NEWS RELEASES

POWDER SPRINGS, GA. – August 13, 2025 – Raja Antone announced today that he will seek the Ward 1 seat on Powder Springs’ city council in the municipal general election on November 4, 2025.  A first-time candidate for elected office, Antone has held multiple volunteer leadership roles with the city.  He has been the vice chairman of the Development Authority of Powder Springs (DAPS) since 2022, and previously served as vice chair of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission from 2014 to 2022.

 

“I applaud the amazing achievements of Mayor Thurman’s administration and our city council members. I am keenly interested in continuing to serve the city by contributing meaningfully to its current and future success,” Antone emphasized.  “For eleven years, I have been supporting our city’s progress as well as investing in community outreach groups across Metro Atlanta through my foundation, various civic organizations, and as a private citizen. I am ready to be more involved in the future of Powder Springs. As such, I welcome this opportunity to run for elected office to represent Ward 1 on the city council.  I look forward to engaging with Ward 1 residents and earning their votes in November,” Antone said.

 

The Ward 1 city council seat has been held by Henry Lust since 2018.  In response to Antone’s announcement, Lust stated that Raja Antone has served very effectively on both the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Development Authority of Powder Springs for more than a decade. “I will gladly pass the baton to Raja because he has consistently shown outstanding leadership skills and I believe that Raja is well prepared to do what is best for our city,” said Lust,  Councilman, Ward 1, and Mayor Pro-Tem. 

 

Antone’s stand-out achievements while serving on the Powder Springs Planning and Zoning Commission  included helping to shape the Downtown Overlay District to ensure cohesive development of the downtown community,  playing a key role in updating the city’s sign ordinance to improve aesthetics while supporting business visibility, and being highly inclusive of  residents’ ideas during community listening sessions for the Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) plan. 

 

Recently, as the current vice chairman of the Development Authority of Powder Springs, Antone participated in a bond financing tax abatement issued for a 347,000 sq. ft. logistics center in Powder Springs, an investment valued at $50 million, which will create an estimated 110 jobs by the end of 2025.  Antone also participated in a DAPS initiative to research federal grants in partnership with the City of Powder Springs, the Downtown Development Authority, and the city’s consulting agency, Paro Strategies.  

 

“I am very proud of the accomplishments of DAPS and the Planning and Zoning Commission to attract and encourage economic development and residential growth during my tenure. Looking forward, my campaign is about the future of Powder Springs -- the fastest growing city in Cobb County. With a city population approaching 25,000 on the horizon, I will continue to push for effective strategies to ensure well-managed growth. Additionally, I am just as strongly committed to advocate for sustainable economic development,” Antone said.

 

A respected community leader and public servant, Antone is also a successful philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman of The Leadoff Foundation, which he established in 1999 to address the issue of homelessness and to advocate for parental rights.  Highly engaged in his charity’s dual mission, Antone personally organizes annual events for homelessness awareness and engages with three sub-committees of the Georgia Child Support Commission to conduct statutory reviews and provide economic and technical assistance to ensure parents are treated equitably in Georgia’s family courts.

 

Antone is employed by Fulton County, where he works closely with the county’s information technology executives to plan and implement critical cybersecurity projects.  Antone completed an MBA from Quantic University School of Business and Technology, based in Washington DC, in 2021 and a B.S. degree in Political Science from Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1998.

 

Raja, a twenty-year resident of Powder Springs,  and his wife Joy, an elementary school principal in Atlanta’s public school system, enjoy family time with their two young sons and older daughter. Antone, a collegiate and amateur baseball player, also coaches youth baseball, basketball, and football at Wild Horse Creek Park in Powder Springs and at other locations in Cobb County.  The Antone family worships at The Greater Piney Grove Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Raja Antone serves as a trustee. The family also attends services at Historic Springfield Baptist Church in Antone’s hometown of Greensboro, Georgia.

 

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Media Contact:  Raja Antone

Telephone: 770-883-3362

RajaforCouncil1@icloud.com