ATLANTA – In an election year without either of Georgia’s U.S. senators or Gov. Brian Kemp on the ballot, a rare contest for a state Supreme Court seat is garnering what little statewide attention is focused on primary season.
Former U.S. Rep. John Barrow is challenging incumbent Justice Andrew Pinson Tuesday in a nonpartisan primary race that’s been laser-focused on abortion.
Otherwise, Georgia voters will be choosing party nominees for Congress and the General Assembly in a landscape where – thanks to redistricting – competitive contests are few.
The Barrow-Pinson race is unusual in that Supreme Court justices typically run for reelection unopposed. In fact, three other justices – including Chief Justice Michael Boggs – are on the May 21 ballot without opposition.
“The pattern is you get to the Supreme Court because you’re appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy,” said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. “Then, you run unopposed or with token opposition.”
In this case, Barrow – a Democrat who represented Georgia’s 12th Congressional District for a decade – is running an aggressive campaign vowing to protect abortion rights.
“Politicians should not be making your private medical decisions,” Barrow says in a campaign ad.
On the other side, Republicans and anti-abortion groups are criticizing Barrow for politicizing a race that’s supposed to be nonpartisan.
“We need judges who follow the law and uphold the Constitution, not more partisan politicians in the courtroom,” Kemp says in an ad backing Pinson, whom the governor appointed to the Supreme Court two years ago.
Congressional contests
Although all 14 of Georgia’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for grabs, Democrats are unlikely to dent Republicans’ 9-5 advantage in the Peach State’s congressional delegation. The new congressional map the General Assembly’s GOP majorities drew during last fall’s redistricting special session left all 14 districts skewing heavily Democratic or Republican.
“Redistricting has had an effect,” said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University. “When you draw districts to make them lean one direction as much as possible, you get a lot of safe seats.”
The impacts of congressional redistricting make the primary races more interesting than what’s likely to take place later during the general election campaigns.
For example, while Republicans are heavily favored to retain the 3rd Congressional District seat in west-central Georgia being vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-West Point, five Republicans are battling for the GOP nomination for Georgia’s only open House seat.
Former state Sens. Mike Dugan and Mike Crane, and former state Rep. Philip Singleton are touting their accomplishments in the legislature. Brian Jack, a former aide to former President Donald Trump, is highlighting the achievements of the Trump administration. Businessman Jim Bennett is emphasizing his business acumen.
Two Democrats – retired physician Val Almonord and retired Lt. Col. Maura Keller – will square off in the District 3 Democratic primary.
Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, has drawn two Democratic challengers in the 6th Congressional District: Cobb County Commissioner Jerica Richardson and state Rep. Mandisha Thomas.
An advantage the challengers enjoy is that legislative Republicans targeted McBath during redistricting, reconfiguring her 7th Congressional District to favor the GOP by extending it north through Forsyth, Dawson, and Lumpkin counties. McBath responded by signing up to run for the Democratic-leaning 6th District seat instead. However, the switch is forcing McBath to run in a new district where she is less familiar to the voters.
But Bullock said McBath, who is seeking a fourth term, has built strong name recognition throughout metro Atlanta for leaving her career as a flight attendant to work for stricter gun control after her teenage son was shot to death.
“She has a compelling story that gave her a leg up the first time she ran,” Bullock said.
Republican Jeff Criswell, a businessman, will face the winner of the 6th District Democratic primary in November.
Another primary race that has drawn a crowded field is in the 13th Congressional District, where six Democrats are challenging one of their own: longtime Democratic Rep. David Scott of Atlanta. The list of challengers includes Marcus Flowers, the Democrat who proved to be a prolific fundraiser two years ago in an unsuccessful bid to unseat conservative lightning rod Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Rome.
As with McBath, redistricting is forcing Scott to run in a district with lots of new constituents.
“He’s having to represent a new area in DeKalb County going into Gwinnett,” Bullock said. “He’s a non-incumbent there.”
The winner of the 13th District Democratic primary will take on the Republican nominee in November, either Jonathan Chavez or Johsie Cruz Fletcher.
Legislative races
In the General Assembly, the primaries – and, for that matter, even the general election – are largely a fait accompli for the incumbents.
In the state House of Representatives, 42 Republicans and 30 Democrats are running unopposed. Thus, 72 of the 180 members of the House already have been reelected.
In the state Senate, only 23 of the 56 seats are being contested by both parties. Thirteen Senate Republicans and 10 Democrats already have clinched reelection.
However, a few competitive legislative primary races are being waged. In the Senate, three open seats held by Democrats have attracted crowded fields of Democratic primary candidates, including the District 55 seat being vacated by retiring Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler of Stone Mountain.
In Senate District 40, David Lubin, whose 21-year-old daughter Rose was killed last November while serving in the Israeli military, is challenging incumbent Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta. Harrell abstained from a vote on an antisemitism bill in January, citing widespread opposition among Muslim Georgians to Israel’s war in Gaza.
In Senate District 44, former Sen. Nadine Thomas of DeKalb County is challenging incumbent Sen. Elena Parent in the Democratic primary. The new Senate map Republicans drew last fall significantly shifted Parent’s district, leaving her with a lot of new constituents to seek to represent.
In the House, two Republicans – businesswoman Pamela Eckhardt and retired IT systems expert Michael Gordon – are mounting extremely uphill GOP primary challenges in Atlanta’s northern suburbs against Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones of Milton and veteran Rep. Chuck Martin of Alpharetta, respectively.
Three Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination in House District 56, a heavily Democratic area in Atlanta currently served by Rep. Mesha Mainor, a former Democrat who turned Republican last year.
And two Democratic House incumbents, Becky Evans and Saira Draper, are running against each other in Atlanta’s House District 90. Legislative Republicans drew them into the same districts during last fall’s redistricting session.
Two other Democrats – Rep. Teri Anulewicz of Smyrna and House Minority Whip Sam Park of Lawrenceville – avoided facing fellow incumbents in the primaries when their potential opponents decided to leave office rather than run against a fellow Democrat.
Republican state Rep. Beth Camp of Concord dodged that same fate when veteran GOP Rep. David Knight of Griffin retired from the House rather than oppose Camp in the same district.
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