WABE’s Week in Review: Georgia Gears Up for Election Day

Last Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden held two events in Georgia. He was the first Democratic presidential candidate to campaign in the state this close to the election in a generation.

Emma Hurt reported the trip was a major coup for Georgia Democrats, who have been working for years to convince the country the state is a battleground.

The Changing 7th District … 

At the start of this year, the economy, healthcare and immigration were among the most pressing issues in Georgia’s 7th Congressional District.

But since March, everything, it seems, has been overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think people are really frustrated with what’s happening in this country,” said Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux, who is running for the seat again this year after losing by just over 400 votes in 2018. She’s a professor at Georgia State who worked at one time in the Georgia Senate budget office.

Bourdeaux calls the federal and state response to COVID-19 a “meltdown.”

Her opponent, in what is shaping up to be another close outcome, is Republican Rich McCormick, an emergency room physician and military veteran. He says Americans will be dealing with COVID-19 for a very long time and that vulnerable populations have to be protected. He blames House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not moving certain economic stimulus bills through Congress.

Emil Moffatt has more on the district that includes Gwinnett and Forsyth counties. 

McBath looks to defend the 6th from Handel, who wants it back… 

Another hotly contested race this election is in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, where Democrat Lucy McBath is running for re-election. Her Challenger is Republican Karen Handel, who wants to regain the seat she lost two years ago. McBath beat Handel by just 3,200 votes.

President Trump won the district by just one point in 2016. Before that election, many Democrats in the district didn’t talk about their views because it was once represented by Tom Price and was one of the most conservative in Georgia, said voter and 6th District resident Liz Murphy.

But after Trump’s first term and the election of Democrat Lucy McBath, “Some of the people that started out as the whisper campaign, now have signs in their front yard. They’re the phone bankers,” said Murphy.

“Really with all the politics, comes down to me I’m a Christian, ” said Carol Craton from Kennesaw at a recent Republican campaign rally. “First thing is the … I won’t say abortion the first 12 weeks, but all this long term abortion all this just has to quit.”

The 6th Congressional District is the wealthiest in Georgia with strong Republican pockets, according to Kennesaw political Scientist Kerwin Swint.

“Karen Handel is fortunate that East Cobb County is in this district,” said Swint. “It’s a high turnout district. It’s a high-income district. And it’s notoriously a Republican district.”

But according to Swint, other areas of the 6th District, like north Fulton and parts of DeKalb, have become more diverse and Democratic over the past few years, so that the battle in this district comes down to voter turnout.

(Susanna Capelouto reported this story.) 

School boards could more represent the students in their districts… 

For years, schools in Cobb and Gwinnett counties have become more racially diverse, but the school board members who govern them have been mostly white. But that could change after the upcoming elections. Those two school boards could more closely resemble the students they represent.

Martha Dalton looks more into the makeup of the two school boards and those trying to make it better reflect the student population.