The would-be politician and Georgia gubernatorial candidate was in a rush. He was on his way to a campaign event in South Georgia, but first, he had to drop by a local newspaper for an interview. Olu Brown, the former lead pastor and founder of Impact United Methodist Church, wants to be the next Governor of Georgia, and his plan is simple: “I want to see all people, I want to see all Georgians,” Brown said.
A father of two, Brown explained the mission of his early campaign stops. “I want to be the voice of a new vision that represents all of Georgia, not only metro Atlanta, but up into the mountains north of us, middle Georgia, south Georgia, and coastal Georgia.”
“Our approach is a little bit different from most politicians,” Brown said.
Brown, who was making the 200-mile drive to Baxley to speak with potential voters on Monday, wants to offer people another option for leadership despite never having held a political office- local or national- in his life. Despite what many may believe are limitations for running for the highest political office in the state, Brown considers his being a novice an advantage.
“I believe as a faith leader, as a small business owner, and as a community activator, my history and my current skill set makes me the best candidate to be the next governor,” he said.
Brown told The Atlanta Voice that he has already held 30 listening sessions like the one he was headed to that afternoon. Growing up in the small east Texas town of Lufkin (population: 34,181), Brown feels his small town roots can help him reach and relate to voters that might not get the attention voting communities in Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, and even Clayton, Hall, Gwinnett, and Chatham counties receive during statewide election seasons.
“We have been spending a lot of time in south Georgia, but we have also been spending a lot of time in metro Atlanta,” Brown said.
Days earlier he spoke to a small group of voters during a listening session in Cobb County. The number of people in the room was 20, but Brown said he felt it necessary to speak to them despite the fact that Democratic nominees for governor have rarely if ever made any headway in Cobb County, for example.
“I’m a versatile candidate, I can adapt, and I like and love all people,” he said. “This is a natural space for me. This is a job that I think I am best fit for, but it also means I can focus on all Georgians, no matter where they are.”
Brown added that Georgians of all races, religions, and incomes deserve a candidate who best respects their concerns, such as healthcare and job opportunities.
As a pastor of what started as a small congregation and grew into a megachurch, Brown believes his experience as a faith leader can help ease concerns about his lack of experience as a politician. In fact, he believes it gives him an advantage over other, more well-known candidates.
“Our budget when I retired was $4 million per year. Payroll alone was $2 million a year and that will wake you up before your alarm clock,” Brown joked about the responsibility. “A lot of the candidates don’t have the business experience; they have never started anything, and they don’t know how to scale anything. I’ve gone from the ground up to starting something that is successful. I think the next governor of Georgia needs to have that skill set, and that’s what I have.”
Brown said the next governor of Georgia needs to have a people mindset and a collaboration mindset in addition to the business mindset in order to lead one of the largest statewide budgets in the country.
“As a person of faith, I always lead with loving your neighbor, and that helps everybody, and that’s the leader I’ll be as the next governor,” Brown said.
Rental car keys in hand, Brown headed outside to take more photos and continued speaking about his campaign. A graduate of Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, Texas, and Gammon Theological Seminary of the Interdenominational Theological Center in the Atlanta University Center, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree, he speaks in a clear tone and with purpose. Talking to hundreds of people multiple times per week as a pastor has prepared him to answer questions on the fly while maintaining a cool but serious demeanor.
“As a faith leader, I see people even when other people don’t, I care about them, and what I have been telling folks is they won’t have to come to the State Capitol to see me, I’ll be in their city,” Brown said.
Brown said he understands the state of Georgia doesn’t start and end with Atlanta. His small-town roots and faith connections
“In order to have had the career that I had at a local church, and had the success that we had, you had to build bridges throughout metro Atlanta and rural Georgia,” Brown said. That says I am a flexible, versatile candidate. Wherever you put me in Georgia, I’ll be OK.”
He believes there is no better time to strike than now with everyday Americans, and in this case, Georgians, turning away from who he called, “Career politicians.”
“Career politicians have to explain why some of our cities are in the state that they are in, why education is in the state that it’s in, why with a state with a $16 billion-dollar surplus, you still have people who don’t have access to healthcare and if they do they can’t afford it,” he said. “People are looking for disruptors, people are looking for outsiders, but with a skill set to make a change.”
Many of the questions Brown said he gets from Georgians during these listening sessions are familiar to him from his time as a pastor.
“You don’t grow a church to thousands without having constituents from every generation,” Brown said.
He plans to make sure seniors are not overlooked during his campaign, calling seniors “the wisest people that we have.”
“As a governor, I realize that you’ve got to build teams of wise people, and guess what, seniors will be at the table,” Brown said.
Brown said his campaign will be making stops in north Georgia and coastal Georgia
“This is about having a candidate who sees all people and all Georgians,” Brown said. “We’re lifting Georgia higher.”