ATLANTA -- Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers announced Tuesday that he is leaving the Senate to take a job with Georgia Public Broadcasting.
Gov. Nathan Deal personally offered him a new position working under the state agency’s director Teya Ryan. Deal made the offer before Rogers released a statement last month saying he would not run for re-election as the leader of the Republicans who dominate the Senate.
“When the idea of leaving the Senate came up, it was something I had never considered,” said Rogers, R-Woodstock.
Rogers’ career is in broadcasting. He once owned a radio station and said Tuesday that he was in a position where he didn’t need to work. He accepted the position, he said, because it gives him time with his three children while returning to broadcasting to oversee a new initiative at the state’s radio and television network focused on jobs and education.
Rogers, age 44, was first elected to the House of Representatives before moving up to the Senate. He has served as majority leader longer than any Republican.
His personal legislative priorities were school choice, property-tax reform, open access to government records and halting dog fighting. He called last month’s passage of the constitutional amendment on charter schools his most significant political victory.
The Senate Republican Caucus elected Sen. Ronnie Chance, R-Tyrone, as majority leader when Rogers stepped aside.