Georgia House of Representatives District 71 and South Carolina House of Representatives District 84 were up for special election October 1, 2019. Both races only featured Republican candidates, since neither had Democratic or third party candidates on the ballot. Both seats were previously held by Republican officeholders. The Georgia seat became vacant following David Stover’s resignation in June and the South Carolina seat became vacant following Ronnie Young’s death in May.
The Georgia House race was a general runoff election that featured two Republican candidates, Philip Singleton and Marcy Sakrison. Singleton and Sakrison advanced from the September 3 general election after no candidates received a majority of the vote. The general election featured four candidates–three Republicans and one Democrat. Singleton won the runoff with 2,558 votes (58.9%) to Sakrison’s 1,788 votes (41.1%).
The South Carolina general election featured one Republican candidate on the ballot, Melissa Oremus. No Democratic candidates filed for election, but six Republican candidates competed in a Republican primary on July 30. Oremus defeated Alvin Padgett in a Republican primary runoff in August. Oremus faced write-in opposition in the general election, winning 809 votes (97.4%) to 22 votes (2.6%).
As of October, 77 state legislative special elections have been scheduled or held in 24 states. Between 2011 and 2018, an average of 77 special elections took place each year.
Additional reading:
https://ballotpedia.org/South_Carolina_state_legislative_special_elections,_2019
https://ballotpedia.org/Georgia_state_legislative_special_elections,_2019
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