Expected Rep. John Cowan (R), Georgia's 11th District

Profile of a party nominee in a safe, open district

For the first time, the Almanac of American Politics is now publishing biographies of expected members of the next Congress. We will publish these once a nominee is chosen for a seat that’s coming open and which is safe for that nominee’s party. These will appear months before they take office, in order to give readers an advance look at incoming members. As with all new Almanac content, they will be accessible only to paid subscribers to this Substack.

John Cowan easily won the Republican primary runoff for a safe Republican open seat in the suburbs northwest of Atlanta. Cowan was poised to succeed Rep. Barry Loudermilk, who had announced his retirement after six terms. A neurosurgeon, Cowan had been best known politically for running unsuccessfully in 2020 against Marjorie Taylor Greene in the Republican primary in the adjacent 14th district—a contest in which Cowan depicted himself as more credible than the iconoclastic Greene.