As the dust settles from last Tuesday’s elections, Republicans will enjoy a comfortable 100-80 majority vote in the Georgia House of Representatives. Democrats were unable to defeat any Republicans in the state Senate, so that leaves the GOP in solid control with its 33-23 vote margin. Also, when lawmakers reconvene at the state Capitol on Jan. 13, 20 freshmen will be attending.
Democrats couldn’t flip various House seats in the northern Atlanta suburbs that were the most competitive. A prime example is the Sandy Springs/Buckhead district of state Rep. Deborah Silcox. She appears to have defeated her liberal Democrat opponent by four percentage points. Bottom line: The big victory by GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump helped boost down-the-ballot GOP candidates in many Georgia counties.
Republicans spent millions of dollars to protect their General Assembly incumbents. Gov. Brian Kemp’s Georgians First Leadership Committee pumped over $2 million into the GOP legislative effort, and he personally campaigned with many statewide candidates. Former GOP U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler’s Greater Georgia organization and Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition were also instrumental in targeting and churning out conservative voters.
Sadly for Republicans, though, state Rep. Ken Vance of Milledgeville won’t return to the General Assembly. He lost to former Milledgeville Mayor Floyd Griffin, representing a flip for Democrats. Democrats also regained an Atlanta seat held by state Rep. Mesha Mainor, who switched parties last year. Bryce Berry routed Mainor, but that was no surprise since it is a heavily Democratic area.
A final note. In a heavily Democrat Smyrna-based House district, 27-year-old self-declared socialist and anti-police crusader Gabriel Sanchez first beat the moderate Democrat incumbent in the party’s primary and went on to defeat an underfunded Republican candidate last Tuesday. The appearance and pronouncements of Sanchez at the Capitol next year will be an irritant to the bloc of lawmakers within the Democratic House Caucus seeking a more liberal-to-moderate political direction.
