Republicans Eye Congressional Pick-up

The redistricting that followed the 2020 Census put Republicans in position to add one more seat to its current 8-to-6 advantage over Democrats in Georgia’s congressional delegation.

Even if Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop holds onto his seat in southwest Georgia’s 2nd district, Republicans are favored to pick up a ninth seat, reclaiming the 6th district.

In the redistricting that followed the 2020 Census, the Republican-controlled General Assembly redrew the 6th to once again be Republican-friendly and the 7th district to favor Democrats. That prompted current Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath to jump from the 6th into the 7th, where she defeated current Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux in the May 24 primary.

Republicans are poised to regain the 6th — which the party had held for 40 years before McBath’s 2018 victory — as Republican Rich McCormick faces Democrat Bob Christian. Democrats expect McBath to keep the 7th in their column. The gun control crusader faces Republican Mark Gonsalves, winner of the GOP primary, and Republican write-in candidate Lisa Babbage. McBath and McCormick have raised significantly more money than their opponents.

In two heavily Democratic metro Atlanta districts, Rep. Hank Johnson is looking to win a ninth term from the 4th district against Republican challenger Jonathan Chavez, while Democratic Rep. Nikema Williams seeks a second term from the 5th district against Republican Christian Zimm.

In other metro Atlanta races, Republican Rep. Barry Loudermilk is seeking a fifth term in the 11th district against Democrat challenger Antonio Daza. In the 13th, Democratic Rep. David Scott is running for an 11th term against Republican challenger Caesar Gonzales.

The Georgia congressional race garnering the most national attention is in the historically conservative 14th district, where Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is seeking a second term. She is being challenged by Democrat Marcus Flowers. According to the most recently available data from the Federal Election Commission, Flowers had raised $14.4 million and spent $13.1 million, while Greene’s contributions totaled $11.6 million and her spending $9.7 million.

Greene has been an outspoken backer of disproven claims by former President Donald Trump that he, rather than President Joe Biden, won the 2020 presidential vote in Georgia and nationally. Her attacks on Biden and other Democrats have won her fans on the right and brought scorn from the left. She has been rebuked by the national Republican Jewish Coalition and numerous other Jewish groups for antisemitic statements.

Greene’s controversial statements included this about the Republican Party: “We need to be the party of nationalism and I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists,” she said in an interview with the conservative Next News Network while attending this past summer’s Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Florida.

She doubled down on her rhetoric during the Oct. 16 debate sponsored by the Atlanta Press Club: “I stand by the words that I say. They’re just offensive to Washington, D.C., and the swamp creatures there because the words that I speak are the same as Americans back home — the same as people in Georgia’s 14th district, and the words I speak are the truth.”

The track record over the past several decades is that more than 90 percent of U.S. House members win re-election.