Jewish Realtor Looks to U.S. House Primary

[Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles about Jewish candidates for federal and state offices in advance of the May 19 primary.]

The Democratic primary for U.S. House 11th District pits Barry Wolfert, a Jewish, 35-year resident of East Cobb, against Chris Harden, an attorney from Woodstock, Ga.

The Republican nominee will come from this field: Rob Adkerson, an electrician by trade; William Brown, an attorney; Lisa Carlquist (who suspended her campaign); Dr. John Cowan, a neurosurgeon; John Hobbs, a machinist; Ulama Kasa, an epidemiologist; Chris Mora, a naturopathic doctor; and Tricia Pridemore, a former member of the Georgia Public Service Commission. A runoff, if necessary, will be on June 16.

Incumbent Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk chose not to seek re-election to a seventh term from the 11th district. In 2024, Republican Donald Trump won 61 percent of the vote in the district, while Loudermilk received 65 percent.

The 11th is located in north-northwest metro Atlanta, covering Bartow, Gordon, and Pickens counties, along with western Cherokee County and northwest and central Cobb County. Much of Marietta is in the 11th, along with Woodstock, Canton, and more rural areas.

On social media, the 60-year-old Wolfert describes himself as: “Realtor by day. Beatles tribute band guitarist by night.”

A graduate of Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Wolfert has been a residential real estate broker since 2003, after spending 15 years in the hospitality industry in sales and marketing positions with hotels, convention bureaus, and hospitality-related technology companies.

Wolfert cited as issue priorities: health care, both accessibility and cost; the future solvency of Social Security; and the impact on rural health care of reductions in Medicaid spending over the next decade to pay for tax cuts in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

“I didn’t get into this lightly,” he told the AJT. “The timing was right in my life. These issues are happening at a time when they’re affecting me and the people I care about . . . There is a confluence of events which leads me to believe that this is the right time for me and I’m going to do everything I can to win on May 19.”

Calling himself as a “self-employed, self-insured proud participant in the Affordable Care Act and Georgia Access” (the state’s insurance exchange), Wolfert said, “I have seen my health insurance go up three or four times the cost over the 15 years that I’ve been insured . . . this year, an 80 percent premium increase without the subsidy” [the federal subsidies not extended by Congress].

Wolfert called Social Security, “a problem that has been kicked down the road since you and I were babies. Congress has just managed to kick it down the road for the next politicians. I’m tired of this.”

He favors removing the wage cap on Social Security. In 2026, only income up to $184,500 is subject to the 6.2 percent Social Security tax. Taking off the cap would inject more money into the system and contribute to easing the financing issue down the road, he said.

Rural health care access affects more than just residents of those areas, Wolfert said, explaining that visitors and tourists who, because of accident or illness, are in need of urgent medical attention, may be at risk if a trauma center or hospital is not available nearby.

Wolfert defends — “1,000 percent” — Israel’s right to exist. “It has the right to defend itself and its own self-determination.”

On Israel’s response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attacks and massacre, Wolfert said, “What happened to the Palestinians and the Gazans is a tragedy and I don’t want to see innocent people die, but if you break into my house, you don’t get to dictate the manner of my response.

“If Hamas had released the hostages relatively quickly, say within 30 days, I would be in a much different position and say Israel should have backed down their military,” Wolfert said.

Wolfert worries that “the younger generation only sees the effect of a David-and-Goliath type of thing,” with Israel in the role of Goliath. He drew a parallel to his days as a Cornell student in the mid-1980s, when apartheid in South Africa was a major issue. “What the younger generation seems now, is they see a stronger country, Israel. They see the poor state of the Palestinians or the Gazans, and they see the effects of what a first-world country is doing to a third-world country.”

By coincidence, one of Wolfert’s Cornell University classmates was Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for Secretary of State — but who, in 2020, ran an unsuccessful campaign against Loudermilk as the Democratic nominee in the 11th Congressional district.

According to the most recently available campaign finance reports, Wolfert had raised $37,403 and Harden $49,618.

U.S. House members are paid $174,000 per year.