Georgia voters kicked out incumbents, picked replacements for departing legislators and set the stage for June runoffs as well as the big show in November.

Ballot casters up and down the Peach State made choices Tuesday that are already set to reshape the state Legislature, which could have an even greater effect on the average Georgian than who sits in the White House this time next year.

In one of Tuesday’s biggest upsets, Gabriel Sanchez, a Smyrna waiter endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, beat out Smyrna Democratic Rep. Teri Anulewicz, who had represented House District 42 since 2017.

Sanchez earned 2,240 votes, good for 56.8%, to Anulewicz’s 1,711 votes, or 43.21%, according to unofficial results.

In a Wednesday morning tweet, Sanchez chalked up his victory to a focus on issues important to working people.

“The mandate is clear,” he wrote. “Georgia voters deserve a representative who leads with the issues working people care about. Together, we will fight for affordable housing, universal healthcare, green jobs, trans rights, and economy that works ALL of us — not the 1%.”

In November, Sanchez will go on to face Republican Diane Jackson, who works in marketing and was unopposed in her primary.

Locust Grove Republican Rep. Lauren Daniel campaigned as an “unapologetic mom” and could often be seen during the legislative session with her youngest son, baby Zane, strapped to her chest.

The House even made Zane a nametag like the ones lawmakers wear that said “Zane Daniel, Baby of the House.”

Daniel had the support of Gov. Brian Kemp, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and other establishment figures, but she faced opposition from ultra conservatives.

“We came up short this time y’all, and the Republican voters of District 81 have chosen someone else to face off against the Democrat challenger this fall. My family & I have been slandered, lied about, harassed and threatened for months at this point and honestly, there is joy in the morning today because I know without a doubt, God is good ALL THE TIME!” Daniel wrote on social media Wednesday.

Noelle Kahaian, a paralegal from Henry County, sent mother and baby packing Tuesday, defeating Daniel with 2,665 votes to 2,384, or about 53% to 47%.

Kahaian will go on to face Democrat Mishael White, a truck driver from Henry County, in November. White earned 3,212 votes from voters who chose Democratic ballots.

Far-right gun rights advocacy group Georgia Gun Owners celebrated on Twitter with an image of a tombstone with Daniel’s name on it and two skulls, one being pecked by a crow.

GGO political director for advocacy Alex Dorr said Daniel, who has an A rating from the NRA, did not do enough to support expanding gun rights.

“For GGO members, it’s not enough for Republican legislators to simply VOTE NO on gun control,” he said in an email Wednesday. “Our members expect Republicans to actively work to expand our gun rights with legislation like the Second Amendment Preservation Act (HB-293 and HB-1009.) Lauren refused to fight for SAPA, or anything else where our gun rights were concerned. She was a fraud. Now she’s gone!”

Daniel did not respond to a request seeking comment Wednesday.

State Rep. Saira Draper, an Atlanta Democrat, handily won a second term Tuesday. She faces no opposition in November in the heavily Democratic district.

Draper won nearly 68% of the vote in what was the only legislative race where two incumbents faced each other after being drawn together during last year’s court-ordered redistricting do-over, so at least one sitting lawmaker was sure to lose.

The new district included more than 70% of Draper’s old district.

Draper said Wednesday that she also attributes the outcome to her pitch to voters that her experience as a voting rights attorney made her the best choice. She had also emphasized the perspective she brings to the Legislature as a member of the Hispanic and AAPI caucuses and one of the few women lawmakers with young children under the Gold Dome.

“We were very disciplined in our message that I brought something to the Capitol that filled a critical gap, which is my unique knowledge and experience in voting rights, democracy and elections,” Draper said.

“Right now, our institutions of democracy are being challenged and voting rights are under attack. To succeed as a Democratic caucus, we have to have someone who can address those issues head on,” she said.

State Rep. Becky Evans, an Atlanta Democrat who was first elected in 2018, said on social media that she called to congratulate Draper Tuesday evening.

“The results were not what we wanted, but as someone who has spent the last six years fighting so hard to protect and serve this community and our democracy, I certainly respect the will of voters,” Evans said.

Unsettled races

Along Georgia’s coast, St. Marys Republican Rep. Steven Sainz appears to have narrowly missed the 50% plus one threshold to avoid a runoff. In a three-person race, Sainz took about 49.7% of votes, creating a rematch with retiree Glenn Cook, who scored 1,673 votes, or around 27%. Cook was an early adopter of artificial intelligence in his campaign.

In a Wednesday morning Facebook video to supporters, Sainz sounded an optimistic tone and indicated he’s waiting on absentee and provisional ballots to trickle in.

Cook also expressed optimism, pledging to keep up the fight in the weeks leading up to the runoff and beyond.

“The next four weeks are about one thing above all else: being truly present in the lives of our community members,” he said in an email. “I ran because our current representative, focused on the perks of government, neglected the responsibilities and the people he was meant to serve. My wife and I personally knocked on over 4,000 doors in this district, dedicating countless hours to listening to your stories and understanding your needs. True conservatism means being present and engaged.”

In one closely watched Atlanta contest, middle school teacher Bryce Berry dodged a runoff, winning a four-person race outright with 1,975 votes, or 54%.

That earns him the right to face Republican Rep. Mesha Mainor in November. Mainor switched parties last summer after facing criticism over her support from her colleagues for her position on issues like school vouchers.

“This is only half the battle, but it’s a battle we will lead with love, hope and optimism of what Georgia can be,” Berry said Wednesday on social media. “We’re taking this to November and restoring progressive values to District 56.”

Berry’s confidence is not unfounded. District 56 strongly prefers Democratic candidates, supporting President Joe Biden by nearly 90% in 2020. On Tuesday, the four Democratic candidates combined notched 3,651 votes total. Mainor, the sole Republican, got 114 votes in her party’s primary.

In Gwinnett County, IT cybersecurity professional Arlene Beckles and program specialist Sonia Lopez appear set to face off to replace retiring Democratic Rep. Pedro “Pete” Marin. Beckles got 505 votes, just over 39%, and Lopez got 394 votes, about 30.5%. Third place finisher Neva Thompson appears to have earned 390 votes, about 30.3%, but in such a close low-turnout race, uncounted absentee or provisional ballots could make a difference.

No Republican qualified to run in the district.

Over in east Georgia near the South Carolina border, general contractor Rob Clifton is set to go into a runoff against retired educator Paul Abbott to replace the retiring Republican Rep. Jodi Lott. In a five-person race, Clifton got 1,887 votes, about 48.8%, and Abbott got 728 votes, 18.8%.

Looking forward

Representatives of both parties said Wednesday the results in House races point to a bright future for their respective caucuses.

Democrats pointed to two races where they think the results show possible pickups.

In the north metro 53rd District, Atlanta attorney Susie Greenberg got 3,257 votes in the Democratic primary, outpacing incumbent Republican Rep. Deborah Silcox, who got 2,504 votes in the GOP primary.

Democrats have listed the district, which supported Biden with nearly 55% of the vote in 2020, as one they hope to pick up this year.

“I’m particularly excited about Susie’s number–that seat is historically Republican and I think seeing Democrats energized enough to vote in the primary there is a great sign in November, even if it’s not an apples to apples comparison,” said Georgia House Democratic Caucus Campaign Services and Field Director Jake Field in an email.

Field also pointed to District 99 in Gwinnett, where non-profit CEO Michelle Kang, a Democrat, slightly outperformed Republican incumbent Rep. Matt Reeves, earning 1,964 votes in the Democratic primary to Reeves’ 1,888 in the Republican primary.

Democrats also have that district on their target list. In 2020, voters there backed Biden over Trump by 52.7% to 47.3%

“That one shocked me quite a bit as the Dem base in that seat tends to be lower turnout–I think that’s a great sign that Dems are engaged up there,” he said.

Reeves told the Recorder the only thing the results show is that the district is close to 50-50.

He said there were over 700 ballots cast without a vote on the state House race, which means those voters either left the section blank or selected a non-partisan ballot.

Reeves said he’s encouraged by what those voters did cast ballots for, including the state Supreme Court race which some viewed as a proxy fight over abortion rights and a homestead tax exemption that passed overwhelmingly.

Challenger John Barrow, who campaigned on his belief that abortion rights are protected under the state Constitution, lost his race against Justice Andrew Pinson, and he lost in District 99 56% to 44%, Reeves said.

“If you look at things like the Supreme Court race and the homestead vote, people are looking for folks who are focused on common ground and sound public policy and not partisan politics, and I think the tax relief, public safety, education and other work I’ve done the last two years fits into the common ground type work that the district’s looking for.”

But Field was less enthusiastic about another Gwinnett district, Democratic Rep. Farooq Mughal’s District 105. That’s one Republicans think they can flip, and on Tuesday, Republican Realtor Sandy Donatucci provided some evidence they could be right.

She tallied 2,209 votes in the Republican primary, with Mughal narrowly edging her out with 2,292.

“I’m not super surprised about Farooq’s number–that roughly tracks with the partisanship with that seat,” Field said. “I know there was also a property tax referendum that was energizing Republicans in Gwinnett and while there’s no overlap, the City of Mulberry referendum likely had some residual excitement in the North Gwinnett area.”

But House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration said in a statement that the Republicans are prepared to fight for their seats and to flip Democratic ones.

“Congratulations to all of our Republican nominees celebrating wins yesterday, including a slate of impressive challengers to incumbent Democrats,” he said. “As we move into the general election cycle, our House leadership team will not take our majority for granted. We’re prepared to both defend our current caucus members and take on incumbent Democrats whose liberal positions are out of touch with their communities. As hardworking Georgians continue to battle inflation and rising crime, our House leadership team will work tirelessly to protect and defend our conservative majority.”

Georgia Recorder Deputy Editor Jill Nolin contributed to this report. 

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – A glitch in Georgia’s voter information page that lasted just shy of an hour during Tuesday’s primary election has some advocates concerned for the November general election.

The My Voter Page, referred to as MVP, is a site run by the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office that allows voters to look up their registration status and precinct location, and track their absentee ballots and view sample ballots.

But for about an hour between 1-2 p.m. during Tuesday’s primary, the site was down, leaving voters with no access to their information.

“In the years I’ve been doing this I’ve never seen it be down for this long,” said Stephanie Ali, policy director with the voting rights group New Georgia Project. “So we have to have our confidence that this is getting fixed, that this is going to be stronger and that this is going to handle a higher volume going into November and frankly beyond.”

Election officials said the crash was a symptom of too much traffic on the page – or more accurately – what those users were doing.

“It’s not just the user, it’s the things they’re requesting,” said Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer of the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, in a press conference moments after the site went back online. “When you’re requesting to download a sample ballot, it’s a lot more capacity than it is if you’re just looking at your polling location, so it’s not a question of number of users. We were in the thousands at a time of doing it at that point.”

But primary elections historically see far lower voter turnout than general elections, so the concern is that the site will experience something similar when far more voters are using it in November.

“If this number of voters knocks it off its pedestal, then we’ve got to expect a higher number are coming and we’ve got to be ready for that,” said Ali.

Exacerbating the issue were ongoing delays at U.S. Postal Offices in Georgia. Because those delays risked the timely delivery of absentee ballots, absentee voters were specifically encouraged to check the MVP for the status of their ballot, and if it wasn’t showing a confirmed delivery, they were directed to vote in person so their absentee ballot could be spoiled once it arrived late.

The page was needed Tuesday perhaps more than it had been in a long time. This year’s primary election was the first since a sweeping round of redistricting impacted the voting precincts and candidates for people in metro Atlanta and the metro Macon area.

It also happened in the middle of the day, when people still had a chance to confirm their precinct and go vote.

Ali said it could have been far worse.

“Our biggest fear seeing something like that is that that sort of crash happens in the evening at 6 p.m. when people are trying to do their final runs and there is no later,” she said. “You can’t just have a flippant response that, oh, there’s still a chance, because at some point there won’t be.”

The site was back up and running around 2 p.m. on Tuesday. Georgia saw a roughly 20% voter turnout for the primary.

Copyright 2024 WANF. All rights reserved.

Georgia Tech Basketball has had a good offseason under head coach Damon Stoudamire and they are a program that might be able to take a second-year leap in 2024-2025 and try to challenge for an NCAA Tournament spot. Their offseason got a whole lot better yesterday when forward Baye Ndongo announced that he was returning to Georgia Tech after declaring for the 2024 NBA Draft last month. Ndongo’s return, combined with the additions of Oklahoma transfer Javian McCollum, Colorado transfer Luke O’Brien, Georgetown transfer Ryan Mutombo, and the No. 15 recruiting class in the country has fans optimistic this team will be much better next year.

Where did the Yellow Jackets rank in the 247Sports way-too-early ACC Basketball power rankings? Not as high as you might think. Analyst Isaac Trotter ranked the Yellow Jackets 12th out of 18 teams and here is what he had to say about Georgia Tech going into next year:

Projected starting lineup:

Top bench options: G Jaeden Mustaf, G Lance Terry, Wing Darrion Sutton, C Ryan Mutumbo

The scoop: “Damon Stoudamire leans heavily on pick-and-rolls to crease opposing defenses, and he has two big-time, ball-screen weapons in George and McCollum. They’re a bit undersized, but they both have serious juice. That should create opportunities for Reeves to attack long closeouts and O’Brien to find openings with well-timed cuts. Georgia Tech’s upside is centered around prized freshmen like Mustaf and Sutton being ready to go from the jump. Oh, and Ndongo needs to return for his sophomore season. He’d be a double-double machine in 2024-25.”

I think there is potential for the Yellow Jackets to outperform this ranking, but Trotter is correct in my opinion when he says that a lot might depend on how the freshman perform and how ready to go they are. I would also add that while George and Ndongo were really good last season, they still need to take steps forward next year. They both had problems with turnovers last year and need to improve that next season.

The 6-9 freshman missed Tech’s first three games with a hand injury but started every game thereafter either in the post or at the power forward spot, and earned a spot on the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Rookie team. The Mboro, Senegal native, who prepped at Putnam (Conn.) Science Academy, was one of only two freshmen in Division I to average 12.4 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game while hitting at least 55 percent of his shots from the floor. Only Chris Bosh (2003) and Derrick Favors (2010) achieved all those numbers as freshmen.

Against ACC competition, Ndongo averaged 12.6 points and 7.7 rebounds while hitting 55.4 percent of his shots from the floor and leading the team in blocked shots with 20.

Ndongo led the Jackets in scoring 10 times and in rebounding 18 times, while posting six double-doubles. He was named the ACC’s Rookie of the Week three times early in the season, once after scoring 21 points to lead Tech past No. 7 Duke in December, and again after scoring 12 points with 19 rebounds in a Dec. 16 win over Penn State at Madison Square Garden, and the third time after making the all-tournament team at the Diamond Head Classic.

Ndongo was the first Tech freshman since Josh Okogie to be voted to the All-Rookie team.

Here is how Trotter ranked the rest of the ACC in the way-too-early power rankings:

1. Duke

2. North Carolina

3. Miami

4. Louisville

5. Wake Forest

6. Clemson

7. Pitt

8. Virginia

9. Syracuse

10. NC State

11. Notre Dame

12. Georgia Tech

13. SMU

14. Virginia Tech

15. Cal

16. Stanford

17. Boston College

18. Florida State