Jaha Howard

Jaha Howard is an American dentist and politician who represents Georgia's 35th [Senate district|the 35th district] in the Georgia State Senate. He was first elected in the 2025 special election to replace Jason Esteves, who had resigned to pursue a gubernatorial campaign.
After no candidate received more than 50% of the vote in the November election, a runoff election was held in December, and Howard defeated Roger Bruce with 51.9% of the vote. He was sworn in on December 31.
Howard had previously served on the school board for Cobb County, and run for Georgia [Department of Education|Georgia Superintendent of Schools].
Howard also ran for state senate in 2016, but lost to Hunter Hill; after Hill resigned to pursue a gubernatorial campaign, Howard ran again in 2017. On this occasion, he faced criticism after the revelation of "sexist and homophobic" statements he had posted to Facebook from 2011 to 2014; he apologized, but lost that race to Jen Jordan.