Georgia runoff to decide state senator in a deep-red district where a Democrat made gains

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ALPHARETTA, Ga. (AP) — After a Democrat won 40% of votes in a special state senate election in a deeply conservative Georgia district, voters will decide Tuesday between her and the Republican who won the second most votes.

Debra Shigley and Republican Jason Dickerson are competing in a runoff after neither Shigley nor six Republicans won the majority in August.

The race has garnered national attention as Democrats hope to flip seats amid widespread frustration with Republican President Donald Trump’s policies. But with one Republican opponent instead of six, it's unlikely Shigley will win, and Democrats generally perform well in low-turnout races like the August special election. That’s especially true when their party isn’t in the presidency, noted Georgia Republican political strategist Brian Robinson.

Still, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin traveled to Georgia to campaign with Shigley on Saturday in Alpharetta, a bustling suburb 26 miles (42 kilometers) north of Atlanta.

The seat in Senate District 21, which is north of Atlanta, is vacant after Trump drafted the district’s former Republican state Sen. Brandon Beach to be treasurer. Beach won with more than 70% of the vote in 2024.

Republican Party leaders are now supporting Dickerson, an investment company president who came in second with 17.4% of the votes in August. He is self-funding a traditional conservative campaign with promises to lower taxes and support stricter immigration policies.

Shigley, a lawyer and small business owner who lives on a farm with her husband and five children, says she wants to lower the cost of living for working families. She ran in 2024 against Republican state House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones and lost.

Data from The Downballot tracking 40 special elections nationwide since Trump entered office shows that on average, Democrats performed 15.1 percentage points better than former Vice President Kamala Harris did as a presidential candidate in 2024. Republicans mostly kept their seats, but Democrats flipped a Pennsylvania state Senate seat in March and two Iowa state Senate seats in January and August.

Shigley and her supporters say more voters turned out in August because they are tired of the “chaos” driven by Trump's extreme policies, and they expect the same enthusiasm Tuesday. Local and state Democrats say regardless of the outcome, the rush of volunteers offers hope for broader grassroots organizing ahead of races coming up in 2026 for governor, U.S. senator and other offices.

Charles Bullock III, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, said it's still unclear whether races like Shigley's foreshadow broader wins in 2026. That will depend on whether Democrats flip more seats across the country and how voters feel about Trump next year.

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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.