Early voting starts Monday
The runoff will determine the GOP nominee for the 14th District congressional race and Floyd County’s sheriff.
Early voting starts Monday in two runoff elections that will come close to deciding Floyd County’s sheriff and member of Congress.
Sheriff candidates Dave Roberson and Tom Caldwell were the top two vote-getters in the June
9 Republican primary, but neither managed to net more than 50% in the three-man race. The winner of the Aug. 11 runoff has no Democratic opposition in November.
In the 14th Congressional District race to replace U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, two Republicans emerged from the nine-person race: Marjorie Taylor Greene and Dr. John Cowan. Voters in Floyd and 11 other counties will decide the nominee.
The winner of that contest will face the Democratic nominee Kevin Van Ausdal in November.
The Northwest Georgia district is the second most solidly Republican in the state, according to The Cook Political Report’s Partisan Voter Index. It carries a rating of +27R, just behind Northeast Georgia’s +31R.
Federal rules govern both runoffs, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced.
That means any voter registered by July 13 who didn’t vote in the Democratic primary is eligible to weigh in.
Absentee ballots are available through the Floyd County Elections Office in the County Administration Building, 12 E. Fourth Ave.
That’s also where in-person voting will take place — Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Aug. 7. There’s also a Saturday option, on Aug. 1 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. All precincts will be open on election day.
Congress
Cowan and Greene are slated to face off at 2:45 p.m. Sunday in the Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series. Rome News-Tribune Executive Editor John Bailey is among the panelists who will question the candidates on their policies and plans.
The debate will be streamed on the press club’s Facebook page and at GPB.org, and it will air on GPB-TV at 7 p.m. Monday.
Greene, the owner of a construction company who moved her campaign from a crowded metro Atlanta race this spring, took 40.43% of the primary vote. She won in every county except Floyd.
Cowan, a Rome neurosurgeon, was second — with 21.01% of the overall vote that saw no other candidate top 9%. He led in Floyd County with 43.44% to Greene’s 33.02%.
Since the primary, three of his opponents have endorsed Cowan: John Barge, Ben Bullock and Andy Gunther. He’s also picked up backing from several members of Congress.
Meanwhile, Greene lost the support of some Congressional leaders — including Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Minority Whip Steve Scalise — when Politico and the Washington Post turned up hours of Facebook videos they condemned as racist.
The two candidates have been locked in a bitter social media battle.
Most recently, Greene accused Cowan of not being a “certified reserve deputy” after Cowan talked about his service as a Floyd County SWAT volunteer medic. And
Cowan touted Greene’s failure to use E-Verify to check the immigration status of her workers, although records show Taylor Construction has been using the federal system since 2010.
Both candidates are focusing their campaigns on strong messages of support for God, guns and President Donald Trump. They each pulled in the bulk of their votes in the primary via early voting and absentee voting by mail.
Sheriff
Roberson fell just short of winning the primary, ending up with 7,154 votes. That’s equal to 48.15% of the 14,859 votes cast in the race to replace Sheriff Tim Burkhalter, who is retiring at the end of the year.
Caldwell netted 5,099 votes, equal to 34.32%, and thirdplace finisher Ronnie Kilgo took the balance of 2,606, equal to 17.54%. Kilgo has since endorsed Roberson.
The sheriff’s race has drawn the most interest from voters in the Republican primary — even topping the number of votes cast for President, 13,227; U.S. Senate, 13,722; and U.S. House, 14,610.
Caldwell is a former chief deputy at the FCSO, once second in command under Burkhalter. In addition to his 30-plus years with the agency, he’s highlighting his training at the FBI National Academy and his administrative experience in overseeing four SPLOST projects.
Roberson is a major in charge of field operations who took a leave of absence from the FCSO to focus on his campaign. He comes from a family with a tradition of public safety service and has worked his way up to Burkhalter’s command staff over 25 years with the agency.