A setback for Stacey Abrams and the Dems in Georgia

Townhall’s Reagan McCarthy reports on a satisfying election result from Georgia. In a special election runoff race for a state House seat, Republican Devan Seabaugh defeated Democrat Priscilla Smith. Seabaugh collected 63 percent of the vote.

The jurisdiction in question, District 34 in the Atlanta area, leans conservative. However, Seabaugh’s margin exceeded that of the GOP candidate in 2020, who received 56 percent of the vote, according to McCarthy’s report.

Seabaugh was aided by a push from former Senator Kelly Loeffler’s organization, Greater Georgia. It launched a major effort to register voters and get out the vote.

Stacey Abrams and her organization, Fair Fight, pushed to elect Smith, the Democrat. Of its defeat, Fair Fight tweeted: “Tonight, Georgia Republicans won a Republican district, just like Georgia Democrats will continue to win our Democratic state.”

This statement ignores the substantial increase in the Republican’s margin of victory.

In another special election, Republicans finished first and second in a runoff race for a South Georgia House seat race. I haven’t found information comparing this result to 2020.

Has “usual service” been restored in Georgia? I wouldn’t go that far.

Abrams’ efforts notwithstanding, I doubt the Democrats poured the kind of effort into this race that they will make to defend Sen. Warnock’s seat next year. No doubt, the Dems will pull out all the stops in 2022.

And I assume the Trump whipsaw effect that contributed to the GOP’s defeats in 2020 and January 2021 — when some traditional Republicans stayed home due to anti-Trump sentiment in the presidential race and some Trump voters stayed home in the Senate runoff — was not in play in yesterday’s election. It remains to be seen what effect, if any, Trump will have on Georgia politics in 2022.

Nonetheless, last night’s result is good news for Republicans. I doubt that Georgia will return to being a solid Red State. However, as things stand now, the GOP’s prospects for 2022 seem pretty good in Georgia.

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