Newsource reporters gathered information on each candidate in Northeast Georgia to prepare local voters for the midterm elections in this 2026 Election Guide.
Tyler Harper
Office Sought: Georgia agriculture commissioner (incumbent)
Party: Republican
Occupation: Incumbent Georgia agriculture commissioner, farmer and small business owner
Years in Community: Lifelong Georgia resident
Candidate’s Election Priorities
Expanding funding and community-based consumption for farms and agribusinesses, strengthening food safety protocols and investing in the next generation of Georgia agriculture.
More Info for Voters
Website: tylerharperga.com | Social media: @TylerHarperGA (Facebook), @TylerHarperGA (X)
Candidate FAQs
Q: Why are you running?
Harper is a seventh-generation farmer with a lifelong appreciation for Georgia’s agriculture industry. He says he will put the needs of Georgia above Washington, D.C.
Q: What experiences have prepared you for this office?
Harper has an associate’s degree from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Georgia, according to his campaign website.
Harper served in the Georgia State Senate from 2012 to 2022, where he held leadership positions on the public safety, natural resources and agriculture and consumer affairs committees, the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s website states.
Since being sworn into office in 2023, Harper has established the Georgia Farmland Conservation Fund, increased funding for the agriculture department, and entered the Georgia Grown program into new partnerships with the Atlanta Braves and the University of Georgia football program, according to the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s website.
Q: What are the most important issues facing the state of Georgia and what would you do to address them?
Issue #1: Unfair trade deals for U.S. producers
“Tyler will work with federal, private sector and non-profit partners to advocate on behalf of Georgia growers … and ensure truly free markets where Georgia’s farmers are competitive on a global scale,” according to his campaign website.
Issue 2: Food Security
“As agriculture commissioner, he will strengthen safety protocols and best practices, disseminate active and timely communications, and mitigate any potential issue in real time,” his campaign website states.
Issue 3: Emerging technologies and techniques
“By partnering with the private sector, securing federal funding, and taking advantage of existing infrastructure, Tyler will ensure that every Georgia farmer has access to the online tools that improve productivity and increase output,” according to Harper’s campaign website.
Q: What is one accomplishment you hope to achieve during your office if elected?
The Department of Agriculture has focused heavily on emergency management, especially for farmers and producers, when threats or natural disasters arise. “Profitability isn’t enough when you have these storms and challenges. You can do everything right, as I’ve said before, and lose it all in one night,” Harper said in a Facebook reel posted Sept. 16.
“Tyler will fight to cut red tape and establish strong connections with federal allies to secure federal funding – and deliver fast relief to those hit hardest,” according to his campaign website.
Q: What is one thing you want voters to know about you?
“The greatest investment Georgia can make is in the next generation of agricultural leaders,” according to Harper’s campaign website. “As commissioner, Tyler Harper will partner with schools and institutions of higher learning across the state to ensure that a cutting-edge, world-class agricultural education is available to students who want to learn the trade.”
*Harper did not respond to interview requests and questions. Responses were pulled from his campaign website, government websites and social media.
Katherine Juhan-Arnold
Office Sought: Georgia agriculture commissioner
Party: Democratic
Occupation: Environmental engineering assistant at Rohadfox, farmer
Years in Community: Lifelong Georgia resident
Candidate’s election priorities
Food safety, infrastructure building, and as she calls it, ACT: accountability, communication and transparency
More info for voters
Website: katherineforgeorgia.com | Social media: @gapharmer (TikTok); @gapharmer (Facebook); @gapharmer (Instagram); GApharmer (Discord); @gapharmer (YouTube); @gapharmer (Threads)
Candidate FAQs
Q: Why are you running?
“It’s time for agriculture to move forward,” Juhan-Arnold said in an interview. “If you’re trying to keep agriculture a growing, thriving community, you have to invest back into the infrastructure, and that hasn’t been done in three decades.”
Juhan-Arnold explained that this means farmers are missing out on opportunities and profit.
“We’re lacking, and it was placed on my heart to be a part of this race, and I tried to ignore it for a long time, and it just got to the point where I couldn’t ignore it anymore,” she said.
Q: What experiences have prepared you for this office?
Juhan-Arnold earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering with a focus in agricultural policy from Purdue. The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in 2022, and the Health and Human Services Food is Medicine summit in 2024 “really opened up my eyes to how agriculture is seen as a whole,” she said.
Juhan-Arnold also discussed the difficulty she has had as a farmer communicating with the Department of Agriculture. “I don’t think you should have to know the right person to get the right answer,” she said.
Q: What are the most important issues facing the state of Georgia and what would you do to address them?
Issue #1: Data centers
Juhan-Arnold says that data centers are the No. 1 issue facing the Georgia community, and their agricultural review is a top priority.
“We need an agricultural resource impact-schedule plan, and to evaluate everything that’s already been built,” she said. “If it’s hurting our soil, if it’s hurting our resources, then that means it’s hurting us too.”
Issue #2: Food safety
Juhan-Arnold is also concerned with food safety. She noted food recalls and foodborne illnesses that have “been catastrophic.”
“Making people aware of what can exist, just expanding that food safety…education, is really important to me,” she said.
Issue #3: Education
Juhan-Arnold also prioritizes the importance of education. She discussed the wide age gap between young and old farmers, and the lack of farmers within that range. “That’s because things that connect to agriculture were taken out of the schools,” she said.
She is concerned with “bridging that education gap so that more people can be interested, because farming is not just food and fieldwork; it’s contract law, it’s mechanics, it’s marketing, it’s accounting, it’s everything.”
Q: What is one accomplishment you hope to achieve during your office if elected?
Juhan-Arnold hopes to update the current infrastructure if she is elected.
“I will feel like my job is successfully complete once we get these mills updated, we get some regional food hubs in place, expand the coal storage, put processing back in Georgia, so that profit stays with our family farmers,” she said.
Q: What is one thing you want voters to know about you? What is your message to younger voters, such as UGA students?
Juhan-Arnold wants voters to dismiss the spectacle of political campaigns and focus on practical qualifications.
“Stop looking at candidates as celebrities and start thinking of us as more leadership,” she said. “It’s supposed to be, ‘Is this person capable of getting the task done? Are they going to do the job that they say they’re going to do?’
“I want people to recognize that I’m a normal person,” Juhan-Arnold said. “I’m just like every other Georgian. I was just fed up enough to run and put some policy behind it.”
Her message to younger voters focuses on civic engagement and the long-term impact of local elections.
“Vote. Don’t let life get in the way,” Juhan-Arnold said. “The people that we’re putting in office now affect the futures that you all are driving for.”
