Adrian Consonery Jr.: The 25-Year-Old Trailblazer Running for Georgia Secretary of State And Mobilizing a New Generation of Civic Power

written by Dominque Huff for Game Changers Magazine

In every generation, there comes a voice sharp enough to challenge complacency and bold enough to inspire change. For Georgia, that rising voice belongs to Adrian Consonery Jr. a 25-year-old entrepreneur, author, organizer, and candidate for Georgia Secretary of State.

He speaks with the conviction of someone twice his age, yet with the optimism and urgency of youth who refuse to wait their turn. For Adrian, leadership isn’t a slogan it’s lived experience, trial by fire, and a relentless desire to make sure every voice in Georgia is heard.

Game Changers Magazine sat down with this young visionary on the Voices of the Village Podcast, where he opened up about his story, his upbringing, his passion for education and community, and the moment that pushed him into the fight for election integrity.

The Moment His Vote Was Almost Silenced

Adrian’s journey into civic leadership wasn’t planned. It wasn’t inherited. It wasn’t scripted. It began with a moment that shook him to his core when his right to vote was nearly taken away.

In 2020, while attending Grambling State University, he mailed in his absentee ballot. Instead of confirmation, he received a warning: He had three days to return to Georgia to prove he was who he said he was or his vote would be thrown out. Twice. His ballot signatures were flagged during both the primary and the general election.

“I remember saying, If I’m voting absentee, it’s because I’m absent,” he told us. “My voice was almost denied. Something was wrong, and I had to do something about it.”

That experience changed everything. Rather than complain, he mobilized. Rather than retreat, he stepped forward. And rather than accept barriers to democracy, he committed to tearing them down.

Building a Generation of Informed, Activated Leaders

Adrian’s philosophy is simple:Education is the engine that moves a community forward.

Using the metaphor of a car, he explained that every community has parts spark plugs, timing belts, oil, gears that must work together to move forward.

“People need to know the role they play,” he said. “Who do I call when something happens? How does my part move the whole vehicle forward? If we don’t know the system, we can’t operate it. And if we don’t operate it, someone else will.”

This belief led him to create Lyfeline Initiative Inc., a nonprofit focused on community development, civic education, vocational readiness, and amplifying the voices of young people across the country.

His organizing work has taken him from Georgia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Arizona, Utah, Tennessee, and beyond partnering with national organizations like the Transformative Justice Coalition to mobilize Gen Z and millennials around civic responsibility.

“They train you hard,” he laughed. “Then they say, ‘You see that person over there? Go mobilize them.’ And you do. Because you’re ready.”

The HBCU Experience That Built a Leader

Adrian graduated with a degree in Business Management from Grambling State University, an HBCU in the heart of northern Louisiana. Grambling isn’t just a school it’s a world you help create.

“Grambling is in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “But that’s what made it powerful. You learn to build the reality you want. You learn resilience, creativity, and community.”

At Grambling he: Became a student ambassador, Joined United African American Men Incorporated, Started a thriving home-based pizza business, Wrote his second book, Founded a nonprofit

Yes, a pizza business. What started as a romantic date night turned into a campus enterprise when Adrian insisted on making dough from scratch because the store-bought version “didn’t sit right with his Italian roots.”

Before long, he was delivering homemade pizza, garlic knots, and his infamous “slutty brownies” across campus keeping his rent paid, his schedule full, and his entrepreneurial spirit alive.

From Poetry to Purpose: Becoming an Author

Adrian’s creativity runs deep. He’s been writing poetry since childhood, using it as a safe space for emotion, reflection, and healing.

His first book, Thoughts of a 17-Year-Old Man, was published in high school  a spontaneous collection of poems he compiled between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. one night.

But his second book, Legal Thoughts: The Thoughts of a 21-Year-Old, was born from trauma.

During Grambling’s 2021 homecoming, gunfire erupted near campus. For the first time in his life, Adrian witnessed someone die. The violence shook him so deeply he had to leave school temporarily.

His mother, a counselor, urged him to write through the pain.The result was a poem called Moretti’s Story written under the alter-ego name students use during homecoming and eventually an entire book exploring grief, manhood, trauma, introspection, and emotional healing.

“If any of my books changed someone’s life,” he said, “it was that one.”

A Campaign Rooted in Integrity, Access, and Hope

Adrian Consonery Jr. is not running for Secretary of State because he wants power. He’s running because he wants fairness, He wants security without suppression, He wants access without obstacles And he wants young people to understand that their role in democracy isn’t optional — it’s essential. He wants every Georgian  rural, urban, Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Indigenous, Democrat, Republican, Independent to know that their voice matters, their vote matters, and their participation matters.

“I’m not better than anyone else,” he said. “The first person I called when my vote was challenged was my mama. But I knew something was wrong, and I had to stand up for myself and for everybody else who doesn’t have the tools, the resources, or the courage yet.”

Game Changer of the Next Generation

At just 25, Adrian Consonery Jr. embodies the spirit of a new political era one where authenticity beats tradition, where lived experience beats old systems, and where the next generation refuses to wait to lead.

He is unapologetically Black, Unapologetically Italian, Unapologetically young, And unapologetically committed to Georgia, This is not just a campaign, It is a movement, A mindset, A call to action and Adrian isn’t asking for permission to step into history he’s writing it himself.

Adrian Consonery, Jr. Appers on VOTV