[5] Until his 2010 campaign for agriculture commissioner, Black's primary job was president and lobbyist for the Georgia Agribusiness Council,[5] a position to which he was elected in 1989 and held for 21 years.

[3] Upon taking office, Black ordered the removal of a part of a 1956 mural by George Beattie from the lobby of the Georgia Department of Agriculture building; the removed murals included idealized images of plantation slaves in Georgia harvesting sugarcane, picking cotton, and using a cotton gin.

[13] After Trump was defeated in his 2020 bid for re-election, Black supported Republican efforts to restrict voting rights in Georgia.

[3] In June 2021, Black announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate in 2022 to challenge incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock.

[3] He praised Trump for "all the good things he's done the past four years"[3] and dodged questions about whether he accepted that Joe Biden was legitimately elected president.