Democrat Jaha Howard, a dentist and former Cobb County School Board member, is headed to the state Capitol after narrowly defeating fellow Democrat and former state Rep. Roger Bruce during a special election runoff. He will represent a metro Atlanta district that includes portions of Cobb and Fulton counties.
Howard and Bruce beat out four other candidates during a six-way special election earlier this month, but neither managed to secure the majority needed to win the election outright. Howard will replace former state Sen. Jason Esteves, an Atlanta Democrat who resigned from the state Senate in September to focus on his campaign for governor.
Ahead of the special election, much of the Democratic establishment coalesced behind Bruce, who was first sworn in as a state representative in 2003 and served for 22 years, until his retirement in 2024. But Howard, who has also been a candidate for state school superintendent and ran for a seat on the Cobb County commission earlier this year, received the most votes during the special election and maintained his lead in the runoff. He won Tuesday by roughly 235 votes, according to unofficial results from the secretary of state’s office.
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