It wasn’t the ‘Blue Wave’ that many were predicting, yet the Democrats did not go down easy during Tuesday’s midterm elections in Georgia. As this is written Republican candidate for governor Brian Kemp managed to hold off Democrat rival Stacey Abrams by some 2%, avoiding a runoff in a hard-fought victory.
Democrats came into the night with great hope that a swell of support – buoyed by strong early voting numbers – would spur a string of upsets, but the results never tightened up until late in the evening as Atlanta numbers came in and Abrams roared back. Many veteran political observers say they believe the absentee and provisional ballots will not be enough to change a Kemp victory.
Lt. Gov.-elect Geoff Duncan and Secretary of State hopeful Brad Raffensperger likewise edged out Democrat opposition, though it appears the latter will face a runoff against former U.S. Rep. John Barrow in December.
The rest of the GOP statewide ticket also appears safe, though Republican Chuck Eaton, running against Lindy Miller for Public Service Commissioner, may be forced into a runoff after Libertarian Ryan Graham won some 2.5 percent of the vote in the race. Eaton’s counterpart Tricia Pridemore, running for re-election to the Public Service Commission won outright, as did Jim Beck, another Republican, who will become the state’s next Commissioner of Insurance following his win over Janice Laws.
Those results seemed to mirror those seen nationally, where the ‘Blue Wave’ never quite materialized. While the Democrats managed to take control of the House of Representatives as expected, they failed to make up any ground in the Senate and lost multiple high profile races, including a pair in Florida and the Senate race in Texas where Ted Cruz rolled to another term over Democrat darling Beto O’Rourke.
The bigger story of the night came from the two most contested Congressional races, where Republican incumbent Reps. Karen Handel and Rob Woodall struggled mightily against their Democrat challengers.
Woodall, who was criticized by some for not taking his re-election bid in Georgia’s 7th District seriously, trailed from the get-go against Carolyn Bourdeaux before some late-reporting Forsyth County votes saw him eventually notch a victory by just 3,000 votes.
The results of Metro-Atlanta’s 6th District are still up in the air as of this writing, with Democrat Lucy McBath now leading Rep. Karen Handel by 3,000 votes, less than 1 percent, in a race that still has votes left to be counted. Expect much more to come from this contest, including a possible recount.
Incumbents won each of Georgia’s remaining congressional races with varying degrees of ease.
Further down the ballot in the state legislature there were a small handful of surprising results. Democrats flipped a trio of metro-Atlanta districts in HD-51, 54, and 80, with Josh McLaurin, Betsy Holland, and Matthew Wilson respectively defeating Republican opposition. Democrat Shelly Hutchison also picked up a win in Lawrenceville’s HD-107, formerly held by Republican Rep. David Casas.
Republicans scored some key victories of their own in Athens-based HD-117 and 119, where Houston Gaines knocked off Democrat Rep. Deborah Gonzalez and Marcus Wiedower defeated Rep. Jonathan Wallace.
Senate District 6, spanning Vinings and Sandy Springs, was looked at as a key potential pickup for Republicans, but it was Democrat incumbent Sen. Jen Jordan who emerged victorious over Leah Aldridge in one of the cycle’s most-watched races.
Meanwhile in SD-40 Republican Sen. Fran Millar was upset by Sally Harrell, and in SD-48, formerly held by Republican David Shafer, Democrat Zahra Karinshak defeated Republican Matt Reeves to flip the seat for the Dems.
All seven ballot questions also passed without much issue, as did the ‘Brunch Bill’ referendum that many Georgians voted on throughout the state.
Much more analysis on races up and down the ballot to come this week, stay tuned…
