MACON, Ga -- One of Georgia’s most tireless advocates for education is also the wife of perhaps the state’s most prominent politician. Gov. Nathan Deal’s wife has been mostly a backstage operator who has guarded an improbable streak of political independence.
In Macon, she's boarding a brown Chevy Suburban, driven by a Georgia state trooper. She's headed to school – for the 850th time as First Lady of Georgia.
"I do sleep good at night," Sandra Deal laughed. Do the math and it’s two school visits per week each and every week of the last seven and a half plus years.
Before she became First Lady, Sandra Deal was a career school teacher. Sixth graders, mostly, in Hall County where she grew up. She retired in 2002, ten years into her husband's term in Congress. She never moved to Washington.
Mrs. Deal says she’s drawn to younger kids who she thinks can benefit from a pep talk and a storybook. She read to several classes of second graders in Macon Thursday.
And she did it while beating back a breast cancer diagnosis earlier this year. It went into remission, and Mrs. Deal went back on the road.
"I’m a teacher and a mama and a grandmama and I just have to encourage them," Mrs. Deal said while riding on I-75 from Atlanta to Macon. 'You can tell, when you're around a group of children, which ones were read to and talked to and which ones were not."
Sandra Deal’s public life lets her to advocate for schoolchildren and their teachers, while staying above the messy business of politics. While crisscrossing the state, she’s been able to retain a streak of independence most politicians can’t.
"I’m an independent voter in some ways but I’m basically a Republican," she said. Asked if she voted for Donald Trump for president in 2016, she laughed. "You can ask me but I won't answer you."
"I vote my conscience. I don’t even tell Nathan who I vote for," she added.
Mrs. Deal says she has gotten to know Brian Kemp, the Republican nominee for governor, and Stacey Abrams, the Democrat. "I like both of them. I think they’re both fine people," she said. "And I think they’ll both do a good job. So I feel pretty good about the possibility for the state."
Sandra Deal says there’s far too much negativity in politics. And she says her visits to schools have influenced her outlook.
"I’ve visited some really good schools and some that were not quite so good," Mrs. Deal said. A lot of children live in substandard housing, violent areas. They don’t get enough sleep. And they don’t get enough food. And it’s a shame in a country like this." She added that it's hard to recruit teachers to neighborhoods like that.
Sandra Deal says she shares the Governor’s zeal for promoting business in Georgia, and believes a strong economy can strengthen public schools. It’s a long view – like the countless road trips taken by a tireless Governor’s wife.
