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Fayette Votes Democratic, Coweta Republican as Georgia Election Results Roll In
Fayette County voters favored Democrats in every statewide race Tuesday, November 3, but Republican Congressman Brian Jack and County Commissioner-elect James Clifton emerged victorious, along with several incumbent Republican state legislators representing portions of Fayette and Coweta counties.
With all 35 Fayette County precincts reporting, 62,730 of the county’s 93,294 registered voters cast ballots, representing a 67.24% turnout.
The results were provided directly to The Citizen by the Fayette County Board of Elections in a report generated at 9:52 p.m. Tuesday. Although all precincts have reported, the results have not yet been certified.
The turnout included 44,117 advance in-person votes, 16,611 Election Day votes, and 2,002 absentee mail ballots. Nearly three-quarters of Fayette’s ballots were cast before Election Day.
Brian Jack survives a close Fayette County contest
In Fayette County’s portion of Georgia’s 3rd Congressional District, incumbent Republican Brian Jack received 26,557 votes, barely edging Democrat Maura Keller, who received 26,426.
The difference was just 131 votes, or approximately one-quarter of one percentage point.
Keller had led Jack in Fayette’s early voting results, but Jack received 8,636 votes on Election Day compared with Keller’s 5,520, enough to erase her early advantage.
Jack also received strong support in neighboring Coweta County, where the 9:10 p.m. results showed him leading Keller by 26,121 to 18,620 votes.
The Citizen is calling the race for Jack, who has won reelection across the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Fayette, Coweta, and other counties.
In Fayette’s portion of the 6th Congressional District, incumbent Democrat Lucy McBath received 6,974 votes compared with 2,166 for Republican Kevin E. Martin. McBath won reelection across the full congressional district with 81.42% of the vote.
James Clifton wins County Commission seat
In the Fayette County Commission District 3 race, Republican James W. Clifton defeated Democrat Chandra C. Wright by 9,015 votes to 6,476.
Clifton received 2,695 Election Day votes compared with Wright’s 1,431, expanding his lead from advance voting.
The margin was 2,539 votes, giving Clifton approximately 58.2% of the votes cast for the two candidates.
Incumbent Democrat Charles Rousseau ran unopposed for County Commission District 4, receiving 12,561 votes.
Democrats sweep statewide offices, including governor
The Citizen is calling Georgia’s governor’s race for Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, who defeated Republican Rick Jackson.
In Fayette County, Bottoms received 32,221 votes compared with 30,019 for Jackson, giving her approximately 51.8% of the votes cast for the two candidates.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff also won reelection. In Fayette County, Ossoff received 35,404 votes compared with 26,814 for Republican Mike Collins, a margin of 8,590 votes.
The Citizen is also calling the remaining statewide races for Democrats, including Josh McLaurin for lieutenant governor, Penny Brown Reynolds for secretary of state, Tanya Miller for attorney general, and Katherine E. Juhan-Arnold for agriculture commissioner.
Democrats Keisha Sean Waites for insurance commissioner, Lydia Powell for state school superintendent, and Nikki Porcher for labor commissioner are also among the candidates The Citizen is calling as winners.
The two Public Service Commission races also went Democratic, with incumbent Peter Hubbard retaining the District 3 seat and Shelia Edwards winning District 5.
The Democratic statewide results were reflected in Fayette County’s voting, although some of the margins were considerably narrower than others.
In the agriculture commissioner race, Juhan-Arnold received 31,682 Fayette votes compared with 30,385 for Republican incumbent Tyler Harper, a margin of just 1,297 votes.
McLaurin received 33,178 Fayette votes compared with 28,979 for Republican Greg Dolezal.
Democrats led Republicans in all 11 statewide contests in Fayette County, despite Republicans receiving more Election Day votes in most of those races.
Republican state legislators retain their seats
Despite the Democratic victories at the statewide level, several Republican state legislators representing Fayette and Coweta counties won reelection.
Incumbent Republican State Sen. Marty Harbin retained his District 16 seat, defeating Democrat Sonya Wimberly Hawkins. In Fayette County, Harbin received 25,131 votes compared with 20,389 for Hawkins.
Harbin had led by a much narrower margin in the early returns, but received nearly twice as many Election Day votes as his opponent in Fayette County.
In State Senate District 6, incumbent Republican Matt Brass also won reelection over Democrat JerMarkus Jacobs. The district includes Coweta County and portions of neighboring counties. As of 11 p.m., Brass had received 64.77% of the districtwide vote.
Republican State Rep. Josh Bonner retained his District 73 seat over Democrat Tim Wilkinson. In Fayette County, Bonner received 8,469 votes compared with 6,102 for Wilkinson. Bonner also received more votes than Wilkinson in Coweta County.
In State House District 82, incumbent Republican Karen Mathiak retained her seat over Democrat Anthony Dickson. The district includes portions of southern Fayette County and Spalding County.
Fayette’s reported totals showed Mathiak receiving 8,103 votes compared with 4,620 for Dickson. Mathiak also won across the full district.
Democrats Kenya Wicks, Timoria McQueen Saba, and incumbent Debra Bazemore ran unopposed in their respective legislative races.
Roy Rabold retains school board seat
In the Fayette County Board of Education District 2 contest, incumbent Republican Roy Rabold defeated Democrat Ashley Smith, receiving 9,370 votes compared with Smith’s 6,805.
Smith had trailed Rabold by just 480 votes in early voting, but Rabold received 3,681 votes on Election Day compared with Smith’s 1,595.
The margin expanded to 2,565 votes once Election Day ballots were included.
Incumbent Democrat Regina Daigre was unopposed for Board of Education District 4, receiving 12,532 votes.
All three Georgia constitutional amendments pass
Georgia voters approved all three statewide constitutional amendments on Tuesday’s ballot.
Amendment 1 increases the maximum acreage of agricultural and timber land eligible for conservation-use property tax treatment from 2,000 to 4,000 acres.
Amendment 2 requires probate judges in Georgia to be elected in nonpartisan elections, removing party affiliations from those races.
Amendment 3 allows the state legislature to establish a dedicated fund for Georgia’s Next Generation 911 emergency communications systems.
The Citizen columnist Kenneth Hamner examined all three proposals before the election, including the arguments surrounding their passage, in his October 13 column, The Questions At The Bottom Of Your Ballot.
Fayette County voters supported all three amendments. Amendment 1 received 32,376 yes votes compared with 27,544 no votes. Amendment 2 received 39,947 yes votes compared with 20,021 no votes, while Amendment 3 received 46,677 yes votes compared with 13,146 no votes.
Fayette County voters also approved two local property tax exemptions.
The county’s school property tax homestead exemption received 38,849 yes votes compared with 19,715 no votes.
A separate county homestead property tax exemption received 37,948 yes votes compared with 20,413 no votes.
In Fayetteville, voters supported the city’s FLOST homestead exemption proposal, with 5,814 voting yes and 3,278 voting no.
Coweta Republicans lead in County Commission and State House races
In Coweta County, Republican Dakota Hand Caldwell was leading the County Commission District 3 race with 57.57% of the vote as of 11:13 p.m. Tuesday. Some precincts had not yet fully reported.
Republican Melissa Stuckey also won her bid for State House District 70, which includes portions of Coweta and Carroll counties. With one or two precincts remaining to be fully reported, Stuckey had received 53.7% of the districtwide vote.
Both races continued the Republican voting pattern in Coweta County, where Republicans also led every statewide contest in the county’s earlier returns, even as Democrats were winning those races across Georgia.
Coweta remains Republican while Fayette votes Democratic
The neighboring counties produced sharply different results in the statewide races.
In Coweta County, Republicans led every statewide contest in the 9:10 p.m. returns, while Democrats led every statewide contest in Fayette’s complete precinct report.
The contrast was particularly evident in the U.S. Senate and governor’s races, with Coweta supporting Republicans Collins and Jackson while Fayette favored Democrats Ossoff and Bottoms.
Fayette’s Election Day voters generally favored Republican candidates, but the Democratic advantage established during advance voting was large enough to produce Democratic leads in all 11 statewide races.
The results also showed that Fayette voters did not vote uniformly along party lines. While Democrats carried the county in statewide contests, voters supported Republican candidates in several congressional, legislative, county commission, and school board races.
All Fayette County precincts had reported by Tuesday night, but the results remain subject to certification.
Readers can follow updated returns through the Georgia Secretary of State election results website.
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