Top East Cobb 2020 stories: A Democratic election upheaval

The gains Cobb Democrats made in the last two election cycles reached a power-shifting culmination in 2020, as incumbent Republicans holding countywide seats were swept out of office.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners will become all-female, and with a black Democratic majority headed by two-term commissioner Lisa Cupid, who ousted chairman Mike Boyce.

Cupid will be the first chairwoman and first black head of county government in Cobb’s history, as well as the first Democrat to hold the office since Ernest Barrett in 1984.

She’ll be joined in January by Jerica Richardson, an Equifax manager, who will succeed retiring Republican commissioner Bob Ott in District 2, which includes some of East Cobb.

The Democratic wave took out longtime Cobb GOP Sheriff Neil Warren, who was defeated by veteran Cobb Police officer Craig Owens.

Former Cobb assistant solicitor Flynn Broady won a special election over appointed Republican Cobb District Attorney Joyette Holmes to complete the final two years of former DA Vic Reynolds’ term.

Even Republican Cobb Superior Court Clerk Rebecca Keaton fell to Democrat Connie Taylor.

Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate also won in Cobb County, with Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock getting strong showings here to fuel their current runoff campaigns against Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively.

All four have been actively campaigning in Cobb ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff date.

For the second consecutive presidential election, a Democrat won Cobb. Joe Biden received 56 percent of the vote, although Republican President Donald Trump enjoyed a stronghold in East Cobb.

During the presidential recount, allegations of ballot shredding and other improprieties were made by pro-Trump forces, and a last-ditch effort to disqualify Cobb voters from the runoffs by the head of the Cobb GOP was turned down by the county elections board.

All East Cobb legislative incumbents won re-election, as did U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of the 6th Congressional District.

For the second consecutive election, longtime State Rep. Sharon Cooper, an East Cobb Republican and chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, eked out a vary narrow victory against Democrat Luisa Wakeman.

The Cooper-Wakeman rematch was one of the key races Democrats were targeting in a high-stakes, and high-spending election.

The candidates raised more than $500,000 combined, but Democrats flipped only one of the 16 seats they needed to win to end Republican control.

Republicans will keep a 4-3 control of the Cobb Board of Education, with all three GOP incumbents defeating Democratic challengers.

They included three-term board member David Banks of East Cobb, who brushed off charges of racism by his Democratic opponent and colleagues.

More Top East Cobb 2020 stories

• Small businesses struggle to survive
• Community response to COVID-19
• Cleaning up from Hurricane Zeta
• Vandals scrawl swastika, MAGA graffiti in neighborhoods
• Petitions started to change Wheeler, Walton school names
• Tokyo Valentino sex shop opens on Johnson Ferry Road

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