Erick Allen won a special election Tuesday to fill a vacant seat in District 2 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners, ensuring that Democrats once again will control the majority.
He and incumbent District 4 Commissioner Monique Sheffield cruised to victory over Republican opponents, restoring a 3-2 majority that had been in limbo since January.
Allen, a former state representative from Smyrna and ex-head of the Cobb Democratic Central Committee, defeated Republican Alicia Adams with 58 percent of the vote.
Turnout was very light, both in early voting and in Tuesday’s balloting.
Allen received 5,403 votes to 3,820 for Adams (sumary here) in a race that included several precincts in the East Cobb area (precinct breakdown here).
Sheffield, who has served one term, defeated Republican Matthew Hardwick with 64 percent of the vote in a heavily Democratic district in South Cobb.
Democrats held the board majority from 2021 until January, when the District 2 seat formerly held by Democrat Jerica Richardson was declared vacant.
That followed more than 30 years of Republican majorities on the board, including in District 2, where Bob Ott retired in 2020 after three terms, and was succeeded by Richardson.
Democrats also hold a one-seat edge in the 22-member Cobb legislative delegation. Republicans maintained a 4-3 majority on the Cobb Board of Education in November after holding all three GOP seats on the ballot.
Special elections in District 2 and District 4 for the Cobb commission were ordered by a Cobb judge after May 2024 primaries were invalidated due to electoral maps that were ruled to be in violation of the Georgia Constitution.
Those maps were drawn by Allen, then the chairman of the Cobb legislative delegation, but never received a vote.
Adams challenged the Democratic commissioners’ used of those electoral maps that led to her disqualification bu the Cobb Board of Elections for seeking the District 2 seat in 2024.
After the court rulings, Cobb commissioners voted to vacate the District 2 seat that had been held by Richardson, who was drawn out of her East Cobb home in redistricting.
Richardson and her two Democratic commissioner colleagues honored the Allen maps for more than two years in making a “home rule” challenge. But two Cobb judges ruled those maps were illegal because only the legislature can conduct county reapportionment.
In January, Richardson lost her final appeal to stay in office—although her term expired on Dec. 31—and the commission has been operating with four members since then. Sheffield has continued serving on the board, which had been deadlocked at 2-2 between Democrats and Republicans.
The elections of Allen and Sheffield must be certified the Cobb Board of Electi0ns, which is scheduled to meet May 5.
Allen finished third in the 2024 Democratic primary, won by former Cobb Board of Education member Jaha Howard, that was later invalidated.
In the February special election primary, Allen defeated Howard in the Democratic runoff.
Allen will be the only male to serve on the board, which has been all-female since January 2021. And like the previous Democratic majority that included Richardson, the new majority will be all-black.
Related:
- Cobb Republican Party chooses new chairwoman, officers
- Allen defeats Howard in Cobb commission Democratic runoff
- Democratic runoff set in Cobb Commission District 2 special election
- Richardson removed from office after appeals court rejection
- Richardson resumes seat as Cobb commission drama continues
- Richardson’s Cobb commission seat declared vacant by judge
- MORE: Visit the East Cobb News Politics & Elections Page
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