First-Year Ga. Lawmakers Take On Capitol, Prepare For New Election
Nick Nesmith / WABE
The 2016 Georgia legislative session began Monday, and as House Speaker David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) opened the session with representatives from around the state, he mentioned a few who were serving for the first time.
After winning special elections last year, many of these “newbies” will find themselves in the midst of elections again within a short number of months.
State Rep. Taylor Bennett (D-Brookhaven) is one of them. He’ll be part of the House Judiciary Committee, which will be in the center of the debate on the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that drew national attention and could dominate the session this year.
Bennett thinks the attention will be great this year because of the presidential election.
“There’s a lot of things that are going to come up that are probably going to be controversial, that I’m going to be right in the middle of as it related to that issue,” he said.
Bennett won his seat in a special election last year, where he took a hard stand against the RFRA bill. To make it back to the session in 2017, he’ll need to win the seat in Brookhaven again, and he already has a Republican challenger in Meagan Hanson.
State Rep. Sheri Gilligan (R-Cumming) also won a special election last year to make this her first legislative session.
Her campaign focused on education, cutting taxes and religious freedom, according to the Forsyth County News.
To make it back to the Capitol in 2017, she’ll need the support of Republican voters in the May primary elections.
“Forsyth County is overwhelmingly a Republican district,” she said, “so likely that decision will be made in May.”
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