ATLANTA, GA — Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp — President Donald Trump’s choice to become the state’s next governor — became the Republican nominee for the post on Tuesday, piling up a surprisingly huge victory over former front-runner Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
With all precincts reporting, Kemp had more than 69 percent of the vote, with Cagle taking just over 30 percent. Kemp’s victory is a result that few saw coming in the race’s early days, but that became increasingly likely as Election Day neared, particularly once Trump weighed in.
The AJC reported that both camps confirmed the expected outcome about 90 minutes after polls closed at 7 p.m. — a shockingly quick result on election night in Georgia.
“We have earned a clear, convincing victory. And we have you to thank for that,” Kemp said Tuesday night to a gathered crowd of supporters. In his speech, he mentioned the “tweet that we heard around Georgia,” referencing Trump’s endorsement, before going on the attack against Georgia House Democratic Leader Stacey Abrams, his opponent in November.
In a speech to supporters gathered in north DeKalb County, Cagle said Tuesday night he had called to congratulate Kemp.
“I called him and I told him I hope the hits weren’t too hard on you … ,” Cagle said. “And I committed to him my full undivided support to see that he becomes our next Governor of Georgia.”
(Patch will update this post with results from Tuesday’s runoff elections as they become available. Check back here for the latest on election night.)
The race between Cagle and Kemp headed up Tuesday’s ballot. Republicans also had runoffs to decide in the lieutenant governor and secretary of state races, while Democrats needed to finish choosing their candidate for state schools superintendent and in two metro Atlanta U.S. House districts.
In the governor’s race, Cagle — who was elected Georgia’s first Republican lieutenant governor in 2006 — was considered the front-runner from the day he announced his candidacy. In the May 22 primary, he took 39 percent of the vote in a five-candidate field, followed by Kemp with about 26 percent.
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But once it became a two-man race, the contest narrowed to a virtual dead heat. Cagle’s campaign was rocked in early June by the revelation of a secret recording by one of his former rivals in which he admits that a bill he backed was bad in “a thousand different ways,” but he supported it anyway because it would hurt yet another rival in the race.
With polls showing a tight race, Cagle’s chances were bolstered last week when Gov. Nathan Deal — arguably the most popular figure in Georgia politics — endorsed him. The shine from Deal’s nod toward Cagle wouldn’t last long, though.
Two days later, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to announce his support for Kemp. On Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence visited the state, stumping on Kemp’s behalf.
In 2016, Trump won 51 percent of the vote in Georgia — 2,076,119 votes — to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s nearly 46 percent, or 1,853,445 votes. While that’s not an overwhelming figure, loyalty to Trump among Republican primary voters in the Peach State is considered to be fierce and the nod left Cagle, who had already begun trailing Kemp in the latest polls, scrambling to recover.
The president gave Kemp yet another Twitter shout-out Tuesday morning as voters were heading to the polls.
“Today is the day to vote for Brian Kemp,” Trump wrote. “Will be great for Georgia, full Endorsement!”
Kemp now will face Abrams, who handily won the Democratic primary in May. Abrams, the Democratic leader in the state House of Representatives, would become the first black woman elected governor in the nation’s history if she’s able to buck Georgia’s nearly two-decade Republican tilt come November.
“Tonight, I have an opponent: Kemp,” Abrams wrote on Twitter. “The race for #GAGov may change, but our values never will. Service, faith & family guide our vision for GA: Affordable health care. Excellent public schools for every child. An economy that works for all.”
With turnout light, there were only a handful of reports of problems at the polls on Tuesday.
At one polling place in Austell — in Cobb County — dead batteries in the voting machines Tuesday morning reportedly forced a handful of voters to use paper ballots instead of the machines. The issue only impacted nine voters, Cobb County’s elections director told the AJC.
Other Races
The Republican race for Georgia’s No. 2 political position featured an apparent victory by another supposed underdog.
State Sen. David Shafer, the presumed front-runner who nearly won the post outright in the May primary, appears to have been toppled by state Rep. Geoff Duncan in the race to replace Cagle as lieutenant governor.
With all precincts reporting, Duncan had 279,226 votes to 277,496 for Shafer, the president pro-tem of the Senate who many observers expected to step into the role of lieutenant governor, who presides over the Senate.
Shafer could request a recount because of the closeness of the race. If his lead holds, Duncan will face Democrat Sarah Riggs Amico for state government’s No. 2 spot.
And in the GOP race to replace Kemp as Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger handily defeated David Belle Isle, with Raffensperger up 62 percent to about 38 percent.
Democratic voters chose Otha Thornton Jr. over Sid Chapman to face incumbent Republican State School Superintendent Richard Woods in the Nov. 6 General Election. Thornton bested Chapman with a nearly 60-40 lead in late returns.
In north metro’s 6th Congressional District, which Republican Rep. Karen Handel won narrowly over Democrat Jon Osoff in a special election last year, Democrats chose Lucy McBath over Kevin Abel. She took 14,285 votes to Abel’s 12,303.
The special election was held to replace Rep. Tom Price, who briefly served as President Donald Trump’s Health and Human Service secretary before leaving the post amidst a scandal over his use of expensive private jets.
In the 7th Congressional District, which includes parts of Gwinnett and Forsyth counties, Carolyn Bourdeaux and David Kim were locked in a neck-and-neck race all night, but it appears that Bourdeaux came out ahead. With all votes in, Bourdeaux had 7,948 to Kim’s 7,348.
In Georgia, if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff is held. Cagle finished primary night with about 39 percent of the vote, compared to about 26 percent for Kemp.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a candidate in the Republican primary runoff for governor, poses after voting Tuesday in Winterville, Ga. Photo courtesy Kemp for Governor.
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