The “official” beginning of the election season in Georgia happens when the qualification period ends (which happened on March 9th). Qualification is the period of time where anyone wanting to run for office must register. All the state, statewide and federal races have been analyzed for the level of competition, and we look forward to engaging with credit unions in the time ahead. A few early points on the races:
Federal Seats:
- All 14 U.S. Representative seats are up for election.
- There are six of these U.S. Representatives who have primary competition in May, with two of these six with multiple opponents in the primary (and therefore, a perceived “more challenging” road to re-election). These two are U.S. Rep. Jody Hice (R-10) and U.S. Rep. Austin Scott (R-8).
- There are 12 members of Georgia’s Congressional delegation with general competition in November, and one with no competition whatsoever: U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-5).
Statewide:
- All the statewide seats are up for election (Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State.
- Four of the eight statewide seats (not including the PSC) are open as the incumbents are vacating, with the governor’s race being one already hotly contested in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.
- All of these seats have competition in the general election, the primary or both.
State Legislature:
- All 236 state legislative seats (all state senators and state representatives) are up for election.
- Over 100 of the 236 state legislative seats have no competition whatsoever.
- There are 20 seats that are open, so a new legislator is guaranteed in those seats regardless.
From a credit union perspective: Two of the credit union board members/committee members who serve in the state Legislature have competition: State Rep. Howard Mosby (D-Atlanta), the board chairman of 1st Choice CU, who has primary competition in May, and State Rep. Sam Teasley (R-Marietta), who serves on a committee of LGE Community CU and has general competition in November. There are very few individuals who serve on committees/boards of credit unions in the state Legislature (as compared to other industries), and these individuals are consistently helpful to the issues important to credit unions and the members they serve. Stay tuned for avenues on how your credit union can be involved in the elections (and possibly be involved in these two people’s re-election campaigns in this challenging election season).
