Jimmy Carter's Grandson Running for Office

A grandson of Jimmy Carter is following the former president into politics with a run for the Georgia state Senate.

Democrat Jason Carter says he will run for an Atlanta-area seat that's being vacated by President Barack Obama's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to Singapore.

If David Adelman is confirmed as ambassador in January, a special election could be held in March for his Senate seat representing part of DeKalb County.

Jason Carter is the only person so far to say he'd run for the seat in the heavily Democratic district.

The 34-year-old said his grandfather, once the governor of Georgia, encouraged him to take the plunge. But he said he doesn't feel much pressure to live up to his family's famous last name.

"To the extent that there's pressure, it is pressure to do the right thing, to maintain integrity that comes with the name," he said.

Carter is a lawyer who focuses on voting rights at an Atlanta firm. The 34-year-old former Peace Corps volunteer graduated from Duke University and the University of Georgia School of Law.

He said he wouldn't expect the former president to join him on the campaign trail much.

"The fact that Jimmy Carter is my grandfather, it gives me a profile and it gives me an opportunity. But in the end I still have to have relevant things to say," he said.

Jason Carter's father, Jack, ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate from Nevada in 2006.