These three would remain the last Democrats to win statewide in Georgia until 2020, when Joe Biden narrowly carried the state in his successful presidential bid.

Baker served the fourth-longest tenure as Attorney General in state history (behind Eugene Cook, Arthur K. Bolton and Michael J. Bowers).

Chief among those were the HOPE Scholarship and the "Two Strikes and You're Out" law, designed to put the worst repeat violent felons in prison for life without parole.

The Supreme Court of Georgia ultimately sided with Baker, ruling 5-2 that the Attorney General, as an elected constitutional officer, is independent of the Governor and has the power to control the state government's legal affairs.

Baker declined, arguing that he saw no legal basis for the suit, believed it would ultimately fail, and decrying it as "frivolous" and a "waste of taxpayer money".

While attending the University of North Carolina, Baker was on the fencing team, and won the 1975 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) individual sabre championship.