State Sen. Brian Strickland entered the 2026 race for Georgia attorney general Tuesday, pledging to uphold Georgia’s conservative values against attacks from the Left.

“We’re proud to run on my reputation as a conservative fighter who knows to win,” Strickland said during a news conference at Liberty Plaza across from the state Capitol.

The Republican from McDonough was elected to the Senate in 2018 after serving in the Georgia House of Representatives since 2013. A lawyer, Strickland serves as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In that role, he has helped steer to passage Georgia’s strict abortion law and legislation targeting human trafficking and granting the right of Georgians to carry firearms without a permit.

Strickland also has helped champion the cause of mental health reform in Georgia, including a sweeping reform bill the General Assembly passed in 2022 that, among other things, requires insurance companies to cover mental health treatment at the same level as physical ailments. He said improving mental health care inside Georgia’s prison system has been a major part of criminal justice reform efforts launched by then-Gov. Nathan Deal during the last decade.

“We need to lock up people who need to be locked up,” Strickland said. “But we’re also going to work to help people who need to get out of the system.”

Strickland accused Democrats of constantly taking the state to court to challenge both electoral defeats and legislation passed by the General Assembly’s Republican majorities. In his case, that includes several court challenges to his electoral victories that he has been forced to beat back.

“They’re trying to win at the courthouse what they couldn’t win at the ballot box,” he said. “We look forward to taking that fight across the state.”

One other candidate in the race for attorney general, state Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, filed paperwork in April indicating plans to run for the post.

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.