Sanford Bishop became the dean of Georgia's congressional delegation after the death of John Lewis.
18 Facts About Sanford Bishop
2.
Sanford Bishop's district is in southwestern Georgia and includes Albany, Thomasville, and most of Columbus and Macon.
3.
Sanford Bishop served in the United States Army between 1969 and 1971.
4.
Sanford Bishop is a member of BSA's Order of the Arrow and as a youth was on the OA ceremonies team.
5.
Sanford Bishop is a resident of Albany, Georgia, where he is a member of the Mount Zion Baptist Church.
6.
Sanford Bishop is a Life Member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, initiated at Morehouse's Pi chapter.
7.
Sanford Bishop was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1977, where he remained until being elected to the Georgia Senate in 1990.
8.
Sanford Bishop finished second behind Hatcher in a crowded six-way primary.
9.
Sanford Bishop defeated Dylan Glenn, a young black Republican who received strong backing from many national Republican leaders.
10.
Sanford Bishop was heavily favored in the general election as a result.
11.
Sanford Bishop is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, as well as the Blue Dog Democrats, a group of moderate to conservative House Democrats.
12.
The New York Times quoted the chairman of the agency that administers federal farm programs in Georgia as saying, "It's questionable whether it would have survived without the votes [Sanford Bishop] brought to it".
13.
On October 10,2002, Sanford Bishop was one of only four of 36 Congressional Black Caucus members to vote for the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War.
14.
On September 10,2007, Sanford Bishop endorsed Barack Obama for President and co-chaired the Georgia for Obama campaign; his wife, Vivian Creighton Sanford Bishop, a municipal court clerk in Columbus, co-chaired the Georgia Women for Hillary committee.
15.
Sanford Bishop serves on the Appropriations Committee, and chairs the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies.
16.
In September 2010, the Associated Press reported that Bishop had, between 2003 and 2005, directed scholarships and awards funded by the Congressional Black Caucus to ineligible persons, including his stepdaughter, Aayesha Owens Reese; his niece, Emmaundia J Whitaker; and other people with close ties to his family, threatening to turn the program into a political problem for the party.
17.
Sanford Bishop told The Albany Herald that he was aware of fraud in the program, but that the settlement's anti-fraud provisions would prevent disbursement of funds to those who didn't qualify.
18.
In 2020, the Office of Congressional Ethics released a report alleging Sanford Bishop misused over $90,000 of campaign funds to cover personal expenses like fuel, golf expenses, meals, travel, tuition and entertainment.