Looking To Georgia’s May Primary

While the Coronavirus has dominated the headlines in recent weeks it should be noted that Georgia still has a May primary scheduled.

In fact, Georgia’s presidential primary has been delayed until that date. Originally scheduled for March 24, early voting was underway when Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger pulled the plug.

In reality, our presidential primary is all but worthless now. Its impact had already been weakened by having it March 24. With it now almost two months later the two major parties will already have their candidates set for November (President Trump vs. Joe Biden.)

One can only hope in 2024 our state will have more of a role in determining the nominees. It has played absolutely none this time.

While the presidential primary in Georgia is a complete washout, there will be some important races voters need to take note of. Assuming people have not barricaded themselves in their homes by that point and purchased enough non-essential supplies to last a lifetime, we will have a primary on May 19.

Most of the attention has been on the U.S. Senate race where Kelly Loeffler is the incumbent thanks to the actions of Governor Brian Kemp. Loeffler will have to compete in a “jungle primary” where all candidates for all parties are listed on the ballot at the same time. A total of 20 candidates will go before the voters.

The other U.S. Senate race is just as important as David Perdue is up for re-election. Perdue did not draw any primary challengers and will wait to see who emerges from a seven-candidate Democratic field.

Democrats hoping to challenge Perdue include 2018 Lt. Governor nominee Sarah Riggs Amico; financial consultant Marckeith DeJesus; retired United States Air Force officer James Knox; 2010 Lt. Governor candidate Tricia Carpenter McCracken; 2017 congressional nominee Jon Ossoff; former ACLU director Maya Dillard Smith and former Columbus mayor Teresa Tomlinson.

Recent polling showed Ossoff leading the Democratic pack with Amico and Tomlinson also garnering a strong amount of support.

There are also several congressional seats open for 2020. Rob Woodall (7th District) is retiring as is Tom Graves (14th District.) Doug Collins (9th District) is running for U.S. Senate in the “jungle primary” against 19 other candidates.

Some incumbent congressmen have drawn primary challenges. Buddy Carter (1st District) has two Republican challengers for the primary, both of whom are military veterans.

Hank Johnson (4th District) has a pair of Democratic primary challengers. Austin Scott (8th District) will have two Republican primary opponents and David Scott (13th District) has three Democratic primary challengers.

Jody Hice, who represents Jasper County in the 10th District, is unopposed in the Republican primary but has two Democrats battling to challenge him in the general election.

Even John Lewis (5th District) has drawn a primary challenge. Lewis is as safe as any elected official in the state. In an interesting side note for the 5th District race, Angela Stanton-King, a convicted felon who was recently pardoned by President Trump, is the Republican candidate.

Hopefully voters will not let this current health scare keep them from going to the polls. One can always request an absentee ballot which will limit the number of people you have contact with.

We can only hope that the May primary will not be postponed or canceled. Voting is a privilege too many have died for to give up out of fear. Use the next two months to learn about the candidates, what they stand for and what they are promising if elected.

With the ongoing heath crisis, talk has already started about delaying the May 19 primary. Depending on how things develop in the next few days our primary could end up in June. Once upon a time in Georgia campaigning for the summer primary was how things were done.

Chris Bridges has been a community newspaper journalist for three decades. You can email comments about this column to pchrisbridges@gmail.com.