Johnny Isakson, a towering figure in Georgia’s Republican Party for more than four decades, cruised to a third term in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday evening.
The onetime real estate company president bested Democrat Jim Barksdale, an Atlanta investment manager who was a political unknown before he entered the race in March, following a sleepy race that made few ripples during this acrimonious presidential election year.
Isakson, who will be 72 next month, managed to avoid what would have been a costly nine-week runoff because Libertarian Allen Buckley was not able to peel off a large enough percentage of the vote.
“I could never thank you enough for the support you’ve given me, but I can repay it by being the best man I can be in the United States Senate and deliver conservative principles to Georgia every single day,” Isakson, flanked by his family and prominent GOP allies, told hundreds assembled at a GOP watch party in Buckhead.
Barksdale conceded to Isakson in a brief phone call shortly after the Republican was declared the winner.
In a short speech to supporters in downtown Atlanta, Barksdale said he had been inspired by the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“It’s not so important to realize our dreams. What’s important is that we try,” he said. Barksdale added, “What matters is that our heart’s in the right place.”
Isakson commanded control of the Senate race from the moment he entered it in November 2014 with millions of dollars in his campaign bank account. After he demolished two little-known primary opponents in May, only at one point this summer did the race truly appear to be competitive.
Unlike some of his Senate colleagues, Isakson was able to avoid getting ensnared by the conflicts surrounding Donald Trump by keeping the Republican presidential nominee at arm’s length. He endorsed the New Yorker this summer but did not campaign with Trump’s surrogates and refused to answer for his missteps.
Isakson instead campaigned on his ability to cross the aisle in Washington when it counts, an approach that helped win him support from several prominent Georgia Democrats.
Barksdale, meanwhile, ran on a liberal, Bernie Sanders-tinged platform with a wink toward Trump’s anti-establishment cause that denounced free trade deals and the influence of money in politics.
A dark horse Senate candidate after several better-known Democrats passed on the chance to challenge Isakson, Barksdale started off awkwardly in public and was slow to get his campaign off the ground, which hurt him in the polls. He was largely ignored by national Democratic fundraising networks, making it hard for him to build name recognition despite his own deep pockets.
Buckley, meanwhile, sought at every turn to capitalize on the anti-Washington groundswell that brought Trump to prominence by framing Isakson as insufficiently conservative. But the three-time Senate candidate was at a significant financial disadvantage compared with Isakson and Barksdale.
“It’s discouraging,” Buckley said Tuesday evening. “I mean, I tried my best. There’s only so much I can do.”
He’s signaled that he likely won’t run for the position again.
An issue Buckley raised during the final month of the campaign was Isakson’s health. The Republican announced in June 2015 that he suffers from Parkinson’s disease and pointed to a statement from his neurologist that he is physically able to fully serve another six years in Washington.
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