Zan Fort
Zan Fort (Democratic Party) ran in a special election to the Georgia State Senate to represent District 39. He lost in the special Democratic primary on November 3, 2020.
Fort completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
==Biography-- Zan Fort was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He earned a bachelor's degree from Georgia State University. Fort's career experience includes working as a senior account executive and as a manager with an insurance agency. He has been affiliated with Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity. [1]
Elections
2020
A special Democratic primary election for Georgia State Senate District 39 was called for November 3, 2020. A primary runoff election was scheduled for December 1, 2020. The candidate filing deadline was September 4.[2]
The November 3 special Democratic primary for District 39 was called after incumbent candidate Nikema Williams (D) withdrew from the race after advancing from the regular Democratic primary held on June 9, 2020. She was chosen by the Democratic Party of Georgia to replace incumbent candidate John Lewis (D) on the general election ballot for Georgia's 5th Congressional District race after Lewis' death on July 17, 2020.[3]
Democratic primary runoff election
Special Democratic primary runoff for Georgia State Senate District 39
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sonya Halpern  | 80.8 | 4,435 |
 | Linda Pritchett | 19.2 | 1,055 | |
| Total votes: 5,490 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Special Democratic primary for Georgia State Senate District 39
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sonya Halpern | 45.2 | 31,294 |
| ✔ | | Linda Pritchett | 25.4 | 17,573 |
| JoAnna Potts | 15.5 | 10,751 | |
| Zan Fort | 13.9 | 9,636 | |
| Total votes: 69,254 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Fort's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2020
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released September 15, 2020 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Zan Fort completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Fort's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Zan Fort is running for State Senate District 39. Zan is fighting for Medicaid expansion and Medicare For All, a $15/hr minimum wage, criminal justice reform, and a city and state that works for the many - not just the wealthy few!
Zan is a resident of southwest Atlanta. He has worked as a mental health paraprofessional with at risk children. As a student Zan interned with the Democratic Party of Georgia. He worked as a community outreach specialist at the city of Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management attending neighborhood meetings to inform community of department initiatives such as water conservation and protecting the city's water supply as well as organizing community cleans of the city's waterways.
Zan has a family history of union membership. His mother is a member of the UFCW and has been a member of the AFSCME and the Teamsters. His father's family has a history of membership in the UAW and the hospital union, 1199.
Zan is a graduate of Georgia State University with a BA in Psychology. Zan is a Senior Account Executive and Manager at an insurance agency. Zan is also a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
Zan is also the proud father of two wonderful daughters.
- Medicaid Expansion and Medicare For All
- $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage
- Criminal Justice Reform
I will fight for Medicaid expansion so that 300,000 Georgians can have healthcare. We must stop Republicans from shutting down Obamacare exchanges in the state, which would result in 60k losing health insurance. I support universal healthcare coverage and Medicare for All because healthcare is a human right.
I will fight for a $15 per hour minimum wage as an initial state in providing a living wage, because nobody who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty. It is shameful that Georgia's state minimum wage is only $5.15.
I support the Black Lives Matter movement and I will fight for reforms to transform policing in Georgia and reduce police brutality and abuse. I will introduce legislation to stop racial profiling, ban chokeholds, eliminate citizen arrests and stand your ground laws, and end qualified immunity.
I will work to pass a Comprehensive Civil Rights Law for Georgia that bans discrimination in housing and employment, which will be inclusive of all LGBTQ groups.
In Spring 2005, at the time I was at Duke University for undergrad. My fraternity brothers and I decided we were going to drive from North Carolina down to Florida for spring break. We were just trying to escape the rigorous academics at Duke. So on the last day of this amazing Florida trip, we were on the way back to the hotel and on the way back, we're stopped by two police cars. One blocks our way in the front, the other blocks us from behind and they both turn on their floodlights so we're blinded.
Almost instantly a cop hops out and I'm staring down the barrel of a gun, and before I know it everyone in the car is on the sidewalk in handcuffs. After repeatedly asking what was the problem, we still received no answer. Now we had three black males on the sidewalk in handcuffs without any explanation, wondering what happened. Police searched our car and complete the investigation. They determined we'd done nothing wrong after all, so we're eventually let go without an apology or an explanation at all.
Throughout this entire ordeal the only thing I could think about was whether I was going to be the next black man to lose his life, or was it going to be my two brothers at the hands of police violence. And my mother always told me "You never know when a moment becomes a memory." It was that moment that inspired me to make police reform an important part of my platform so that other young black men don't have to go through the same indignities that I did.
So I made it out of there alive but a lot of young black men weren't nearly as lucky. It is my promise that once elected that I will fight to ensure that every young black man does not endure the same sort of embarrassment and danger, whether they're on their way to work, whether they're on their way to spring break, or anywhere in between.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 14, 2020
- ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "SPECIAL DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ELECTION SET FOR GEORGIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 39," accessed September 4, 2020
- ↑ Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Democrats tap Nikema Williams to replace John Lewis on November ballot," July 20, 2020
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