The battle for the White House will get top billing, but on Monday hundreds of hopeful Georgia candidates filed paperwork to enter down-ballot races as both parties prepared for a November clash.

Prominent politicians and long shots crowded the halls of the Georgia Capitol to formally declare their candidacies at the beginning of the five-day qualifying period.

As always, it had its awkward moments. Incumbents looked over their shoulders for potential challengers; rivals stood paces from each other in crowded corridors. Some officeholders arrived early to ward off rumors about their possible retirement.

One of the first to arrive was U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat who has twice been drawn out of her suburban Atlanta district. Now she’s competing for a newly drawn majority-Black seat on the western edges of metro Atlanta, where she’s heavily favored over several rivals.

She was asked whether her ever-shifting districts could help bolster a case for statewide office if she runs for governor in 2026.

“I’ve always been asking God to expand my territory, and if he’s doing so in this way, I’m happy to go wherever I need to go and represent the good citizens of Georgia,” McBath said.

‘This is the year’

Qualifying is always marked by unexpected happenings that could shake up an election year. On Monday, one of the first landed shortly after the proceedings began.

That’s when former U.S. Rep. John Barrow, a moderate Democrat, announced he would challenge Georgia Supreme Court Justice Andrew Pinson, who was appointed to the seat by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2022.

Barrow was widely expected to seek a judgeship after his attempt to run for a seat on the state’s top court was scuttled in a legal ruling.

But some viewed Barrow, the Democratic nominee for secretary of state in 2018, as more likely to compete for an open spot on the state Court of Appeals rather than face an incumbent.

Barrow made clear he would target Pinson’s role as state solicitor general handling complex appellate court cases, including litigation involving Georgia’s anti-abortion law.

“We cannot expect Pinson to fight for our interests now that he’s been appointed to the only court that can stop what he helped start,” he said.

It also marked a new phase in the race to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson in his deep-red seat in west Georgia. Former state Rep. Philip Singleton was one of the first to join the large field competing to succeed him.

“Washington is broken, but the country is not,” Singleton said, adding that he’s not a “Spartacus” candidate who makes empty promises to the district’s conservative base.

“We’re the only candidate who can actually go and put their money where their mouth is and do those things,” he said.

Then there were the dozens of candidates lining up to challenge entrenched incumbents. Some are in for uphill battles. Democrat Elaine Padgett hopes to challenge Republican state Rep. Todd Jones in November. Jones won nearly two-thirds of the vote in 2022 in his Forsyth County-based district.

“This is the year because women are on the ballot — women’s health care, women’s rights. We need change in the House,” Padgett said. “We need to legislate for the majority of Georgia, not the few.”