Voters decided five City of Atlanta races, ousted a Republican mayor in Roswell, and chose a 21-year-old for a state House seat in a slew of runoff elections on Tuesday.
The metro Atlanta runoffs occurred after no candidate received more than 50% of the vote in last month’s general election.
Here’s a recap of the races of note across the region.
Atlanta City Council runoffs
A pair of Atlanta City Council runoff elections were decided on Tuesday — one on the north side and one on the south side of the city.
Former MARTA board member Thomas Worthy beat public affairs specialist Thad Flowers by 20 percentage points in the Atlanta City Council District 7 runoff election.
District 7 is on the north side of the city and includes parts of Brookhaven, Buckhead, Garden Hills, Lenox, Peachtree Heights and Peachtree Park.
Worthy, who is also the chief public policy officer at Piedmont Healthcare, named improving roads and traffic, keeping low taxes and bolstering public safety and law enforcement resources as his campaign priorities.
Government and external affairs executive Wayne Martin beat real estate attorney Nate Jester by about 16 points in the Atlanta City Council District 11 runoff.
District 11 is on the south side of the city and includes parts of Ben Hill, Brentwood, Campbellton Road, Cascade, Greenbriar, Niskey Lake and Princeton Lakes.
Martin, who has previously worked in administrative roles at the Atlanta City Council and the Atlanta Board of Education, highlighted his work experience in community outreach in both the private and public sectors.
Atlanta school board runoffs
Tony Mitchell, who has worked in policy advocacy and lobbying, handily beat boutique owner Marlissa Crawford for the Atlanta Board of Education District 2 seat.
The district covers parts of Atlantic Station, Home Park, English Avenue, Buckhead, Vine City, South Downtown, Mechanicsville, Atlanta University Center, West End and Oakland City.
Mitchell works as the senior director of state government affairs for the Southern region at Gilead Sciences. His campaign priorities included improving chronic absenteeism and literacy rates and addressing barriers created by poverty.
Longtime school counselor Patreece Hutcherson beat incumbent Tolton Pace by about 10 points in the Atlanta Board of Education District 6 runoff election. The board appointed Pace in January after Eshé Collins’ departure from the board to serve on the Atlanta City Council.
District 6 covers Cascade, Campbellton Road, Ben Hill, Greenbriar, Adair Park, Pittsburch, Capitol View and Sylvan Hills.
This was Hutcherson’s third time running for the Atlanta school board, and her first win.
Kaycee Brock, a postsecondary pathways and staff culture consultant, beat political organizer Royce Mann by over 10 points in the Atlanta Board of Education At-Large Seat 8 runoff election. The seat represents the whole city.
Brock, who has served in multiple teaching and education-related roles, prioritized stabilizing the budget, reducing chronic absenteeism and improving instruction and school culture during her campaign.
East Point, Roswell, Sandy Springs, South Fulton elect mayors
In other races that occurred on Tuesday, Democratic former state Rep. Mary Robichaux beat incumbent Kurt Wilson in the Roswell mayoral election. The race is officially nonpartisan. Wilson was backed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, and ran as a Republican in the 2017 special election for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District seat.
Rusty Paul cruised to victory and secured a fourth term as mayor in Sandy Springs after outlasting public relations firm owner Dontaye Carter. Paul beat Carter by about 40 points.
Paul and Carter faced each other in the general election for Sandy Springs mayor in 2021. Paul beat Carter by nearly 40 percentage points in that contest, too.
South Fulton City Councilmember Carmalitha Gumbs will become the city’s new mayor after beating fellow Councilmember Mark Baker by about 20 points in the runoff. Gumbs will succeed khalid kamau, who finished in a distant sixth place in the general election after a tumultuous first term.
Keisha Chapman beat Joshua Butler by about 30 points in the East Point mayoral runoff.
And in a special election for the District 106 seat in the Georgia House of Representatives, voters chose 21-year-old Akbar Ali over fellow Democrat Marqus Cole. District 106 is in Gwinnett County.
Ali is set to become the youngest lawmaker in the Georgia legislature upon taking office.
Ali will replace former Democratic state Rep. Shelley Hutchinson, who resigned because of health issues in her family.
WABE’s Meimei Xu contributed to this report.
Note of Disclosure: The Atlanta Board of Education holds the broadcast license for WABE.
