East Cobb’s longest serving legislator has some rare general election competition this year. Republican Don Parsons was first elected to serve the District 44 Georgia House seat in 1994.
His Democratic opponent is Chinita Allen, who like many in her party campaigning for legislative seats in East Cobb, is a first-time candidate.
She is a teacher at Chalker Elementary School and is the mother of children in the Lassiter High School cluster. Parsons worked for many years for BellSouth and is a consultant in the telecommunications field.
Allen did not have a primary opponent. Parsons easily defeated Homer Crothers in the Republican primary in May.
Candidate websites
Allen’s focus is on economic development, education, health and civil rights.
She supports increased education spending for K-12. The Georgia Science Teachers Association’s District 3 Science Director (which includes Cobb, Marietta and Douglas schools) and the Georgia STEM Laureate, Allen wants the state to establish more “science, STEM and career pathways.”
Parsons supports expanding 5G wireless technology across the state. He also has supported cutting personal and business income tax rates, additional funding for public K-12 education in Georgia and a proposed constitutional amendment on the November general election ballot for victims’ rights.
More recently, he has cited the addition of 700,000 new private sector jobs, the preservation of HOPE Scholarships and full funding of K-12 education under Republican leadership in state government since 2010.
“We can’t go back!” he said earlier this week.
Allen has stressed her grassroots campaign against a better-financed opponent and has noted that she’s among 191 women in both parties running for state office in Georgia (and several others in East Cobb as well).
“We need women running and winning at every level,” she said recently. “What we have seen is the result of the absence of more women in elected office.”
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