Zell Miller: Keynotes for Democrats in 1992 and Republicans in 2004

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Zell Miller was born in 1932 in Young Harris, Georgia. His father, a teacher, died of cerebral meningitis when Miller was 17 days old, and his mother raised him alone through the Great Depression. After an associate's degree and time at Emory University, he landed in a North Georgia drunk tank after the Korean War armistice, a moment he called his rock bottom, and on release enlisted in the Marine Corps, rising to sergeant over three years. He earned history degrees at the University of Georgia and taught in Young Harris, then served as mayor and state senator. In 1964 and 1966 he ran for Congress endorsing segregation and attacking Lyndon Johnson, and later, as executive secretary to Governor Lester Maddox, persuaded him to integrate the State Patrol and appoint African Americans to state boards.

In 1980 Lieutenant Governor Miller challenged Senator Herman Talmadge over his segregationist past and lost the primary, and Talmadge then lost to a Republican. After a record 16 years as lieutenant governor he won the governorship in 1990 with James Carville running his campaign. He gave the 1992 Democratic keynote at Madison Square Garden backing Bill Clinton. Appointed to the Senate in 2000, he backed George W. Bush's tax cuts, and in 2004 he returned to the same arena to give the Republican keynote attacking John Kerry, yet kept his Democratic registration for life. He died in Young Harris in 2018, and Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush attended his state funeral.

• His lottery funded HOPE Scholarship paid public college tuition for Georgia students with a 3.0 average.
• His seven deadly sins law, approved by voters in 1994, mandated life without parole for a second conviction for crimes such as murder, armed robbery and kidnapping.
• As governor he welcomed the Gay Games to Atlanta, but in the Senate he backed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
• After the 2004 speech he told Chris Matthews to get out of his face and said he wished he could challenge him to a duel.
• He later co-chaired Newt Gingrich's 2012 campaign and sat on the board of the National Rifle Association.