Georgia runoff to decide short-term successor to John Lewis
From APNEWS.COM
ATLANTA (AP) — Voters in the Atlanta area were summoned back to the polls on Tuesday to decide who to send to Washington for a month to briefly fill the seat of the late civil rights legend John Lewis.
Former Atlanta City Council member Kwanza Hall and former Morehouse College President Robert Franklin are contesting a runoff election. The men finished first and second, but no one won a majority in a first round of voting in September among seven candidates.
The winner of the two Democrats will only fill the seat until Jan. 3, though. State senator and state Democratic Party chair Nikema Williams easily defeated Republican Angela Stanton King in November for a full two-year-term starting in January. Williams and King didn’t run in the special election.
The 5th Congressional District includes most of the city of Atlanta, as well as some suburban areas of Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties. Turnout could be light, after fewer than 31,000 people voted in September.
Lewis died at age 80 from pancreatic cancer in July after 34 years in Congress. He was the last survivor of the speakers at the 1963 March on Washington, when Lewis led the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. He was best kn... (Read more)
Submitted 1235 days ago
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