The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
» Several key congressional races still being contested,
Candidates in state’s congressional contests left waiting for results.
None of the most hotly contested congressional races in Georgia could be called early Tuesday evening, leaving most candidates waiting to see who would make the runoffs or whether any had won their primary outright.
However, a few favorites jumped out to early leads.
Businesswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was at the front of a pack of candidates in the 14th Congressional District to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger.
In the 9th Congressional District, state Rep. Matt Gurtler was leading a field of nine Republicans to replace U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, who is giving up the seat to run for U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s seat.
With only a fraction of precincts reporting and crowded fields of candidates, it is still too early to tell whether either Greene or Gurtler will make the runoff and who their competition might be.
“We’re very optimistic, we’re feeling very good,” Greene campaign adviser Isaiah Wartman said. He thinks voters find a personal connection to Greene.
“They see her, she’s just like them. She’s very personable, and she’s talking about the issues at hand, whether that is stopping socialism or standing up to China or stopping antifa from coming to northwest Georgia,” he said.
Gurtler’s campaign manager, Banks Wise, said the campaign was also “optimistic, but things can change.” He said that voters in the 9th appreciated Gurtler’s conservative track record.
“He’s an honest person who stands for the principles that Republicans say they do, but he actually follows through,” Wise said.
In other races there was scant information available, including Georgia’s open 7th District seat and the 6th District, where former U.S. Rep. Karen Handel is hoping to beat four other Republicans to set up a rematch with U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath in November.
Meanwhile, all five incumbents who faced primary opponents appeared to be in good shape to, at the least, stay in the running for their seats. The Associated Press declared U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Austin Scott the winners in their primaries. U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson, John Lewis and David Scott all had early leads over their challengers.
Scott is hoping for a 10th term, although three other Democrats are attempting to unseat him in the 13th District.
In Georgia’s 7th District, candidates from both parties lined up to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall.
Carolyn Bourdeaux narrowly lost to Woodall in 2018, when she said problems with the voting system and ballot counting may have cost her the election. She is running again this year, although now there are also five other Democrats in the primary.
Bourdeaux said she was encouraged that Democratic voter turnout had surged past Republicans’ this year. But she began receiving calls early Tuesday morning from voters experiencing trouble at their precincts.
She called on Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign and said Georgia should establish a nonpartisan voter commission to improve confidence in its systems.
“I have been dealing with this for quite a while, and in the last race we litigated for weeks around voting problems,” she said. “It is outrageous, and we re sick of it.”
Even without a clear answer in the 6th District GOP primary, Handel and McBath continued to jab at each other. On Tuesday, McBath quoted Lewis’ criticism of Handel’s performance as secretary of state during the 2008 election.
“I’m proud of my work as GA’s Sec. of State,” Handel responded on Twitter. “From Photo ID to successfully overseeing the 2008 Pres. election (with historic turnout), GA became a national model for voter integrity.”