A graduate from the University of Georgia, he went on to serve in the Georgia Air National Guard from 1966 to 1972. Subsequently, he started a real estate branch for Northside Realty and since had served as the company's president for twenty-two years. In 1974, he made an unsuccessful bid to run for the Georgia House of Representatives, after which he was finally elected in 1976. Isakson served for seven terms in total, including his four-time term as a minority leader. In 1990, this Republican Party member was a candidate for governor of Georgia, but lost. After two years, Johnny Isakson got elected to the Georgia Senate and served one term. He had another futile run in the Republican primary in the 1996 U.S. Senate elections. Once the position for the 6th District Congressman and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich became vacant as the current holder resigned, Isakson ran and won in the February 1999 special election. It was in November 2004 that he ran for the U.S. Senate after conservative Democratic incumbent Zell Miller decided not to run for re-election. Having won both the primary and general elections by large margins, Johnny Isakson is now serving his second term after re-election to the Senate in 2010.
