On November 7th there were several city, county and state legislative elections that took place. The state legislative elections were to fill vacated seats of individuals who have left before their terms were completed (and some left to run for other offices). Out of the nine special elections, five are over – with the other four now headed for runoffs as no one candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote. And in these special elections, there is no primary, so in many races, it is individuals from the same party competing. An overview of these races:
- Senate District 6, which was held by Sen. Hunter Hill (R), originally had eight people running. The two top vote recipients were Jaha Howard (D) and Jen Jordan (D), who will face each other in the runoff.
- Senate District 39, which was held by Sen. Vincent Fort (D), originally had five people running. The top two vote recipients were Nikema Williams (D) and Linda Pritchett (D), who will face each other in the runoff.
- Representative District 4, which was held by Rep. Bruce Broadrick (R), originally had four people running, and the seat now goes to Kasey Carpenter (R), who successfully won the election for the seat that encompasses Dalton.
- Representative District 26, which was held by Rep. Geoff Duncan (R), originally had three people running, and the seat now goes to Marc Morris (R), who successfully won the election for this seat that encompasses parts of Cumming.
- Representative District 42, which was held by Rep. Stacey Evans (D), has been won by Teri Anulewicz (D) from Smyrna, who had no competition.
- Representative District 60, which was held by Rep. Keisha Waites (D), originally had three people running, and now goes to a runoff between Kim Schofield (D) and De’Andre Pickett (D).
- Representative District 89, which was held by Rep. Stacey Abrams (D), originally had four people running, and the runoff will be between Bee Nguyen (D) and Sachin Varghese (D).
- Representative District 117, which was held by Rep. Regina Quick (R), has been won by Deborah Gonzalez (D) for the seat that encompasses parts of Athens.
- Representative District 119, which was held by Rep. Chuck Williams (R), originally had four people running, and it was successfully won by Jonathan Wallace (D) for the seat that encompasses parts of Watkinsville.
These runoffs (among other county/city elections that are in a runoff) will take place on December 5th. And it’s a short reprieve between campaigns, as these state legislator seats are all up for election in 2018!
