Senator Joseph Carter is a Republican representing Senate District 13. In 2006, Governor Sonny Perdue recognized Sen. Carter’s ability as a lawmaker by appointing him as Administration Floor Leader in the Senate. He is Vice Chairman of the Education and Youth Committee and a member of the Economic Development, Public Safety and Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees. Sen. Carter also served as Chief Deputy Whip in 2006.

Carter received a B.B.A. in 1986 from Valdosta State University, and his J.D. in 1989 from Walter F. George School of Law, Mercer University.

Sen. Carter and his wife, Rebecca Cobb Carter, are residents of Tifton, and they have two sons. He is a partner in the law firm Carter and Richbourg, LLP, and Rebecca works in the Tift County Public School System. Carter and his family are members of Tifton's First United Methodist Church.

Sen. Carter chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on local assistance grants, and is a member of Governor Perdue’s Energy Policy Council, the Legislative Fiscal Affairs Oversight Committee, the Georgia Commission on Child Support and the Lottery Oversight Committee. He has authored several key pieces of legislation in the state Senate, and was named one of the 25 most influential south Georgians by South Georgia Business Magazine (2006) and the 2006 Public Servant of the Year by the Georgia Optometric Association.

Actively involved in the community, Sen. Carter is a little league coach; Leadership Tifton participant; former PTO president; former member of the Tifton-Tift County Arts Council; current Board of Trustees member for the Tifton-Tift County Public Library; a former YMCA and Big Brothers/Big Sisters board
member; former president, Tifton Bar Association and has held various leadership positions at First
United Methodist Church.

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