State rep. Mandi Ballinger poses for a photo with Reps. Terry Rogers and Rick Jasperse on March 20, 2014. Photo via Georgia House Media Services
Colleagues of state Rep. Mandi Ballinger say they’ll remember her as a woman with a heart for Georgia’s children, a mind for parsing intricate laws and the guts to stand up for what she believed in.
Ballinger, a Canton Republican, died Sunday after a long battle with cancer, according to an announcement from House Speaker Jon Burns.
Before she was elected to the state House in 2012, Ballinger started her career working in a domestic violence shelter and went on to work for a district attorney’s office as a victim advocate.
State leaders said she brought her passion for serving the vulnerable to the state Capitol.
“Representative Ballinger’s highest priority as a legislator was helping Georgia’s young people affected by our state juvenile justice system,” said House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, a Milton Republican, in a text. “Her serious, steely manner masked a soft and caring heart. These qualities made her a formidable force when she felt legislators or advocates crossed her high standards in her committee.”
“Personally, she was my friend and a devoted mother to her son, Henry,” Jones added. “He was her light while she made Georgia a brighter place for our children.”
Ballinger was chair of the House Judiciary Juvenile Committee. Jasper Republican state Rep. Rick Jasperse, who shared an office with Ballinger at the Capitol, said she had a rare combination of passion for the subject matter and the intellect to craft legislation.
“The legal world around children is pretty darn complex,” Jasperse said. “We’d be in our office some evenings, and she’s trying to explain some complex matter about this legal thing, and much of the time my eyes were rolled back in my head, but she knew it, and she knew the outcome that she wanted to make. When she brought a bill to the House floor, she didn’t have to do a whole lot of explaining, because people trusted her. She had already done her explaining in the committees and to people that needed to know, and people trusted her that she was going to do the right thing.”
Ballinger’s idea of the right thing sometimes put her at odds with other conservatives. That includes her support for a bill to divert some 17-year-olds accused of crimes from state superior court to juvenile court, which she championed for years but didn’t get passed into law.
Jasperse said Ballinger didn’t shy away from speaking her mind, and he’ll miss the spirited debates Ballinger had with him and others in their office suite.
“In our world, we had been there a while, and so we like really getting into subjects and learning about them and debating them, especially in small office situations – why you’re right, why you’re wrong – it’s entertaining,” he said. “She was really good at debate because she understood her stuff so well.”
In addition to her work for children and crime victims, Ballinger was an ardent backer of gun rights. She was lead sponsor of a 2022 bill signed by Gov. Brian Kemp that expanded firearm license reciprocity and allowed people with permits from other states to carry legally in Georgia.
Ballinger put her debate skills to use in committee meeting rooms, said Concord Republican state Rep. Beth Camp.
“She was a master at holding a committee meeting,” Camp said. “She understood parliamentary procedure and she was such a wonderful teacher on how to run a committee meeting where it was productive and people were still able to speak and all voices could be heard.”
Camp, who was elected in 2020, said she and other women legislators saw Ballinger as a mentor, a role she was happy to fill.
“There’s not a lot of other women that serve in the General Assembly, especially Republican women,” Camp said. “She was willing to take the time, and she took a genuine interest in me, and I appreciated that so much.”
“She was so wonderful to many people, and she never sought the spotlight,” she added. “That just was never her style, but she always wanted to let people know that they had a support system and if she liked you, she would fight for you, and so I was very honored that she fought for me.”
Camp said she is inspired by Ballinger’s commitment to public service, even while she was suffering health challenges.
“Even though she’d been battling cancer ever since I knew her, that was not the definition of who she was,” Camp said. “She was a mother, fearlessly loving Henry, her son, and she kept going. A lot of people would have stepped back some, but not her. She was elected by the people in her district. She continued to fight for them and to fight for the people of Georgia to the end. To the very end.”
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