Georgia runoff features intra-party fights for key seats

Tuesday’s runoff features at least two intraparty fights on both sides of the aisle, including a race for a metro Atlanta Senate seat that opened for the first time in two decades and a clash coastal where an incumbent GOP president is fighting to keep his seat. .

This round of voting concerns elections in which no candidate received 50% of the vote in last month’s election, with some candidates barely falling short of that threshold.

On the Georgia coast, St. Marys Republican Rep. Steven Sainz is fighting to keep his seat after narrowly avoiding an outright victory. First elected in 2019, Sainz chairs a House committee that handles proposals to form study committees and create state symbols, like this year’s bill that would have made bread from corn the official state bread of Georgia.

Sainz received 3,075 votes out of 6,188, leaving him with just 39 votes left before he could go through the summer without campaigning. But instead of enjoying the district’s waterfront scenery, he’s knocking on his constituents’ doors in a runoff against fellow Republican Glenn Cook, elected Satilla River Soil and Water Conservation Supervisor . The race sparked strong emotions and personal attacks on the Internet.

Cook received 1,673 votes, or about 27 percent, and third-place finisher David Rainer took the remaining 23 percent. Rainer gave his support to Cook.

Cook, an attorney who lives on Jekyll Island and is also a retired Navy pilot and commercial pilot, said he and his wife Wendy have knocked on 6,000 doors in the district and won’t slow down before Tuesday’s election .

“I don’t have the kind of money that my opponent has, so I rely on the old-fashioned basics of going out and meeting people and hearing their concerns and sitting in their living room with them and just getting to know people, and so that’s what we did.

Sainz had raised more than $268,000 in last month’s election, according to state campaign filings. During the same period, Cook had raised more than $45,000 and spent more than $20,000.

The Southeast Georgia district includes all of Sainz’s native Camden County and part of Glynn County to the north.

Cook said the race will come down to local issues, and he said many Sainz voters feel they are not represented.

“They want someone to stand up in Atlanta and be their voice. There are mental health problems here, health problems, education problems, school system problems. The northern end of Camden County was almost neglected by Sainz. People just feel like they’re almost being questioned about what’s going on in Kingsland. Kingsland and St. Marys appear to receive most of the funding and resources coming from Atlanta. My big issue would be spreading this out fairly across the district, making sure everyone is represented.

Georgia political consultant Brian Robinson, who directs Sainz’s communications, said Sainz has been traveling around the district touting his conservative voting record and his unwavering support for former President Donald Trump.

“This election is between someone who is a staunch Trump supporter and someone who is not, someone who was born and raised, his community, his entire life, and an Atlanta lawyer who retired there,” Robinson said. “There’s someone who has a conservative record of achievement and someone who doesn’t, so voters have a clear choice to make here.”

Cook said voters would reject that kind of talk as election-season bluster.

“What they’re interested in right now, I think, is just the mail bombardment, Sainz calling me a foreigner, calling me anti-Trump, calling me a guy who doesn’t control the southern border of the United States- United,” he said. . “People are really fed up. I mean, I hear it going door to door.

But Sainz is taking no chances, Robinson said.

“He will have knocked on many more doors than there will be people who come to vote,” he said. “So he really covered the district heavily. And it’s really difficult in the summer, with the holidays and people on the road, to convince them to run in the second round, so that personal connection is very important.

Runoff elections almost always see lower turnout, and with small margins, upsets are a real possibility.

That’s what Cook hopes.

“I hope to win this match,” he said with a laugh. “I mean, it’s going to be upsetting, Steven would be very upset about it, but I’m feeling pretty confident right now. I don’t feel lost and, whatever happens, I will still have made a statement and accomplished something.

A bitter fight for partisan affiliation in metro Atlanta

In the Democratic primary race to represent state Senate District 34, which covers Clayton and Fayette counties, former state Rep. Valencia Stovall said she must defend herself against attacks within from her own party as she faced retired U.S. Army Maj. Kenya Wicks.

While Wicks is seeking her first term in public office, she previously worked as chief of staff for retired Sen. Valencia Seay, who endorsed Wicks to replace her after serving two decades in the Senate.

Stovall, who nearly avoided a runoff, said she had to deal with an unusual circumstance where Democratic Party organizations are supporting her opponent in the primary runoff election.

The winner will face Republican Andrew Honeycutt, Fayette County’s university administrator, in November.

Democrats criticized Stovall for supporting GOP proposals when she was a House representative, including votes for a school voucher bill and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s plan to partially expand Medicaid. Democrats have long advocated for a full Medicaid expansion and are critical of Kemp’s plan, which has so far enrolled only a few thousand people.

The Georgia Senate Majority Defense Fund, Inc.’s political action committee, chaired by outgoing Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler, distributed campaign mailers calling Stovall a Republican candidate running in the Democratic primary.

On May 31, the head of the Fayette County Democratic Committee informed his members via email that the party had endorsed Wicks as an emergency measure to protect the party from “GOP infiltration.”

Stovall questioned the rationale given by Democratic committee chair Fayette for supporting his opponent, who served as vice chair of the board. Stovall also said she had doubts about the accuracy of several of the endorsements on Senate Majority Defense campaign postcards.

Stovall gave up her seat in the House of Representatives to run for the U.S. Senate in 2020 as an independent candidate in a special election won by now-Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Stovall said she is running as a Democrat because she identifies as a Democrat, and she argues that her election results back that up while also showing that she is independent-minded.

“This type of unprecedented support is for someone who only received 15 percent of the vote in a seven-way race and I had 46.45 percent,” Stovall said. “When you look at my electoral record and my program on my site, you are far from being a Republican program. My voting record aligns with the Democratic Party at least 88% of the time.

“Allow us (politicians) to think independently and choose what is best for our constituents,” Stovall also said.

Wicks said she was not involved in sending emails and text messages about Stovall.

“The only thing I can say about that is maybe some people don’t want her under the Gold Dome. Maybe they want voters to do more in-depth research,” Wicks said. “I am 100% Democrat and always have been and no one in the party has questioned my affiliation. My integrity is not in question, my honesty is not in question.

“I don’t and I haven’t said anything negative about my opponent because I was raised by my grandmother who always taught me to treat people the way I want to be treated,” he said. Wicks said.

During her first term as senator, Wicks pledged support for comprehensive Medicaid expansion, public school funding, economic development, reproductive rights and veterans’ issues.

During her tenure as a legislator, Stovall helped secure a $45 million capital infusion grant for Clayton County and advocated for other bills aimed at protecting students with special needs and update the state’s education funding formula.

“I don’t know why so much effort is being put into this race to discredit me. I have a proven track record of serving my community,” Stovall said.

Other contests on the ballot

Several other races will also be decided Tuesday in the Georgia House and Senate, with the winners of those matchups heading into the Nov. 5 general election as heavy favorites.

Sen. Shelly Echols is the only Republican incumbent in the Senate not running for re-election, but Democratic senators are losing three longtime lawmakers to retirement.

Butler, a Democrat from Stone Mountain, is resigning after 26 years in the Legislature.

DeKalb County Attorney Randal Mangham and Gwinnett County Registered Nurse Iris Knight-Hamilton are expected to battle it out Tuesday in the Butler district Democratic primary. The winner will face Republican Mary Williams Benefield.

In the Democratic runoff to replace outgoing Sen. Horacena Tate, nonprofit leader RaShaun Kemp faces real estate broker Ralph Long III to see who emerges victorious in the suburban Atlanta district.

A new majority-black district covering Monroe and Macon-Bibb counties will be up for grabs as educators Juawn Jackson and Tangie Herring enter the Democratic runoff for House District 14. The winner will face Republican Noah Redding Harbuck.

A new House member will replace Evans’ Republican Rep. Jodi Lott, who announced last year she would not run for re-election. The final two candidates in the Republican primary are Rob Clifton, a commercial general contractor, and Paul Abbott, a retired educator.

There will be a Democratic runoff election in Gwinnett County on Tuesday as Arlene Beckles faces Sonia Lopez to replace incumbent Duluth Democratic Rep. Pedro Marin. No Republican candidate qualified for the primary.

Another showdown with Gwinnett on Tuesday will determine which Republican, J. Gregory Howard or Fred Clayton, challenges Democratic Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes in the general election.

This story comes to Rough Draft Atlanta through a content partnership with Georgia Recorder.