State Rep. Bee Nguyen was nominated by the Democratic Party for Georgia’s election chief on Tuesday and ran against incumbent Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in the Nov. 8 general election.
Nguyen drove by a three-to-one margin to victory over former state congressman Dee Dawkins-Haigler in Tuesday’s runoff, according to unofficial poll results. Also on Tuesday, the Democratic primaries for labor and insurance commissioners and the lieutenant governor were set.
The two remaining Democratic candidates for the post of foreign minister made it after the election of 24 to piss off a Republican in a statewide office held by a member of the GOP party for the past two decades.
Nguyen garnered national attention in December 2020 when she challenged baseless voter fraud allegations by supporters of President Donald Trump at a special Legislative Committee hearing following the 2020 Georgia presidential election.
Nguyen, the first Democratic Asian-American woman elected to state office in Georgia, was endorsed by Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams. She took aim at her Nov. 8 opponent on Tuesday night and said she would support Georgians’ voting rights, unlike Raffensperger and other Republican leaders.
While nguyen and raffensperger have been dismissing baseless allegations in 2020, their disagreement over the GOP election law passed in 2021 will be at the forefront of their campaigns.
“We must remind Georgia voters that Brad Raffensperger is not a friend of our democracy,” Nguyen said in Tuesday’s victory speech. “We must remind Georgia voters that doing what is necessary to obey the law should not be good enough for you.”
On Tuesday, Raffensperger testified before the January 6 Committee of the US House of Representatives about how outgoing President Donald Trump pressured him to reverse his election defeat.
Raffensperger repeatedly turned down overtures and became a pariah in part of the Republican base. Although Raffensperger initially seemed hopeless for a second term in office, he easily defeated the staunch Trump ally US Congressman Jody Hice in the primaries on May 24.
Deputy Governor
In running for lieutenant governor, Charlie Bailey, a former prosecutor and another Abrams-backed candidate, defeated former Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall.
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Bailey overcame his second-place finish on May 24 by winning more than 63% of the vote over Hall, who also briefly served in the US Congress following the death of Rep. John Lewis in 2020.
Hall’s name carries weight in the Atlanta metropolitan area because of his long tenure in politics, but his campaign for Senate President was relatively low-key as he stayed away from political debates.
Bailey faces Republican Sen. Burt Jones, another Trump ally, as the two attempt to fill the vacancy held by outgoing GOP Lieutenant Gov. Geoff Duncan left.
Labor and Insurance Commissioners
After a few turbulent years at the helm of an agency that was struggling unemployment benefit At the height of the pandemic, Georgia Republican Labor Commissioner Mark Butler declined to seek re-election in 2022.
Now the next commissioner of the Department of Labor will be either Senator Bruce Thompson, a White Republican, or East Point State Assemblyman William Boddiewho won a decisive victory in Tuesday’s Democratic runoff against Atlanta businesswoman Nicole Horn.
Unofficial election results Tuesday night put Janice Laws Robinson well ahead of Raphael Baker late Tuesday night in a Democrat bid to challenge Republican Insurance Commissioner John King.
