Open-seat campaigns headline East Cobb legislative elections

Reapportionment carved up East Cobb substantially across the board for the 2022 elections, including legislative seats.

Two of them—one each in the Georgia House and Senate—are guaranteed to have new representatives.

The Senate District 6 seat was vacated by Jen Jordan, who is the Democratic nominee for Georgia Attorney General. It’s a district that now includes some of East Cobb and the Cumberland area but is mostly in Buckhead, and the two candidates are both from the city of Atlanta.

They are Democrat Jason Esteves, the former chairman of the Atlanta Board of Education, and Republican financial services business owner Fred Glass.

You can see the new District 6 map by clicking here.

House District 43 has been represented by GOP Rep. Sharon Cooper since 1997, but she was drawn into District 45 (map here), where Republican Matt Dollar served until resigning early in the 2022 legislative session.

A special election was held in April that was won by Republican Mitch Kaye, a former lawmaker who said he would not be running for the seat this fall.

His Democratic opponent, Dustin McCormick, is challenging Cooper, the chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee and who had close calls in the 2018 and 2020 elections.

District 43 (map here) has been redrawn to include much of the East Marietta area, Wheeler attendance zone and the Powers Ferry Road corridor.

The candidates vying for that seat are running for office for the first time in a race that could determine party control of the Cobb legislative delegation.

Cobb Democrats hold a one-seat advantage in House representation, and District 43 is in an area of East Cobb that has produced stronger Democratic results in the last two election cycles.

Democrat Solomon Adesanya is a restaurant owner whose priorities are expanding Medicare, protecting abortion rights and addressing climate issues.

Republican Anna Tillman is a retired geologist who is campaigning to support small business, promote job training and technical education and champion public safety, saying she would “oppose radical efforts to defund the police or any other Public Safety organization.”

Two Republican House members from East Cobb are seeking re-election in districts that include some of Cherokee County. They are Don Parsons of District 44 (map here), who was first elected in 1994 and who is the chairman of the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee.

His Democratic opponent is Willie Mae Oyogoa, who owns a travel business in Woodstock.

In District 46 (map here), GOP incumbent John Carson is seeking another term against Democrat Micheal Garza, who owns a web development business.

District 37 (map here) retains some portions of Northeast Cobb. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Frances Williams is seeking re-election against Tess Redding, who works in the criminal justice field.

State Senate District 32 (map here), which had included most of East Cobb, also has been redrawn to include Woodstock and other areas of Cherokee.

Republican incumbent Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick is seeking a third full term after winning a special election in 2017. The Democratic candidate is Sylvia Bennett, an ordained minister and former social worker.

Georgia Senate District 56 has been expanded from its North Fulton base to include some of East Cobb (map here). Incumbent Republican Sen. John Albers of Roswell, who has been in office since 2011, is running for another two-year term.

His Democratic opponent, also from Roswell, is Patrick Thompson, a clean energy entrepreneur with technology sales and marketing experience.

Related:

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!