Draft:Tony Kozycki

Tony Kozycki

Anthony Kozycki (born c. 1986) is an American attorney, U.S. Navy veteran, and politician who is the Democratic nominee in the 2026 election for Georgia's 7th congressional district. He is challenging incumbent Republican Rich McCormick in the November 3, 2026 general election.

Kozycki is a former U.S. Navy officer and Naval Aviator who completed three combat deployments before leaving active duty to attend law school. He now practices immigration and criminal defense law in the Atlanta area. He entered the 2026 congressional race after his own representative, McCormick, did not intervene in the case of Godfrey Wade, a Georgia Army veteran whom Kozycki represented and who was deported despite a pending appeal.

Early life and education

Kozycki was raised in LaGrange, Georgia, in Troup County. He was recruited to the United States Naval Academy to play baseball, was nominated to the Academy by then-U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss, and graduated in 2008. He later earned a Juris Doctor, graduating summa cum laude, from Georgia State University College of Law in 2021. As of 2026, he is a candidate in the Harvard Kennedy School's Public Leadership Credential program, a pathway toward a mid-career Master in Public Administration; as of this writing he has not completed the credential.

Military career

Kozycki served in the U.S. Navy from approximately 2004 to 2017. As a Naval Aviator, he flew the F/A-18 Super Hornet with strike fighter squadron VFA-41 and completed three combat deployments in the Middle East. During the later part of his Navy career, he served in a diplomatic liaison role embedded with the Royal Australian Air Force. He left active duty after roughly a decade of service to return to Georgia and attend law school.

Legal career

After law school, Kozycki became an attorney practicing immigration and criminal defense law in the Atlanta area, including representing clients in deportation proceedings. In 2025 and 2026, he represented Godfrey Wade, a Jamaican-born U.S. Army veteran and longtime Georgia resident who was taken into ICE custody following a traffic stop and was later deported to Jamaica while an appeal in his case remained pending. Kozycki and Wade's other advocates argued that Wade had not received notice of an earlier immigration hearing and had never had the chance to contest his removal in court. Kozycki said he unsuccessfully sought help from Rep. Rich McCormick's office over several months before Wade's deportation.

2026 congressional campaign

Kozycki launched his campaign for Georgia's 7th congressional district in March 2026, citing the Wade case as his motivation for entering the race. He ran in a four-candidate Democratic primary on May 19, 2026, that also included filmmaker Case Norton, environmental health scientist Jayson Toweh, and retiree Larry Long. Kozycki led the primary field but fell short of the threshold needed to avoid a runoff. In the June 2026 runoff, he defeated Norton with about 68 percent of the vote to win the Democratic nomination.

Kozycki's campaign has centered on congressional ethics reform, lowering costs for families, and immigration policy that pairs border security with due-process protections; he has described himself as a "Secure Borders Democrat." He will face McCormick, a physician and fellow military veteran, in the November 3, 2026 general election in a district that, following redistricting, covers Dawson, Forsyth, and Lumpkin counties along with parts of North Fulton, Cherokee, and Hall counties.

Political positions

Kozycki supports banning members of Congress from trading individual stocks, refuses corporate PAC and lobbyist contributions to his campaign, and has called for lowering childcare and healthcare costs. On immigration, he has said he supports strong border enforcement targeted at trafficking and drug smuggling while opposing what he has called "political theater" measures, and has called for reforms to give immigrants facing deportation greater access to a hearing.

Personal life

Kozycki lives in Johns Creek, Georgia, with his wife, Nicole, an immigration attorney, and their two children.