether and the simplest epoxide: a three-membered Ring (chemistry), ring consisting of one oxygen atom and two carbon atoms. Ethylene oxide is a colorless a ...

, a chemical which can cause cancer, in the air. 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. 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. 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 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

epidemic. 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 has cited the Sterigenics lawsuit, and Chris Carr's refusal to become involved, as reasons that she is running for Attorney General.

Abortion

Georgia House Bill 481 The Georgia House Bill 481 was an American anti-abortion law passed in 2019 that sought to prevent physicians in the U.S. state of Georgia from performing abortions beyond six weeks, except in special situations. The bill was strongly criticized ...

was a bill that would have outlawed abortions 20 weeks after conception, in violation of Supreme Court precedent in ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and st ...

'' and ''Casey v. Planned Parenthood''. 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 hemselvesin the most personal, private, and wrenching decisions that women make every single day." 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

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

2022 attorney general campaign

On April 14, 2021, Jordan announced she was running for

attorney general of Georgia The Attorney General of Georgia is the chief law enforcement officer and lawyer for the U.S. state of Georgia. The officeholder is elected to a four-year term at the same time as elections are held for Governor of Georgia and other offices. The c ...

, against incumbent

Christopher M. Carr Christopher Michael Carr (born February 8, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician. A Republican, he is the current Attorney General of Georgia. In 2016, Governor Nathan Deal appointed Carr as Attorney General to fill a vacancy created by the d ...

. She planned to fight for

women's issues Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male poi ...

, defend

voting rights Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

, prevent

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

, create new

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...

laws to prevent shootings, and protect children from child predators. If she won, she would've been the first female attorney general of Georgia. She was endorsed by End Citizens United. She lost the election and conceded to Carr.

Personal life

Jordan is originally from South Georgia but had moved to the

Atlanta area Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the ...

for her law practice. She and her husband, Lawton, have two children.

References

External links

Profile
at the

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Jennifer Auer 1974 births 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American women politicians Living people Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers Democratic Party Georgia (U.S. state) state senators Georgia Southern University alumni University of Georgia School of Law alumni Women state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state)