It’s Election Day, Georgia! Here Are Key Races to Watch
It's Election Day in Georgia, where stakes and tensions are running high as voters across the state travel to the polls to decide their elected leadership.
More than half ( 55.5% ) of Georgia's registered voters already cast ballots during the state's record-breaking early voting period , which ended on Friday. That includes more than 26% of Black voters in the state, who helped set a new record during the first day of early voting before falling behind the rate of voting that Democrats say they need to see to ensure a victory for Vice President Kamala Harris, who hopes to become the first Black woman elected president .
The remaining millions of voters who are expected to cast ballots between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. today will help decide the outcome of the White House battle between Harris and former President Donald Trump, as well as several congressional, state, and city posts.
Georgia is one of seven battleground states expected to determine the winner of the presidential election. Polls show Trump has maintained a roughly 2 percentage point lead in Georgia, the state where less than 12,000 voters decided the outcome of the presidential election four years ago. Whoever wins will receive the Peach State's 16 electoral college votes on their way to the 270 needed to secure a White House win.
The presidential matchup isn't the only major race on the ballot. Here's a breakdown of the other key elected offices, candidates, and questions voters will weigh in on, and Capital B Atlanta will keep an eye on.
Atlanta City Council, Post-3 At-Large
Five Atlanta City Council contenders are vying to fill the post-3 at-large seat vacated earlier this year by former council member Keisha Sean Waites.
The list of contenders are Black Futurists Group founder Devin Barrington-Ward, civil rights attorney Eshé Collins, business owners Amber Higgins-Connor and Nicole Evans Jones, and community activist Duvwon Robinson.
Whoever wins must help the city contend with a lineup of major issues, including its affordable housing and homelessness problems and MARTA's expansion, in addition to the looming unveiling of the public safety training center known as "Cop City."
There's a strong chance this five-way contest will end up heading to a post-Election Day runoff, since whoever wins the race is required to gain more than 50% of the vote.
How strong is public support for Fani Willis?
Embattled Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is fighting to keep her job from Republican challenger Courtney Kramer. Willis is the local district attorney who filed RICO charges last year that led to indictments against Trump and his allies for their alleged roles in Georgia's fake elector's scheme, an elaborate plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election here in the Peach State.
Willis has faced criticism and legal scrutiny for her handling of the Trump RICO case and her prior relationship with Nathan Wade, the former special prosecutor on the case who stepped down earlier this year.
Willis is expected to win reelection in the Democratic Party stronghold of Fulton County, but the race will show the level of public support as she continues to prosecute the Trump case after the election.
A day of reckoning for Mesha Mainor?
State Rep. Mesha Mainor, the former Democrat who switched parties last year to become the only Black Republican member of the Georgia General Assembly, is fighting an uphill battle to remain in the state legislature against Democratic challenger Bryce Berry.
Some of Mainor's constituents in the predominantly Black and largely progressive state House district 56 — which includes the west Atlanta neighborhoods of Hunter Hills, Mozley Park, and the West End — have told Capital B Atlanta they approve of the job she's done advocating for issues they care about, such as preventing idling CSX trains from blocking local roads and pushing for construction of a noise barrier along Interstate 20.
But some local residents, including Deborah Wright of Hunter Hills, disapprove of her switching parties and supporting a school voucher program opposed by Georgia Democrats.
"We voted for her because she was a Democrat," Wright told Capital B Atlanta of Mainor earlier this year. "We don't want to be represented by a Republican."
Mainor is expected to lose her reelection bid to Berry, who at age 23 would become the youngest member of the Georgia General Assembly if he wins.
Can Jasmine Clark fend off her Republican challenger?
State Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Lilburn, is the three-term Democratic incumbent fighting to keep her seat from Republican business owner Elvia Davila in one of the few competitive state House races on the ballot this election cycle.
The 41-year-old Clark works as an assistant teaching professor at Emory University when she's not working in the Georgia General Assembly. She has been an advocate for giving Georgia kindergarten through 12th-grade students equitable access to AP African-American studies in opposition to Republicans looking to limit "divisive concepts" being taught in public schools.
Davila, whose husband was murdered in 2021, has made crime a central focus of her campaign. She is advocating for cracking down on drug dealers, battling human trafficking, and reducing violence in the local area in addition to increasing accountability for "weak-on-crime prosecutors" who allegedly refuse to enforce the law.
Clark is also pushing to help Democrats maintain or increase their representation in a state legislature that has been controlled by Republicans for most of the 21st century.
