How Beth Fuller went from CDC contractor to campaigning for office

As a child, Beth Fuller and her dad, a former judge, read a chapter of “The Grammatical Lawyer” each night, preparing for dinner-table political discussions with her family.

“I remember one time,” she says, “he pulled out a Georgia map and showed me all the different districts.”

In November, the 58-year-old mom of two will challenge the Republican incumbent, Deborah Silcox, for the highly competitive Georgia House of Representatives District 53 seat, covering sections of Sandy Springs, Buckhead and Roswell. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, an organization dedicated to electing Democrats in high-stakes elections to state legislatures by providing resources like funding, paid communications and direct voter contact, has Fuller on its list of Target Races as a candidate to watch.

Most recently, Fuller spent a decade as a contractor for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta. She worked on projects like the Policy Academy, a program that trains people across the agency how to make research findings more accessible to policymakers and the general public. But when Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency slashed about 10% of federal workers, she was laid off. She decided that Georgia needed another Democratic voice and announced her campaign last Dec. 11.

“I don’t like the direction we’re going in,” she says, describing the role model she wanted to be for her 17-year-old son, “and I’m not going to just sit here and watch.”

Before Fuller worked at the CDC, she studied political science at Emory University. After taking as many political science classes as she could fit in her schedule, she got a job with Congressman Ben Jones in Washington, D.C. She became interested in health policy after analyzing reports sent from the CDC and attending healthcare open forums.

Growing up, Fuller loved rafting down the Chattahoochee River in the summer and driving friends around Stone Mountain in her family’s orange Jeep. She met her husband at daycare: not at afternoon pick-up, but as four-year-olds themselves. After dating in high school, they built separate lives before reconnecting in their 40s through a mutual friend on Facebook.

“He was just the same sweet guy that he was in high school,” Fuller says, recalling meeting him for coffee in Chicago after being apart for over 25 years. “Just with more degrees.”

As a mom, protecting the younger generation is a priority for Fuller. While accessible healthcare is her signature campaign point, she argues that gun control is essential for keeping Georgia communities safe. Pediatric storage is an issue she hopes to address, concerned about kids like River Willis, a toddler from Sandy Springs who died this February after getting hold of an unsecured firearm in his house.

“Policies do impact culture,” she says. “Just like we’ve shaped norms about wearing seatbelts and helmets, we need to shape norms about what we do with our weapons.”

Between now and the election, Fuller is fundraising, working on her TikTok account which she claims gets “so little views” and knocking on doors across the 30-mile-long district.

“Her public health background will really help her take a scientific approach to policy,” says Sophie Haines, a senior at Georgia Tech and an intern for Fuller’s campaign, “which is something that’s really needed.”

She also aims to connect with constituents across party lines.

“I think we’ve lost the art of communicating,” says her lifelong friend Shannan LaPorte. “All of [­­Beth’s] views are aligned with the Democratic Party. However, she’s a reasonable person who wants to make change beyond party politics.”

While Fuller's dream job was to take Katie Couric's place on The Today Show, becoming a politician is close enough. "It's all about talking to people and learning how we can all live together," she says, "and then taking action to create policies that enable that to happen.”