Patrick Saunders
| WABE
May 4th, 2026
Updated May 6, 2026,
8:00 AM EDT
Voters in one state Senate district in metro Atlanta will be seeing double on their primary election ballots.
Former state Sen. Nabilah Parkes resigned from her Senate District 7 post in March to run for lieutenant governor. The district is in Gwinnett County and includes parts of Duluth, Suwanee and Berkeley Lake.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp called for a special election to fill the remainder of Parkes’ term, which is standard in these situations.
What’s more rare is that he called it for May 19 — the same day as the primary election to determine who runs for the full two-year term in November.
No one in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office can recall a prior instance of there being both a special election and primary election for the same seat on the same ballot.
“It’s a very unusual circumstance in Georgia elections,” spokesperson Mike Hassinger told WABE.
Senate District 7 voters who choose a nonpartisan ballot will only vote in the special election to fill the remainder of Parkes’ term. Voters who choose a Democratic or Republican ballot will vote in both the special election and primary election.
Also, not all Senate District 7 candidates are running in both elections.
The special election will include Democratic school principal Astrid Ross, Democratic banker Adrienne White and Republican real estate broker Aizaz Shahbaz Shaikh.
White is foregoing the primary election. Ross and Shaikh will be joined in that race by Democratic state Rep. Ruwa Romman and Democratic attorney Rahul Garabadu.
Romman jumped into the Senate District 7 race after dropping her bid for governor in February.
Early voting is underway and continues through May 15. Election Day is on May 19.
Elections on the ballot this year in Georgia include a U.S. Senate seat, all 14 U.S. House seats, the entire Georgia legislature and many local races.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the primary that Rahul Garabadu is running in. He is in the Democratic primary.
