Several special General Assembly elections occurred on Tuesday. Perhaps the biggest news involved Rep.-elect Johnny Chastain, R-Blue Ridge, elected to the state House District 7 seat to replace the late House Speaker David Ralston. Chastain beat out Ralston’s wife Sheree (who was endorsed by Gov. Brian Kemp) with 53-47 percent of the vote.
An InsiderAdvantage reader who lives in the district analyzed the result this way: “My take is that Mrs. Ralston is pretty sharp (she chairs the local planning commission which generally doesn’t do stupid things) but these mountain people voted against entitlement. Also, banker Johnny Chastain has an impressive resume— a prototypical winning resume for this area.”
In other elections, Rep.-elect Chas Cannon, R-Moultrie, who ran uncontested, will represent solidly-conservative House District 172. And Sen.-elect Sam Watson, R-Moultrie, took the win for Senate District 11 with 76 percent of the vote. (Watson resigned from the District 172 seat to run for the open Senate seat.)
State House District 119 originally had a nine-candidate special election, but it remains in Republican hands with a runoff scheduled on February 28th between Holt Persinger, R-Winder, and Charlie Chase, R-Winder. Persinger eked out a first-place runoff finish in the Barrow/Jackson County district, but Chase has the endorsement of the conservative Georgia Republican Assembly.
Check out the complete election results here.
