Brandon Hembree
Partner, Impact Public Affairs; Council Member, Sugar Hill City Council
Georgia State University BA ‘98
Sugar Hill, GA
The oldest son in a single-parent household, Brandon is the first to say that his plans for the future did not include higher education when he was in high school. “I had no plans to go to college. I was in high school working a full-time job in my senior year. I just assumed that I would be doing that for the rest of my life. I was really the first person on either side of my family who went to college for four years.”
It was his English teacher who saw his potential and encouraged him to consider the possibilities. “There was a poetry contest. I wrote a poem and I actually won third place. My English teacher just took me aside one day and just asked me what plans were. I was just very honest with her and I just told her I did not have any plans after high school. I remember just thinking and saying to her that college would probably not be possible. At the time I just considered the finances related to going to college just to be too overwhelming. She just further encouraged me to look at colleges and to consider the HOPE scholarship.
“Once I started exploring college and exploring the HOPE scholarship it just became apparent to me that it was a real opportunity. And it was great. I had really no costs at all. I went all four years on the HOPE Scholarship. I was able to work a full-time job and save money. Not having to pay for college was just a game changer for me.”
He attended Georgia State University and achieved a bachelor’s in Political Science just minutes from the hub of state politics. “I remember in college, on a lunch breaks between classes, I would go sit on the steps at the capitol. I remember going in and it was almost like static electricity. It was kind of like it was the center of everything that was happening in Georgia.”
Brandon had first developed this interest in politics through his family. “My grandparents were from Blue Ridge and I spent my summers and my Christmases there with them, and my grandfather was a big fan of Zell Miller. Any time we would go through Young Harris, he would talk about Zell Miller, that was really something that motivated me. And I later had an aunt who was county commissioner for Fannin County when I was in my late teens and what she did just created a fascination for me.”
He has now been with the government affairs firm Impact Public Affairs, formerly Massey, Watson, & Hembree, since 2003. He is also on the City Council for Sugar Hill, Georgia. “About six years ago I decided to run for city council in Sugar Hill. I won and I’m still serving at Sugar Hill.”
“For me, politics is really interesting. I classify it as kind of a jack of all trades, you have to have knowledge of about politics and history and little bit about psychology. It’s just a fascinating field to be in.”
Brandon lives in Sugar Hill and hopes to continue his work in public service in the future.