James March-April 2025 web - Flipbook - Page 13
Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper is particularly deserving
to be named James Magazine’s Georgian of the Year. Consider that he’s a
seventh-generation farmer still working on his farm, a small business owner,
former state senator and, since his election in 2022, serving as the highly
quali昀椀ed and capable administrator and overseer of Georgia’s No. 1 industry.
As I settled in for my interview with him at his of昀椀ce in the shadow of the
State Capitol, I began by asking about where he grew up, his early family
life, his path that led toward obtaining an associate’s degree in agriculture
from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and the University of Georgia
where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering.
“I grew up on a farm in Irwin
County— more specifically an unincorporated area called Lax which you
could call a suburb of Ocilla with red
dirt roads all around,” he began. “At a
young age I had a passion for things
like riding, delivering hay or ploughing
the garden. I learned how to drive on
a Massey Ferguson 135 tractor when I
was probably seven or eight years old.
It was when I was big enough to reach
the clutch and brake. My grandmother
also taught me how to do a straight
row so I wouldn’t hurt her flowers. I
learned all of that on the farm. It’s a
part of who I am.”
“As the years went by, I went from
playing with toy tractors to real big
ones,” he continued, “and participated
in 4-H and Future Farmers of America
programs which laid the foundation
for a skill set. That’s why I encourage
young men and women to take advantage of these programs, especially
when it involves public speaking. They
prepare you for opportunities later in
life.” Later when I ran for public office,
I’d talk about farm values I learned—
integrity, personal responsibly how to
pull up your bootstraps and work hard.
That’s how I got my start.”
He mused about the adage that
you can lead a horse to water, but you
can’t make him drink it. His point was
that his parents instilled in him to be
unafraid into taking an opportunity.
“So, I’m grateful for a supportive family
to me and my brothers who encouraged us with what we were interested
in. My granddad never finished third
grade and never learned how to read
or write. I asked him how he made it
and yet do what he did because he
was a fairly successful businessman.
As a young boy I watched him, since
he couldn’t read or write, signing contracts with an X. It was challenging for
him, but he always encouraged me not
to be afraid to take on challenges.”
Harper’s long and winding road
led him to the University of Georgia
and when he was a senior he received
an agriculture fellowship from thenU.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss. In 2007
he moved to Washington, D.C. for a
few months to work for Chambliss,
who was then the ranking Republican
member of the Senate Agriculture
Committee. “It was an internship, and
Saxby was a great mentor as I got to
sit in the committee room listening
to agriculture issues. And I got bit by
the (political) bug working for Saxby,”
he remembers. “After that, I knew in
some capacity at some point I’d like
to participate.”
A CAREER IN PUBLIC SERVICE
After his D.C. stint, he finished his
education and went back to work at
the family farm. Not too long afterward
is when former state House Representative Jay Roberts entered the picture.
Roberts and Harper had known each
BY P H I L K E NT
PHOTOS BY DOUGLAS COULTER
other for most of their lives in Irwin
County and had begun talking about
politics and policy issues. According
to Harper, Roberts “asked me one day:
“You like this stuff, don’t you?’ And I
replied, ‘I kinda do.’”
Roberts, he said “stoked my political passion and invited me to visit
the Capitol in Atlanta. Then I got a
call one morning from him and he told
me (then-state Senator) Greg Goggins
is not running for re-election, and
you must.” Harper says he was taken
aback, and one of his first thoughts
was “nobody is going to vote for a
25-year-old.”
But he took the opportunity that
his family had drilled into him and decided to campaign for the district seat.
The result? Voters elected him to the
state Senate in 2012. And he went on
to serve for 10 years without anyone
ever running against him.
After being sworn in his focus
turned to agriculture, natural resources
and public safety. In his third year in
the Senate, then-Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle
named Harper chairman of the Public
Safety Committee. “I immersed myself
in those issues and became a kind of
“go-to guy” in those three areas,” he
said. “It was a phenomenal 10 years,
and I enjoyed representing the 7th District in south- and south-central Georgia
that spanned over 400 square miles.”
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