This week Georgia election officials are overseeing early voting ahead of the Tuesday June 18 primary runoffs around the state. Georgia requires a runoff in an election when no candidate gets a majority of the vote in the primary. Almost all non-partisan judicial races were decided on May 21, except for a major right-left Hall County runoff election contest for a State Court judgeship.
Candidate Tripp Wingate is a self-described constitutional conservative, a member of the Gun Owners of America and has voted in past Republican primaries. His opponent is described by Wingate supporters as “a super left-winger.”
Candidate Andy Maddox is a big supporter of President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama and – get this!— has donated 46 times to Biden, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and to the far-left ActBlue political action committee. Draw from that what you will about what kind of judge he would be
Because it’s a “non-partisan” judge race, candidates aren’t allowed to talk about issues, or how they would rule, per se. But they’re allowed to talk about a candidate’s track record. Even though Maddox lives in Hall County – which is Republican-dominated, and the county seat is Gainesville– according to the official Georgia Secretary of State voting records he voted in Democratic primaries in 2016 (Hillary Clinton), 2018 (Stacey Abrams), 2020 (Biden and Warnock) and 2022 (Abrams).
Another example of why voters need to look at how judicial candidates vote in party primaries where it’s a public record to see what party ballot they requested.
