Tuesday night provided relatively few surprises in Congressional races in Georgia. Only a handful were up for grabs anyway – 10 of the 14 races were not within 20 points as of press time. Every incumbent won fairly handily and it appears only one race is likely to be close.
John Lewis’ replacement in the 5th district, Nikema Williams, turned away Republican challenger Angela Stanton-King by nearly 70%.
Another newcomer, Republican Andrew Clyde, running in Doug Collins’ seat of the 9th district was up roughly 60%.
And she may be controversial but the GOP’s Marjorie Taylor Greene certainly appears liked in her 14th district where she was up by 50% over the challenger Kevin Van Ausdal – who had actually dropped out under some bizarre circumstances.
The two real interesting races of the night were in the 6th district, where Karen Handel was looking for a rematch with Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath in a bid to catch presidential year turnout and capture Handel’s old seat. It appears Handel came up short, down roughly 10% at press time. The 6th district appears to be solidly Democratic now, winning consecutive races with midterm and presidential year turnout numbers.
Over in the 7th district is where the only remaining action is. With some 300 remaining precincts to report, all in the more Democratic Gwinnett County – as opposed to more Republican Forsyth which had reported all its precincts, Republican Dr. Rich McCormick is up by only 5,000 votes over Carolyn Bourdeaux.
If McCormick is able to hold on, after all the hubbub, not a single Georgia Congressional district will have actually flipped. There are some new faces, from Greene to Clyde to McCormick, but there were no races where something happened that people were not expecting and the balance between Republicans and Democrats will remain the same.
The top of the ticket races may have a long way to go before we figure it all out but the Congressional races look to be stable.
