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John King running to remain Georgia insurance commissioner

April 12, 2021 GMT

FILE - In this Friday, May 15, 2020, file photo, Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King makes a statement and answers questions from the media following a tour of Fieldale Farms while visiting Gainesville, Ga. King announced a bid on Monday, April 12, 2021, for a full four-year term as Georgia’s elected insurance commissioner after Gov. Brian Kemp appointed him to the office in 2019. (Alyssa Pointer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King on Monday launched his 2022 election campaign.

King is a Republican. He was the Doraville police chief and had no insurance experience when Gov. Brian Kemp named him commissioner in 2019 to succeed John Beck.

Beck was indicted on charges that he defrauded a former employer out of $2 million, spending the money on personal expenses and funding his insurance commissioner campaign. Beck denies the charges and has yet to go on trial.

King was born in Mexico and is Georgia’s first Hispanic statewide officeholder. He has served as a brigadier general in the U.S. Army National Guard. Kemp has often brought him into the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic to convey messages to Georgia’s growing Latino population, which now numbers more than 1 million.

King said he’s running on his record of cutting expenses, combating fraud and restoring trust in the department. He said that with a full term, he would work to lower healthcare costs and insurance rates.

“While I’m proud of the progress we have made, there is still more to do,” King said in a statement.

Democratic state Rep. Matthew Wilson of Brookhaven has said he’s considering a challenge to King.