Leo Smith Announces for Senate Seat Being Vacated By Hunter Hill
Leo Smith, who served as the Georgia Republican Party’s Minority Outreach Director, has announced on Facebook that he would seek to be Senator Hunter Hill’s successor to serve the constituents of Georgia’s 6th State Senate District. Senator Hill, as you know, is running for the Republican nomination for governor.
So far, Smith is one of the first Republicans to publicly declare his intent and file paperwork to become the next Senator from the 6th. Expect others to express interest in the near future. Feel free to speculate who those people, both Republicans and Democrats, will be in the comments.
Update: Earlier, I stated that Leo Smith was the first person to enter the race. That was not correct (thanks to a tip sent in) as there are three Democrats who have filed their paperwork to run for SD-6: Jennifer Jordan, who has raised over $130,000 so far, Nigel Sims who has raised $500, and Jaha Howard who ran in 2016 and raised over $82,000 this quarter. We have been told that Marietta attorney Matt Bentley has declared to run as a Republican, but he has yet to file paperwork (as of now) with the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission. As with normal editorial policy, we regret the error and blame others.
About Author
nsmith
Father. IT Geek. Former 14th District GOP Chairman (2015-2017). Former Walker GOP Chairman (2009-2013). Resident of Chamblee. American. Georgian. Conservative.
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Beth Beskin makes the most sense. She originally ran in the Senate 38 spot but has since been redrawn into Senate 6. Certainly a more favorable district to someone that hugs the center as Beskin does.
Hi there, just wanted to correct some misinformation. There are actually three other candidates who have actually filed with declarations of intent to run with the Georgia Ethics Commission and another candidate who has not filed yet. Jennifer Jordan, a trial attorney who is running as a Democrat, was the first candidate to announce about six weeks ago in May. She disclosed over 130K in contributions last week from almost 200 Georgians. https://www.jen4ga.com https://www.facebook.com/Jen4Ga/
There are two other Democrats and another Republican in the race all who just announced publicly within the last three weeks.
Thank you, I’ve updated the post. So far, only Jordan, Sims, and Smith have filed paperwork with the Georgia Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission.
This was the closest State Senate contest last year, Hill winning by just a 52-48% margin, losing badly in the Cobb portion of the district (which favors Democrats) while winning handily in the Republican portion over in Fulton (Buckhead and Sandy Springs). This basically was the seat that gave Republicans a supermajority (two-thirds of the Senate) in the 2012 election cycle. The district often favors Republicans, but not usually overwhelmingly—Romney got just 53 percent here in 2012 and Senator Perdue took just 52 percent in the district against Nunn in 2014. However, Clinton won the district by 15 points last November, doubtless a reaction against Trump (who lost badly to Rubio in the district in the Republican presidential primary). It is not a “Bible-Belt” district, for instance voting against “personhood” (an advisory question in the 2012 GOP state primary favored by pro-life groups) and widely in favor of Sunday retail alcohol sales that year, but neither is it a “soak the rich” or “higher taxes” district either (measures like property tax relief and a reduction to the state income tax are no-brainers here). Expect a pricey contest next year.