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Election day is fast approaching, and candidates from the top to the bottom of the poll are delivering their final messages to voters in hopes of getting a chance to run in November.
Georgia’s midterm primary elections are Tuesday, May 19th, with voting taking place across the state from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The primaries for Georgia’s top seats are crowded, with as many as 15 names on both sides of the aisle for governor and multiple Republicans vying to run against Jon Ossoff in the Senate race.
Will a candidate be able to reach a 50% majority in the primary? Or should Georgia prepare to head to the polls again next month?
Latest polls show Republican race to be close
Perhaps the most contentious race in Georgia is the Republican primary for governor, with Trump supporter Bert Jones hoping to face off against Trump-hating Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and health care CEO and political outsider Rick Jackson.
Mr. Jones and Mr. Jackson have been topping the polls back and forth, followed by Mr. Raffensperger by a wide margin.
According to Insider Advantage’s latest poll of Georgia voters conducted over the weekend (released May 17), Mr. Jackson led with 31% of the vote, followed by Mr. Jones with 27% and Mr. Raffensperger with 16%.
Five other gubernatorial candidates, Chris Carr, Greg Kirkpatrick, Clark Dean, Leland Olinger II and Kenneth Yasgur, failed to reach double-digit approval ratings. A significant 12% of voters are still undecided, meaning they may still be undecided by the time they vote the next day.
The poll mimics other polls released in the early spring and confirms the assumption of many political analysts that the primary will advance to a runoff.
The same can be said about the Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat. According to the latest InsiderAdvantage poll, Mike Collins leads with 32% support, but Kemp’s supporter Derek Dooley is not far behind at 26%, followed by Buddy Carter with 21% support. As of this weekend, 18% of voters said they were still unsure.
Mr. Dooley had improved significantly in recent weeks and was hoping for a second-place finish that could lead him to a runoff and pull away from Mr. Carter just days before the election.
If one candidate does not reach 50% support, a runoff election will be held. This means that even if one candidate has a large lead over the other, if the final vote count is less than 50%, the top two candidates will enter the runoff on June 16th.
Mr. Bottoms has a big lead over the Democrats, but is that enough?
On the Democratic side, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has been leading the polls for months, and her name recognition in the state could be enough for Democrats to ignore her one-term Atlanta residency.
But rather than fighting her primary opponent, she may be fighting to woo undecided voters.
A poll conducted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this month found that 35% of Democratic primary voters were still undecided in the seven-person race. That’s just behind Bottoms’ lead of 39%, followed by Michael Thurmond, Jason Estevez, Jeff Duncan, Amanda Duffy, Ol Brown and Derrick Jackson.
Since leaving the mayor’s office, Bottoms has been endorsed by former President Joe Biden, who praised her work in the Biden administration.
His campaign is sticking to its message that Bottoms, Georgia’s first black governor and first female governor, is Georgia’s best hope for turning the state over in the midterm elections.
“Our campaign is gaining momentum at the right time because voters know Keisha will win no matter which Trump Republican emerges in the Republican primary and is the strongest candidate to win the Democratic gubernatorial race this November,” Bottoms campaign manager Rashad Taylor said in a statement after the release of the Insider Advantage poll.
While Bottoms may have a commanding lead when voting closes on Tuesday, he is still unlikely to reach the 50% majority needed to win, and either candidate who finishes second will advance to a runoff.
When are Georgia’s midterm elections?
Election Day in Georgia is Tuesday, May 19th. If the race requires a runoff, it will take place on June 16th.
To find out if you’re registered to vote, where to vote, and more, visit the Georgia Secretary of State’s My Voter Page.
Eileen Wright is an Atlanta Connect reporter for USA Today’s Deep South Connect team, covering midterm races in Georgia. X Find her at @IreneEWright or email her at ismith@usatodayco.com.
