Georgia elections, 2018

Last updated • 4 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

A general election was held in the U.S. state of Georgia on November 6, 2018. All of Georgia's executive officers were up for election as well as all of Georgia's fourteen seats in the United States House of Representatives. Neither U.S. Senate seat was up for election in 2018.

Contents

Governor

Incumbent Republican Governor Nathan Deal is term-limited and cannot seek re-election to a third consecutive term.

Incumbent Republican Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle was running for governor but was defeated in the run-off election by Secretary of State Brian Kemp. [1] House Minority Leader for the Georgia General Assembly and Democrat Stacey Abrams is running for governor. [2] Libertarian Ted Metz is also running for Governor. [3]

Lieutenant Governor

Potential Republican candidates include Georgia Senate President Pro Tempore David Shafer, State Representative Geoff Duncan, Senate Majority Leader Bill Cowsert, State Senator Butch Miller, State Senator Burt Jones, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols and former adjutant general of the Georgia National Guard Jim Butterworth. [4] [5] State Representative Allen Peake was also speculated as a potential candidate, but has ruled out a bid. [6] [7]

As of November 2017, the declared Democratic candidate is Sarah Riggs Amico, an auto executive. [8] Potential Democratic candidates include 2010 Attorney General nominee, former Dougherty County District Attorney Ken Hodges. [9]

Democratic primary

Primary results

Democratic primary results [12]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Sarah Riggs Amico278,66255.24
Democratic Triana Arnold James225,75844.76
Total votes504,420100

Republican primary

Advanced to runoff

Primary results

Republican primary results [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican David Shafer 268,22148.91
Republican Geoff Duncan 146,16326.65
Republican Rick Jeffares 134,04724.44
Total votes548,431100

Runoff results

Republican primary runoff results [18]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Geoff Duncan 280,46550.14
Republican David Shafer 278,86849.86
Total votes559,333100

Attorney General

Incumbent Republican Attorney General Sam Olens resigned to become president of Kennesaw State University effective November 1, 2016, with Georgia Department of Economic Development Commissioner Christopher M. "Chris" Carr being appointed to serve the remainder of the term. [19] Carr will be eligible to run for election to a full term in 2018.

Potential Republican candidates include State Senator Josh McKoon and former State Representative B.J. Pak. [19] [20]

Potential Democratic candidates included State Representative Stacey Evans and former Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission Chair Lester Tate. [21] [22] 2010 nominee and former Dougherty County District Attorney Ken Hodges was considered a potential candidate, but has decided to run for a seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals instead. [22] Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson has ruled out running for Attorney General. [23] As of July 2018, Charlie Bailey, former Senior Assistant District Attorney in the Fulton County District Attorney's office, was running.

Secretary of State

Incumbent Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp is running for governor. [24]

State Representative Buzz Brockway is running for the Republican nomination. [25] Other potential Republican candidates include Alpharetta Mayor David Belle Isle and State Senators Steve Gooch, John Albers and Michael Williams. [25] [26]

The Democratic nominee is former U.S. Representative from Georgia's 12th congressional district, John Barrow, who defeated Dee Dawkins-Haigler and Rakeim "RJ" Hadley in the primary. [27]

The Libertarian candidate is Smythe Duval. He won the nomination at the Georgia State Libertarian Convention in February 2018. [28]

Commissioner of Agriculture

Incumbent Republican Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black is eligible to run for re-election to a third term in office.

Fred Swann is the Democratic candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture. [29]

Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner

Incumbent Republican Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire Ralph Hudgens is not running for re-election. [30]

Cindy Zeldin, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, is running for the Democratic nomination. [31]

Donnie Foster won the Libertarian nomination for Insurance Commissioner at the Georgia Libertarian Convention in February 2018. [32]

Commissioner of Labor

Incumbent Republican Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler is eligible to run for re-election to a third term in office.

State Superintendent of Schools

Incumbent Republican State Superintendent of Schools Richard Woods is running for re-election to a second term in office. [33]

Potential Democratic candidates include Georgia Association of Educators President Sid Chapman and former National PTA President Otha Thornton. [33]

Public Service Commission

Elections will be held for District 3 and District 5 of the Public Service Commission.

In District 3 Ryan Graham is the Libertarian candidate for Public Service Commission. [34]

In District 5 John Turpish is the Libertarian candidate for Public Service Commission. [35]

General Assembly

State Senate

All 56 seats in the Georgia State Senate are up for election in 2018.

State House

All 180 seats in the Georgia House of Representatives are up for election in 2018.

United States House of Representatives

All of Georgia's fourteen seats in the United States House of Representatives will be up for election in 2018.

Controversies

The gubernatorial race was particularly controversial during the 2018 elections, as Republican candidate Brian Kemp was also the Georgia Secretary of State, a position which involves overseeing the electoral process, leading to allegations of conflicts of interests. [36] [37] [38] Despite calls from Georgia Democrats, organizations such as the NAACP [39] and Common Cause [40] , and former president Jimmy Carter [41] , Kemp did not relinquish the position until after the election. [42]

Accusations were also leveled at Kemp with regards to the purging of voter rolls that was done under his oversight. Removing names from voter rolls is a common practice in the case of voters who are deceased or have moved out of state, [43] but since 2017, the practice has spiked in Georgia. [44] Due to strict voting rules in Georgia, tens of thousands of citizens lost their right to vote because of otherwise trivial issues, such as small differences between pieces of identification or insufficiently similar signatures. [45] Kemp was accused of using the voter roll purge as a tactic to disenfranchise more than half a million people, predominantly African-Americans [46] , which has been likened to voter suppression. [47] [48]

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References

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