ATLANTA (AP) — Longtime incumbent Democrat Sanford Bishop won a 17th term in Congress Tuesday, defeating Republican Wayne Johnson in southwest Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District.
Bishop’s victory came as Brian Jack, a one-time aide to former President Donald Trump, won election to his first term in the U.S. House in a district south and west of Atlanta.
Those were the two highest-profile congressional races in a Georgia election with no statewide candidates on the ballot. Republicans maintained their 9-5 majority among Georgia’s congressional seats, with all incumbents winning reelection, including Marjorie Taylor Greene in northwest Georgia’s 14th District and Democrat Lucy McBath in a newly redrawn 6th District on the west side of metro Atlanta.
Voters across Georgia also approved a measure limiting increases in a home’s value for property tax purposes and another measure increasing the property tax exemption for business property.
Republicans maintained majorities in both the House and Senate in the General Assembly. The most competitive elections were in a handful of state House races, where Democrats are trying to reduce the Republican majority.
Bishop has long focused on his legislative achievements and what his seniority helps him accomplish, calling himself a moderate. He has courted largely white farmers who drive the rural economy and supported military bases. Johnson worked in the U.S. Department of Education under Trump. He had pledged to focus on the economic well-being of constituents in one of Georgia’s poorest regions. The 2nd runs across 30 counties, stretching into Columbus and Macon.
“I’m committed to continuing to use the process to try to improve the lives of the people and the communities that I represent, advance the interests of our state and our nation and of humankind,” Bishop told The Associated Press in a phone interview after winning Tuesday.
Bishop said that among his priorities upon returning to Washington would be championing a relief bill for damage caused by Hurricane Helene, saying the storm “has really devastated" parts of the state's farming and forestry industries.
Jack won Georgia’s 3rd Congressional district south and west of Atlanta. He defeated Democrat Maura Keller in a GOP-tilting seat that was open because U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson is retiring.
A 36-year-old Peachtree City native, Jack was the political director in Trump’s White House and later worked for U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Trump’s repeated endorsement and access to McCarthy’s fundraising network carried Jack to victory in a crowded Republican primary. His opponent, Keller, is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Fayetteville resident.
She ran on a platform of abortion rights, better veterans services and higher wages, while Jack emphasized that he’d be a partner to Trump on economic and immigration issues.
Jack said his top priority will be renewing the tax cut package passed under Trump in 2017 and enacting other Trump pledges including eliminating income tax on tips and Social Security benefits.
“I’m incredibly grateful and, at the same time, motivated to do the job they elected me to do and deliver on the campaign promises I made,” Jack told the AP after winning Tuesday.
Before all Georgia voters was an effort to curb rising property tax bills by limiting how much of a home’s increasing value can be taxed. The state constitutional amendment would limit increases in a home’s value for tax purposes to the broader rate of inflation each year.
Supporters say it will protect current homeowners from ever-higher property tax bills, but opponents warn that the caps will unfairly shift the burden onto new homeowners, renters and other property holders.
Georgia is one of eight states where voters will decide property tax measures, showing how rising tax bills are influencing politics nationwide.
From 2018 to 2022, the total assessed value of property across Georgia rose by nearly 39%, according to the Georgia Department of Revenue. Most governments pocketed increased revenues without raising tax rates, boosting employee pay and other spending.
Lawmakers proposed the amendment after hearing from constituents angry about rising tax bills. The protection would last as long as someone owns their home. The assessed value would reset to the market value when a home is sold, with new homeowners then getting the benefit of the cap on the higher price.
Dozens of Georgia counties, cities and school systems already operate under local assessment caps. But school systems have been wary, warning the cap could starve them of needed funds. Most school districts can’t raise property tax rates above a certain level.
To ease schools’ concerns, the measure gives local governments and school districts until March 1 to opt out. Any that do not would be permanently governed by the cap.
The partisan balance in the state Senate remained at 33 Republicans and 23 Democrats, as it was before the election, with all incumbents winning Tuesday. The victories weren't a surprise, with a majority of the 180 House districts and 56 Senate districts drawn to favor the GOP. Democrats focused on reducing the Republican majority in the state House, which stood at 102-78 before voting concluded Tuesday. Two Republican incumbents lost, including Atlanta's Mesha Mainor, who had switched from the Democratic Party, and Ken Vance of Milledgeville, who lost to Democratic former state Sen. Floyd Griffin in a district redrawn to have a Black majority.
The hardest fought House districts included six stretching across northern Atlanta suburbs in Fulton and Gwinnett counties.
Democrats campaigned on overturning Georgia’s current abortion restrictions, doing more to limit guns, and expanding the Medicaid program to more low-income adults. Republicans touted their support for low taxes, police and school vouchers.
Jeff Amy, The Associated Press