Legislator Fact Sheet · Georgia's 1st Congressional District
Buddy Carter, a pharmacist from Pooler, has represented Georgia's 1st District — Savannah and the coast — since 2015. He is running for U.S. Senate in 2026 rather than seeking re-election to the House; the scorecard below covers his House record.
HRC Equality Score: 3/100 (118th Congress). An external rating from the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, scoring members 0–100 on support for LGBTQ+ equality based on key votes and bill cosponsorships in the 118th Congress (2023–24). Included for reference; it reflects HRC's positions, not this site's.
Methodology. Every vote below is the member's actual recorded position, pulled directly from the official House Clerk roll-call XML and cross-checked against the published vote totals. Summaries are factual; framing is left to the reader.
The largest safety-net rollback in recent memory — over $1 trillion cut from health programs and at least $120 billion from SNAP, with new Medicaid work requirements and higher ACA premiums. Supporters cast it as tax relief and spending restraint; opponents warned it would strain rural hospitals and nursing homes and raise costs for lower-income families.
Requires DHS to detain undocumented people merely charged with or arrested for theft-related offenses — without a conviction — and lets states sue the federal government over immigration enforcement. Named for a Georgia nursing student killed in 2024, it drew bipartisan support, but immigrant-rights groups criticized the detention-without-conviction standard and due-process concerns.
Let Medicare negotiate prescription-drug prices, capped insulin at $35/month for Medicare enrollees, extended ACA premium subsidies, and funded clean-energy investment — direct savings for lower- and middle-income households and seniors, paid for partly with a corporate minimum tax. It passed on party lines.
Funds roads, bridges, broadband, and water-system replacement, with Georgia set to receive billions for roads, ports, airports, water systems, and broadband access. One of the few major bipartisan infrastructure laws of the era.
A $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package: $1,400 stimulus checks, expanded unemployment benefits, and a one-year Child Tax Credit expansion credited with helping cut child poverty nearly in half in 2021. Supporters credited it with speeding the recovery; critics argued it fueled inflation. It passed on party lines.
The first major federal gun-safety law in nearly 30 years: enhanced background checks for buyers under 21, funding for state red-flag laws, closure of the “boyfriend loophole,” and new mental-health and school-safety money. Passed weeks after the Uvalde school shooting with bipartisan support.
Codified federal recognition of same-sex and interracial marriages, requiring states to honor marriages performed where they were legal. A response to concerns that the Supreme Court might revisit marriage rights; it passed with bipartisan support.
Subsidized domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research to cut reliance on foreign chips and ease the supply-chain shocks that drove up prices on cars and electronics — including roughly $75 million directed to strengthen chip production in Georgia. Passed with bipartisan support.
Expanded VA health care and benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits and other hazards during their service — one of the largest expansions of veterans’ benefits in decades. Passed with broad bipartisan majorities.
Cut the corporate tax rate permanently and individual rates temporarily, doubled the standard deduction, and capped the state-and-local-tax (SALT) deduction. The largest tax overhaul in a generation; supporters cited growth and simpler filing, while critics noted the largest benefits flowed to corporations and higher earners and that it added to the deficit. It passed on party lines.
The principal effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — rolling back the Medicaid expansion, restructuring subsidies, and weakening protections tied to pre-existing conditions. The Congressional Budget Office estimated tens of millions would lose coverage. It passed the House but failed in the Senate.
A sweeping elections-and-ethics overhaul — automatic and same-day voter registration, expanded mail and early voting, nonpartisan redistricting, new campaign-finance disclosure, and tighter conflict-of-interest rules. Supporters called it the most significant voting-rights expansion in decades; opponents called it federal overreach into state-run elections. It passed the House but stalled in the Senate.
Constituent Access
Open public forums with constituents · review period 2015–2026
The finding is the absence of open in-person forums. Per local reporting, Carter has not held an in-person town hall in his coastal district since 2018. In spring 2025, as constituents pressed for face-to-face access, he used a screened telephone town hall instead and declined an invitation to a public forum — which organizers held with an empty chair in his place. Carter is now running for U.S. Senate in 2026.
Carter has defended his approach, saying his office communicates “as well as any office in Congress” and that the telephone format reaches “so many more people.” He pointed to past in-person town halls that “ended poorly” and said police had asked him not to hold them again.
Verified against The Current and WTOC (2025). The 2018 cutoff reflects local media searches; constituents with records of a more recent open in-person forum are encouraged to submit a correction via the contact link.
Campaign Finance
2025–26 cycle · Federal Election Commission
Carter has loaned his Senate campaign $3 million of his own money. His committee receipts are led by his joint fundraising committee and pharmacy-industry PACs — pharmacists, Cardinal Health, AstraZeneca — reflecting his career as a pharmacist.
$9 this cycle
Direct contributions from AIPAC's PAC plus donor money bundled ("earmarked") through AIPAC and forwarded to the campaign — totaled from AIPAC's own FEC disbursement filings, 2025–26 cycle.
| # | Contributor | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Team Buddy (joint fundraising) | $610,818 |
| 2 | Continuing America's Strength & Security PAC | $15,000 |
| 3 | American Pharmacists Assn PAC | $10,000 |
| 4 | American Optometric Assn PAC | $10,000 |
| 5 | Cardinal Health PAC | $10,000 |
| 6 | AstraZeneca PAC | $5,000 |
| 7 | Weyerhaeuser PAC | $5,000 |
| 8 | US Peanut PAC | $5,000 |
| 9 | UPS PAC | $5,000 |
| 10 | Troutman Pepper Locke LLP PAC | $5,000 |
Source: Federal Election Commission, 2025–26 cycle. Direct PAC contributions and committee transfers only — individual donors, earmarked conduit pass-throughs, refunds, and loans are excluded. Figures auto-pulled from FEC filings.
Vote positions are taken from official roll-call records, not secondhand summaries. Campaign-finance figures are drawn directly from the candidate's FEC filings for the 2025–26 cycle.