Archive
Subscribe Place Ad Buy Trib Photos Readers' Choice Contests
Jobs Homes Autos Classifieds
Trib Total Media Contact Us
ShareThis Page
Georgia’s GOP governor primary: 2 officials face runoff | TribLIVE.com
Politics/Election

Georgia’s GOP governor primary: 2 officials face runoff

The Associated Press
The Associated Press | Tuesday, May 22, 2018 11:09 p.m
GeorgiaPrimaryGovernor69748jpg388e9
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican primary candidate for governor, talks with supporters during an election night results party Tuesday, May 22, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)
GeorgiaPrimaryGovernor05875jpg40cc2
Republican candidate for Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle alongside his wife Nita take the stage to speak to supporters during an election-night watch party in Gainesville, Ga., Tuesday, May 22, 2018. (AP Photo/Todd Kirkland
GeorgiaPrimaryGovernor17602jpg01211
A supporter holds a sign during an election-night watch party for Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Tuesday, May 22, 2018, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
GeorgiaPrimary79592jpgcc397
Mia Lei from Oakland, California chose Freedom Parkway and Boulevard to campaign for Gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams on Tuesday May 22, 2018. Lei joined other Californians who came to Atlanta to campaign for Abrams. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
GeorgiaPrimaryGovernor69211jpgf8da6
Supporters react during an election-night watch party for Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Tuesday, May 22, 2018, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
PrimaryElectionVotingGeorgia98105jpg206b7
Voters cast their ballots at Chase Street Elementary for Georgia's primary election in Athens, Ga., Tuesday, May 22, 2018. (Joshua L. Jones/Athens Banner-Herald via AP)
PrimaryElectionVotingGeorgia07217jpg430fa
The 1956 Georgia state flag is displayed in a frame as George Farr votes at the Chickamauga Civic Center on Tuesday, May 22, 2018, in Chickamauga, Ga. (Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)

ATLANTA — In Georgia’s gubernatorial primary, Democrats elected the state’s first woman nominee from either party, but no Republican candidate could gather more than 50 percent of the vote — so the top two face a July runoff.

If Stacey Abrams wins in November, she’ll become the first black woman governor in the U.S. She will face either Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle or Secretary of State Brian Kemp. Their runoff is scheduled for July 24.

Abrams beat former state Rep. Stacey Evans. The one-time legislative colleagues tussled over ethics accusations and their records on education. Both are Atlanta-area attorneys. Abrams got a last-minute boost with an endorsement — in the form of a 60-second robo-call — from Hillary Clinton.

In the Republican race, Cagle and Kemp beat three GOP rivals in a race characterized by strong support for gun rights and tough talk on immigration. The field was all white men – former legislators, officeholders and businessmen, some with decades of political experience and others positioning themselves as outsiders challenging the establishment.

In the ballroom of a downtown Atlanta hotel, Abrams supporters trickled in to a soundtrack of R&B and hip-hop songs. Two young women — one black and one white and both wearing shirts reading “Elect Black Women” — huddled over a table as Rihanna’s “Diamonds” played in the background.

At Cagle’s gathering in Gainesville, he walked through a crowd of supporters shaking hands, offering hugs and taking selfies while country singer Tyler Hammond performed on stage.

In Athens, supporters of Kemp streamed into the upstairs ballroom of the Holiday Inn to await returns.

The candidates are vying to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Nathan Deal, who has held the office since 2011.

All of Georgia’s statewide constitutional offices are up for grabs this election cycle, including those vacated by Cagle and Kemp, as well as the position of insurance commissioner vacated by Ralph Hudgens, who isn’t seeking re-election.

Georgia’s 180 state House and 56 state Senate seats are also up for a vote.

Five of Georgia’s U.S. House members face primary challengers.

Categories: Politics Election
TribLIVE commenting policy

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.