See who is moving on after the Primary in state House, Senate, Congressional races
Several state legislative races appeared on Tuesday primary ballots in Athens-Clarke County and Oconee County. Also on the ballot was a Democratic primary for the 10th Congressional District seat currently held by Republican Mike Collins. And in a statewide race with local interest, former Athens-Clarke County commissioner and Congress member John Barrow made a bid for a seat on the Georgia Supreme Court.
Here’s a rundown of the results:
Georgia House District 120
There was no partisan primary challenge in Tuesday voting for House District 120, which includes part of Athens-Clarke County and extends into Barrow and Jackson counties.
In the November general election, incumbent Republican Rep. Houston Gaines will face Democratic challenger Andrew Ferguson.
More: Who won in Athens-Clarke County Primary Election races? Find the results here.
Georgia House District 121
In the Republican primary for House District 121, which includes much of Oconee County and parts of Athens-Clarke County, incumbent Republican Marcus Wiedower, a small business owner, handily defeated John Michael Grigsby, a nurse practitioner making his first foray into electoral politics.
Wiedower claimed 4,515 of the 5,432 votes in the contest, with Grigsby earning 917 votes. Wiedower claimed more than 80% of the votes cast within each county.
The win earned Wiedower the right to face Democrat Courtney Frisch, an engineering consultant, in November’s general election.
Georgia House District 124
The race for House District 124, which includes part of Athens-Clarke County and stretches into Greene, Oglethorpe, Putnam and Taliaferro counties, saw Greensboro paralegal Melanie Miller decisively win over Rickie Glenn, about whom little is known, in Democratic primary balloting.
Across the district, Miller received 1,919 ballots, with Glenn earning 427 of the 2,346 votes cast in the race. In Athens-Clarke County, Miller got 825 votes, while Glenn tallied 178 ballots.
Miller, a military veteran whose local civic work has included bringing a home ownership program to Greene County, will face incumbent Republican Rep. Trey Rhodes in November.
More: Northeast Georgia voters return incumbents, elect new sheriffs in Tuesday primaries
Georgia Senate District 46
There were no Tuesday primary contests for the District 46 seat in the state Senate, which runs across part of Athens-Clarke County and extends into Oconee, Barrow, Walton and Gwinnett counties.
Republican incumbent Bill Cowsert and Democrat Gareth Fenley each drew no partisan primary opponent. Cowsert, an attorney, and Fenley, a social worker, will face each other in the November general election.
Georgia Senate District 47
In the Republican primary contest for the District 47 seat in the state Senate, which stretches across part of Athens-Clarke County and into Barrow, Jackson and Madison counties, incumbent Frank Ginn won over businessman Ross Harvin.
Ginn received 8,705 votes in the race, with Harvin claiming 5,294 ballots. In Athens-Clarke County, Ginn earned 1,253 votes, with Harvin garnering 320 ballots.
Ginn, who has extensive experience in local government management, will face Democratic contender Conolus Scott in November.
More: Who won in Oconee County Primary Election races? Find the results here.
US House District 10
In the Democratic primary contest for Georgia’s 10th District seat in the US Congress, Alexandra “Lexy” Doherty, an educational consultant, bested Jessica Fore, an Athens real estate agent, to earn the right to face incumbent Republican US Rep. Mike Collins in the November general election.
The 10th District stretches across 20 northeast Georgia counties, including Athens-Clarke County, as it stretches northward from the Macon area.
Across the 10th District in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, Doherty earned 17,989 votes, with Fore claiming 12,493 ballots. In Athens-Clarke County, Doherty received 5,467 votes, while Fore claimed 3,326 ballots.
According to her website, Doherty, an educational consultant, is an advocate for rural economic development, alternative energy and federal codifying of privacy rights to ensure access to abortion services.
Doherty will face Republican incumbent Mike Collins in the November general election.
Collins, a consistent critic of Athens-Clarke County government in the wake of the February death of Athens nursing student Laken Riley, for which 26-year-old undocumented Venezuelan immigrant Jose Ibarra has been charged with murder, was unopposed on Tuesday.
Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney
There was no Tuesday primary contest in the race for district attorney for the Western Judicial Circuit, which covers Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties.
Incumbent Democrat Deborah Gonzalez did not get a Democratic challenger, and there were no Republican primary qualifiers for the office.
But Gonzalez, a former state legislator whose management of the district attorney’s office has been widely criticized for lacking in successful prosecutions as office staffing has declined, could face a November challenge from former Western Judicial Circuit prosecutor Kalki Yalamanchili.
Yalamanchili is gearing up to run as an independent candidate, running on a platform calling, in part, to “restore common sense leadership” in the district attorney’s office.
Yalamanchili is currently working to collect the thousands of signatures he will need to claim a place on the November ballot. He is aiming to get 6,500 signatures, which are due to be presented to Georgia’s secretary of state, who oversees the state’s electoral process, in July.
Georgia Supreme Court
One of the four nonpartisan races for a seat on the Georgia Supreme Court on ballots statewide Tuesday had an interesting local angle, as Athens native John Barrow ran unsuccessfully for the seat currently held by Justice Andrew Pinson.
Pinson was appointed to the state’s highest court two years ago by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
Barrow, a former Athens-Clarke County commissioner and former member of Congress whose district included the Athens area, had made abortion rights a center of his campaign.
In a Tuesday post on his Facebook page, Barrow wrote that Tuesday balloting was “a contest between those of us who wanted to speak up on the issue of abortion rights and those who did not want to talk about it.” Barrow also noted that “the energy and enthusiasm generated by our campaign was astonishing.”
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: See who won in races for state House, Senate, more affecting Athens area
