State Senator Chip Pearson (R-Dawsonville) has announced that he will seek re-election to Georgia’s 51st Senate District in 2008.
 
“It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to serve the people of north Georgia in the State Senate,” said Sen. Pearson.     

Continued Pearson, “In just a short period of time I have been able to move up into key leadership positions and promote the conservative values we all cherish.  I am most proud this year of my efforts to help expand water reservoirs across Georgia and provide for the long term needs of our families.  I am proud that through the years we have been able to protect private property rights and the God-given Constitutional rights and traditional values that have made our country and our state what they are today.  I am very thankful for the confidence the people of the 51st District have placed in me and for the great support of so many local officials across our area.  We worked well together and I look forward to continuing to work together to accomplish many more great things for our communities.” 

State Sen. Chip Pearson represents Senate District 51, which includes Dawson,  Fannin, Gilmer, Lumpkin, Pickens and Union counties, and portions of Forsyth
and White counties.  He is President and CEO of Pecos, Inc., a real estate and construction company serving north Georgia and the Carolina’s. Sen. Pearson currently serves on the board of the Northeast Georgia Council of the Boy Scouts of America, and he is a former member of the boards of the Georgia Department of Industry, Trade & Tourism and the Dawson County Development Authority.    

Over the last several years, Sen. Pearson has been very active in the Republican Party in Georgia.  He served for three years on the State Executive Committee of the Georgia Republican Party and for four years as chairman of the Dawson County Republican Party.  He graduated from the Coverdell Leadership Institute and is widely respected in political circles for his active involvement in statewide grassroots campaign efforts supporting Republican elected officials.  On November 2, 2004, Sen. Pearson was elected to his first term in the state Senate by garnering and impressive 63 percent of the vote.  As a freshman Senator, he was selected by Senate leadership to serve as a Deputy Majority Whip and was assigned to the Appropriations, Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, Transportation and Regulated Industries and Utilities Committees.  

After running unopposed in 2006, Sen. Pearson is now serving in his second term in the Senate.  He has been appointed chairman of the Senate Economic Development Committee and secretary of the Senate Transportation Committee.  He also serves on the Appropriations, Rules, Administrative Affairs and Insurance and Labor Committees and the influential Committee on Assignments.  He also serves the Senate as a Deputy Whip.
 
A graduate of Shorter College, Chip is involved in a wide array of community groups including Rotary, National Federation of Independent Business and the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association.  Sen. Pearson is also a licensed pilot and an Eagle Scout.  He is happily married to the former Jill Christian, and they are
the proud parents of three children – Madeleine, Mary Anna and Edward. The Pearson’s worship at Amicalola Baptist Church, where Chip and Jill teach Sunday school.