Jewish Democrat Eyes November Election

[Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles about Jewish candidates for federal and state offices in advance of the May 19 primary.]

In Georgia House District 48, Adam Cleveland, an attorney and a member at The Temple, is unopposed in the Democratic primary and in the Nov. 3 general election will face Republican incumbent Rep. Scott Hilton, who likewise has no primary opponent.

The district takes in portions of northern Fulton and western Gwinnett counties, including parts of Johns Creek, Roswell, and Peachtree Corners, stretching from the Chattahoochee River to the west and toward Peachtree Industrial Boulevard to the east.

Cleveland, a 48-year-old Atlanta native and University of Georgia graduate, has experience working in the state capitol, helping to draft legislation on creditors rights and lobby for that legislation a decade ago.

Cleveland told the AJT that his legislative priorities are instituting ranked choice voting, term limits at every level of government, and redistricting done by an independent commission, to eliminate gerrymandering that creates bizarrely drawn districts designed to protect members of one party or another.

At present, Democratic state Rep. Esther Panitch is the only Jewish member of the legislature. Cleveland said it is important that there be not only Jewish voices but that the legislature represent the state’s varied demographics.

That also includes people who work with their hands for a living, something Cleveland understands. While an undergraduate at UGA, studying engineering, Cleveland became the maintenance worker at an apartment complex, work that he continued until law school.

He also feels that there is a need for lawyers in the legislature, so that bills are written to meet constitution protections and avoid scenarios in which courts rule a law unconstitutional because it was not written properly.

Ideally, Cleveland said, he would like to “take back the legislation from the political class of people and back to people like me who don’t want to be there” but have issues of importance they want to see fixed. “Stop what it is and make it what it could be.”

Hilton was elected to the state House in 2022 and re-elected in 2024.

According to the most recent campaign finance reports available through the state, Cleveland had raised $103,330 and spent $11,178, while Hilton had raised $243,000 and spent $55,000.

Georgia legislators receive a base salary of $25,312 and a $247 per day per diem during the 40-day legislative session.