6th congressional district

Ex-Ga. ethics head announces bid for 6th District Congress

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Jake Evans, the former chairman of the Georgia Ethics Commission, is seeking the Republican nomination for the 6th Congressional District seat.Jake Evans, 6th Congressional District candidate

Evans is an attorney who said he is running “to usher in the great comeback to retake America.”

He describes himself as a “conservative trailblazer” and mentioned the 1994 Republican resurgence that led to former Congressman Newt Gingrich becoming Speaker of the House when he represented the 6th District.

“The Northern Arc of metro Atlanta is a thriving, dynamic region that cares about education, public safety, national defense and fair trade,” Evans said in a statement.

“But we’re stuck with a member of Congress who only cares about one issue – taking away the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans and leaving them defenseless against out-of-control crime. We need change, and I’m here to offer bold, conservative leadership that delivers an America First agenda to restore the values that make this country exceptional.”

That’s a reference to current Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, whose main priorities include gun control.

Evans (you can view his campaign website here) is the second Republican this week to announce a challenge to McBath, following an announcement by former legislator Meagan Hanson.

They both have employed strong conservative language in a 6th District that includes East Cobb, North Fulton and Sandy Springs and North DeKalb. Those political dynamics figure to be affected by reapportionment later this year.

The East Cobb area remains a GOP stronghold in a 6th District that has been trending Democratic elsewhere.

Most recently Evans has advocated for counting “only legal votes” during the 2020 presidential election. He also supports and defends election reforms passed by the Republican-led legislature that led to Major League Baseball moving this year’s All-Star Game away from Truist Park.

Evans resigned from the ethics commission on June 30 after five years amid speculation of a Congressional run.

He’s from Lithia Springs and earned a bachelor’s and law degree from the University of Georgia.

A newlywed, he and his wife Bayley, also an attorney, live in Cobb County.

“As the representative for the 6th District, I’ll fight for Georgia, not against it like the radical Left,” Evans said, “and we’ll once against have a conservative voice in Congress who has the courage to stand up to the Woke Mob and Cancel Culture and to fight for the conservative principles that made America the greatest country on earth.”

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Ex-Ga. legislator announces 6th Congressional District run

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Former Georgia State Rep. Meagan Hanson on Monday announced her campaign for the 6th District Congressional seat.Meagan Hanson, 6th Congressional District candidate

Hanson, an attorney who represented Brookhaven in the legislature from 2017-18, is a Republican who said in a release she’s running on a conservative platform to counter a House Democratic majority that includes two-term 6th District incumbent U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath.

The 6th District includes East Cobb, North Fulton, Sandy Springs and North DeKalb.

“With the direction our country is going, the America I had growing up will not be the same America my kids will live in. I’m not content to watch this nation’s promise slip away,” Hanson said in a campaign release. “We need a Congresswoman who will fight for Georgia’s families, not Nancy Pelosi’s radical agenda. I’ll work every day to lower taxes, end out-of-control government spending, and get America back on track.”

Her campaign website can be found by clicking here.

Hanson is an attorney who is the executive director of Georgians for Lawsuit Reform, an arm of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and is a conservative commentator and lobbyist.

She said her priorities include curbing government spending, strengthening border controls, boosting law enforcement resources and fighting what she calls “the radical left agenda and cancel culture.”

“Conservative values aren’t just a talking point for me. They are what I’ve been fighting for my entire life,” she said in the statement. “With liberals like Lucy McBath in office, our communities have felt the full force of the left’s wish list: higher taxes, bigger government, more crime, a crisis at our border, and a radical cancel culture movement that has cost our local economy over $100 million. I’ve never backed down—and I’m ready for this fight because my family’s future, and the future of those in our community, depend on it.”

McBath is one of two Congressional Democrats from metro Atlanta who are targets for GOP pickups in the 2022 elections.

She unseated Republican U.S. Rep. Karen Handel in 2018, then defeated Handel again in 2020.

But a major factor factor in 2022 figures to be Congressional redistricting. The East Cobb area remains a GOP stronghold in a 6th District that has been trending Democratic elsewhere.

For now, Hanson, a resident of Sandy Springs, is the only Republican specifically running in the 6th District. Eric Welsh, a retired Army officer and former Coca-Cola Co. executive, announced his candidacy in May, but on July 1 announced his withdrawal.

No Democrats have announced for the 6th District seat.

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East Cobb Elections Preview: Georgia 6th Congressional District

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Georgia 6th Congressional District, Karen Handel, Lucy McBath

A year after the most expensive U.S. House race in American history was waged in the Georgia 6th Congressional District, the seat could be closely contested again.

U.S. Rep. Karen Handel (left), a Roswell Republican, fended off Democrat Jon Ossoff in a special election despite being outspent in a race that raised more than $30 million.

This year, she’s being opposed by first-time candidate Lucy McBath (right), a nationally known gun-control advocate.

The 6th Congressional District, which includes most of East Cobb, North Fulton and north and central DeKalb, has been in Republican hands since former House Speaker Newt Gingrich first won in 1978.

6th District maps

But Handel, a former Georgia Secretary of State, won only after Ossoff, a political novice, barely avoided a runoff following a “jungle primary” in which she finished second. In the runoff, she got some of her strongest margins in East Cobb and was actively supported by commissioners Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrell.

Handel was unopposed in the Republican primary in May. McBath earned the Democratic nomination in a runoff.

A poll released Tuesday shows Handel with a four-point lead, which is within the margin of error.

The National Republican Campaign Committee has purchased $1.4 million in Atlanta TV air time for pro-Handel commercials that began this week.

Candidate websites

President Donald Trump won the 6th District with just 51 percent of the vote in 2016. Since succeeding former Rep. Tom Price, Handel has touted her vote for Trump’s tax cuts, but she opposes his steel and aluminum tariffs. (The 6th District includes the U.S. headquarters of Mercedes-Benz.)

McBath is a former Delta Air Lines flight attendant who lives in East Cobb. Her son, a Marietta High School graduate, was shot and killed in 2012 in Florida by an angry motorist for playing loud car music at a gas station.

Since then, she’s been an outspoken advocate for gun-control and other traditional liberal positions.

She wants to preserve the Affordable Health Care Act (referred to as “Obamacare”) with some changes, as well as expand Medicaid in Georgia. McBath has been critical of what she calls the “Trump-Handel Tax Scam” and supports citizenship for the “Dreamers,” the children of undocumented immigrants who have grown up in the United States.

Handel has advocated “repealing and replacing” Obamacare with a market-based alternative, as well as building a wall along the southern border of the U.S. to prevent illegal immigration.

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McBath has been endorsed by EMILY’s list, a political action committee that supports pro-choice Democrats. Handel has the endorsement of the Susan B. Anthony List, which supports pro-life candidates.

During the campaign, Handel has raised questions of McBath’s East Cobb residency pertaining to her claiming homestead exemptions.

McBath noted that Handel, a former Georgia Secretary of State and candidate for the U.S. Senate and Georgia Governor, is only now running for re-election for the first time and that the incumbent “will do or say anything” to remain in power.

McBath made those remarks Tuesday in a debate with Handel that was conducted by the Atlanta Press Club. The video below is about a half an hour, and includes a heated exchange about gun-control, background checks for arms purchases and the National Rifle Association.

 

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Jon Ossoff won’t run for 6th Congressional District seat in 2018

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After falling short in the most expensive campaign in U.S. House history last year, Democrat Jon Ossoff announced Friday he will not seek the 6th Congressional District seat in Georgia in 2018.Jon Ossoff, 6th Congressional District race

Ossoff, defeated by Republican Karen Handel in a special election runoff last June for the seat that includes East Cobb, said on his Twitter account this afternoon that he will not be making another challenge.

In a series of Tweets Ossoff said that “I’ve decided that this is not the moment for me to run again for Congress. But I’m not going anywhere. Your trust, energy, and support last year meant the world to me. I’m in this with all of you for the long haul.”

Ossoff said he is continuing his work as an investigative documentary filmmaker but that “I’ll be actively supporting great Democratic candidates in 2018.”

Qualifying for 2018 elections in Georgia begins March 5, with primaries scheduled for May 22 for federal, state and local races.

Ossoff, a former Congressional aide from DeKalb County, earned nationwide attention and raised nearly $30 million in his bid to succeed former U.S. Rep. Tom Price in a seat that has been in Republican hands since Newt Gingrich’s arrival in 1978.

He won a “jungle primary” last April with 48 percent of the vote, barely missing outright election in what would have been a major upset. Instead, he faced Handel, a former Georgia Secretary of State and candidate for governor and U.S. Senator, in a two-month runoff.

He used much of his campaign funding for television commercials that flooded Atlanta airwaves for months, as well as frequent mailers, phone calls and text messages and door-to-door leafletting.

In her ads, Handel, who’s from Roswell, made frequent reference to Ossoff’s residence in DeKalb County, outside the 6th District boundaries.

She got a strong showing from heavily Republican precincts in East Cobb to defeat Ossoff 51-48 for the right to fill the remainder of Price’s term. He vacated the seat after the 2016 election to become U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services,but was forced to resign in September after reports that he spent several hundred thousand dollars at taxpayers’ expense flying charter planes, sometimes for personal as well as government reasons.

 

 

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