Georgia’s sitting Republican congressmen won their party’s nominations Tuesday, adding more doubt about the strength of the anti-incumbent sentiment that has gripped American politics on the right since the rise of Donald Trump.
Five Republican congressmen appear to have survived Tuesday’s vote, according to unofficial results. The incumbents’ victories mirrored the national trend: Only one incumbent member of Congress has lost a primary election so far this year, despite protestations of many that Trump has electrified the Republican base to rise up against the Washington establishment.
Three Republican primaries have dominated the news: the 3rd, 9th and 11th. In the 3rd, seven Republicans and two Democrats were vying to replace Lynn Westmoreland in Georgia’s only open congressional contest. That race was too close to call as of press time but appeared to be a three-man race between dentist Drew Ferguson, state Sen. Mike Crane and businessman Jim Pace.
In the Republican primaries for the 9th and 11th districts, challengers worked for weeks to paint incumbents Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, and Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, as establishment lackeys unworthy of representing their conservative districts.
Collins had four primary opponents, including former U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, but the incumbent appeared to cruise to victory. With no Democrat running, Collins’ win would grant him re-election for two more years.
"Tonight the voters, the people of the 9th District said, 'Yes Doug Collins, you are one of us,' " Collins told supporters in Gainesville. "We are the 9th. We are the values of North Georgia."
Loudermilk also had four opponents in the 11th District primary. The freshman lawmaker, like Collins, has taken heat over votes for Speaker John Boehner and for a trillion-dollar spending bill in 2015. Voters, however, appeared willing to give both another term in office.
In an election year where anti-establishment candidates such as Trump and Bernie Sanders routinely speak before crowds of thousands and pundits across the land predicted voters would target Washington with their ire, incumbents continue to dominate.
Loudermilk said even he was a little surprised by his own margin of victory.
“A lot of times you can tell, but with the way things were this time with the Trump revolution going on and so many new voters out there, it was hard to get a good sense of it,” he said. “This big of a win? Yeah, I was a little bit surprised.”
With four opponents, Loudermilk said his campaign worked as hard as possible in hopes of avoiding a runoff.
“We made sure the truth was out,” he said. “We just wanted to make sure personal contact was done with voters.”
Avoiding runoffs not just gives incumbents relief. It sends a message to possible future opponents that the incumbent is strong, said Andra Gillespie, a political science professor at Emory University.
Gillespie suggested the tough primary races and potential runoffs are in some respects the result of the state’s congressional districts being drawn to heavily favor one party.
Being drawn into a runoff is “never something that a candidate would want to have happen,” Gillespie said.
“But in the grand scheme of things, whoever gets past the runoff is assured being able to win the congressional seat,” Gillespie said. “So I think that this really is evidence that when you have districts that from a partisan standpoint aren’t particularly competitive, it really underscores the importance of the primary election.”
Elsewhere Tuesday, incumbent Republicans Austin Scott (8th District), Rick Allen (12th) and Tom Graves (14th) also had primary opponents. All three were well on their way to victory. Greg Duke defeated Diane Vann in the 2nd District GOP primary, giving Duke a November date with incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop.
Two Democrats battled for their party’s nomination in the 12th, where Patricia McCracken defeated Joyce Nolin. Also on the Democratic side, Tamarkus Cook was roughly even with Angela Pendley in early returns for the 3rd District nomination.
Meanwhile, U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter, R-Savannah, Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, Jody Hice, R-Bethlehem, John Lewis, D-Atlanta, Tom Price, R-Roswell, David Scott, D-Riverdale, and Rob Woodall, R-Lawrenceville, had no primary opposition. Carter, Hice and Scott also have no general election opponent.
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