Hanson defeats Bennett for Brookhaven-area House seat
Meagan Hanson, a Republican attorney, won a tight election Tuesday against Democratic Rep. Taylor Bennett for a Georgia House of Representatives seat.
Hanson's victory regains House District 80 for Republicans after Bennett, an attorney and former Georgia Tech quarterback, had won it in a special election last year. The district includes Brookhaven, Chamblee and Sandy Springs in DeKalb and Fulton counties.
Bennett lost Tuesday’s election by about 1 percentage point.
Bennett had defeated former Brookhaven Mayor J. Max Davis, a Republican, for the seat in August 2015 after the district’s previous representative, Mike Jacobs, became a DeKalb State Court judge.
The Republican-leaning district flipped parties again in Tuesday’s higher-turnout general election.
Hanson had won a Republican primary against Alan Cole in an election last July.
About the Author
Mark Niesse is an enterprise reporter and covers elections and Georgia government for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and is considered an expert on elections and voting. Before joining the AJC, he worked for The Associated Press in Atlanta, Honolulu and Montgomery, Alabama. He also reported for The Daily Report and The Santiago Times in Chile.
