Sanford Bishop

Sanford Dixon Bishop Jr. (born February 4, 1947) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for GA's 2nd congressional district, serving since 1993.

He became the dean of Georgia's congressional delegation after the death of John Lewis.

A member of the Blue Dog Coalition, he belongs to the conservative faction of the Democratic Party.

His district is in southwestern Georgia and includes Albany, Thomasville, and most of Columbus and Macon.

Bishop was born in Mobile, Alabama, to Minnie B. Slade and Sanford Dixon Bishop, the first president of Bishop State Community College.

Bishop obtained a B.A. degree from Morehouse College in 1968, majoring in political science and minoring in English, and a J.D. degree from Emory University School of Law in 1971.

At Morehouse, he was a classmate of Herman Cain.

He served in the United States Army between 1969 and 1971.

Bishop subsequently operated a law firm in Columbus, Georgia.

Bishop has received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), given to Eagle Scouts for distinguished career achievement.

He is a member of BSA's Order of the Arrow (OA) and as a youth was on the OA ceremonies team.

He is a resident of Albany, Georgia, where he is a member of the Mount Zion Baptist Church.

Bishop is a Life Member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, initiated at Morehouse's Pi chapter.

He is a Shriner and 33° Mason.

Bishop was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1977, where he remained until being elected to the Georgia Senate in 1990.

The 2nd had been reconfigured as a black-majority district during congressional apportionment following the 1990 Census.

Bishop finished second behind Hatcher in a crowded six-way primary.

Hatcher failed to reach the 50% threshold, and was forced into a runoff election.

During the campaign Bishop attacked Hatcher for bouncing 819 checks in the House banking scandal.

Bishop defeated him 53%–47%.

In the general election, he defeated Republican Jim Dudley 64%–36%.

In the Democratic primary, he defeated James Bush 67%–33%.

In the general election, he won reelection to a second term with 66%.

After only one term in the state senate, he ran for the 2nd district in 1992, which was held by six-term U.S. Congressman Charles Hatcher, a white moderate Democrat.

Bishop is married to Vivian Creighton, who served from 1993 to 2021 as Municipal Clerk of Columbus.

In 1995, a 5–4 majority of the Supreme Court ruled that the redistricting of Georgia had violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The 2nd district was thus redrawn.

The newly redrawn district was 60% white.

Nonetheless, Bishop won reelection to a third term with 54% of the vote.

Bishop won reelection to a fourth term against Republican Joseph F. McCormick with 57% of the vote.

During the campaign, Bishop received twice the campaign financing that his opponent raised.

Bishop defeated Dylan Glenn, a young black Republican who received strong backing from many national Republican leaders.

The vote was 53%–47%.

Bishop won reelection to a sixth term unopposed.

Bishop won reelection to a seventh term with 67% of the vote.

He won reelection to an eighth term with 68% of the vote.

Bishop won reelection to a ninth term with 69% of the vote.

Bishop won reelection to a tenth term against Republican State Representative Mike Keown, 51%–49%, the closest margin of his career.

In a year where the Democrats lost the majority in the House, The New York Times wrote that Bishop's reelection odds seemed slim because he was an "incumbent in an anti-Washington year", because he was a black man in a majority white district (49% White, 47% Black), and because of a scholarship scandal at his nonprofit.

After redistricting, the 2nd district became a black-majority district.