Rich McCormick, an emergency room physician and former Marine, is likely headed to Congress.
He beat out attorney Jake Evans to win the Republican runoff in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, a conservative-leaning metro Atlanta seat. Evans was unable to translate backing from GOP stars such as former President Donald Trump and onetime U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich into a victory.
Instead, McCormick capitalized on name recognition he built as the Republican nominee in the neighboring 7th District in 2020. He lost that race to Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux and had originally signed up for a rematch against her this year. But then he switched to the 6th District after redistricting made the 7th solidly Democratic and the 6th solidly Republican. (Bourdeaux lost her primary fight last month to U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, who moved from the 6th to the 7th after redistricting.)
McCormick had plenty of endorsements on his own, including Republican Whip Steve Scalise, and he was also boosted by the Club for Growth, a conservative political committee that supported his campaign during both election cycles. Although he didn’t have Trump’s endorsement, his stances are in line with the former president’s “America First” platform.
McCormick has criticized vaccine mandates and falsely accused President Joe Biden of wanting to rig elections.
During an election night victory speech, McCormick preached party unity.
“We have to make sure that we include everybody in this party…we have to be inclusive of people that don’t always agree with us,” he said.
McCormick will face Democratic nominee Bob Christian in the general election.
Taylor Croft contributed to this report.
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