Devan Seabaugh
Republican Devan Seabaugh took first place rather convincingly Tuesday in the special election to replace former state Rep. Bert Reeves in Cobb County’s 34th House District, which encompasses most of Kennesaw into Marietta. He came up just shy of the 50% +1 needed to win outright, but took a strong 47.1% of the total with 3,337 votes.
His runoff opponent will be Democrat Priscilla Smith, who finished with 1,740 votes, or 24.6% of the total. Three other candidates, Democrat Sam Hensley Jr., Republican David Blinkhorn and Libertarian Chris Neill finished out of the running.
Seabaugh’s strong showing is good news for Cobb Republicans, anxious to maintain control of a seat that Democrats have targeted as one to flip. Reeves defeated Smith in November with 56% of the vote, a solid win but not an insurmountable one, particularly taking away the popular Reeves’ incumbency advantage.
But the fact that it is a special election and not a presidential one is good news for Republicans, who tend to turn out better during down-cycles than do Democrat voters.
The special election runoff will take place on Tuesday, July 14th.
Priscilla Smith
There was also a special election in South Georgia’s HD 156, but it will be two Republicans, Leesa Hagan and Wally Sapp, facing off in the runoff in the heavily red district. The winner there will succeed Republican Greg Morris of Vidalia, who resigned from the legislature after being elected to the State Transportation Board.
