Lanier County Election Summary follows state trend but with wider margins
By: Marsha Tallent
LANIER COUNTY, Georgia –While not official, it is likely that the high-profile U.S. Senate race between Herschel Walker Jr. (R) and Raphael Warnock (D) will not be decided until a December 6th runoff election. The runoff would be required by state law, if no candidate receives more than 50% of the General Election vote. Lanier County voters did not follow the statewide margin trends, but clearly voted about 2 to 1 supporting Walker over Warnock.
Overall, Lanier County voting registered voters supported primarily the Republican candidates during this General Election.
In the Georgia Governor’s race, Republican and Incumbent Brian Kemp received 1,932 votes to Stacey Abrams’ (D) 691 votes and Shane Hazel’s (L) 15 votes. For Lieutenant governor, Republican Burt Jones received 1,877 votes to Charlie Bailey’s (D) 669 votes, and Ryan Graham’s (L) 35 votes locally.
For Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, who is Republican and the incumbent, received 1,871 local votes to Bee Nguyen (D) 606 votes and Ted Metz’s (L) 94 votes in our local election. Lanier County voters cast 1,885 votes for Chris Carr, Republican incumbent, for Attorney General to Jennifer “Jen” Jordan (D)’s 669 votes, and Martin Cowen’s (L) 38 votes.
In commissioner races, the Republic trend continued. For Commissioner of Agriculture, Tyler Harper earned 1,917 votes, Nakita Hemmingway (D) earned 636 votes, and David Raudabaugh (L) received 39 votes locally. For Commissioner of Insurance, Republic incumbent John King received 1,928 votes locally to Janice Laws Robinson (D), who earned 657 votes. There was no Libertarian candidate.
South Georgian Republican incumbent State School Superintendent received 1,933 votes through Lanier County voters. Alisha Thomas Searcy (D) received 657 votes. There was no Libertarian candidate.
Republican Bruce Thompson received 1,892 votes for Commissioner of Labor. William “Will” Boddie Jr. (D) earned 653 votes and Emily Anderson (L) earned 44 Lanier County cast votes.
In the U.S. House of Representatives District 8 vote, Republican incumbent Austin Scott received 1,946 votes from Lanier County voters. Darrius Butler (D) received 649 votes.
In the District 8 State Senate race, Incumbent Republican Russ Goodman received 2,222 votes. He had no competition.
District 176 State Representative (R) James Burchett received 2,197 votes from Lanier County voters and did not compete against anyone.
In the District 1 Lanier County Board of Commissioner local race, Democrat Benny “Peter” Ryan earned 391 votes cast by Lanier County voters in his district. He had no competition. Hank Smith, District 2 Lanier County Board of Commissioners won his primary race and was the only candidate for District 2. He earned 577 votes.
In the District 1 County Board of Education race, Erlish Locklear (D), incumbent, won his primary race and was the only candidate for the district in the primary. He gathered 377 votes to win.
In the District 3 Lanier County Board of Education race, Phillip Connell gathered 527 votes and had no competition in the General Election. Denny Fender (R) incumbent candidate for Dist 4 Lanier County Board of Education earned 736 votes and did not have anyone running against him.
In the state constitutional Amendments, the first amendment had 2,203 “yes” votes to 304 “no” votes. The 2nd state constitutional amendment gathered 2,281 “yes” support votes to 261 “no” votes.
In Statewide Referendum A, Lanier County voters cast 1,624 votes “yes” to 889 votes “no”. In Statewide Referendum B, Lanier County voters cast 1,939 “yes” votes to 579 “no” votes.
A total of 2,650 votes were cast during the Lanier County General Election. Only 49.04% of the 5,404 registered Lanier County Voters voted during the General Election.
