Despite Biden’s Lead, Georgia Republicans Held Onto Power In General Assembly

November 9th, 2020

In 2018, Republicans lost 13 state House and Senate seats. After that, Speaker David Ralston said he “resolved that night we would never, ever go through that nightmare again.”

David Goldman / Associated Press file

While at the presidential level, Joe Biden is leading in Georgia by more than 10,000 votes, in the state House and state Senate, Republicans held their majority.

Democrats flipped one state Senate seat and three state House seats, and Republicans flipped one in the House, for a net gain of three seats between the chambers, though votes are still being tallied in some races.

“The Democrats ran into the strong red wall that we built around our house,” said Speaker Pro-Tempore Jan Jones to the Republican caucus Monday. “We stand here today strongly and firmly in the majority.”

In 2018, Republicans lost 13 state House and Senate seats. After that, Speaker David Ralston said he “resolved that night we would never, ever go through that nightmare again.”

Ralston, who was reelected speaker Monday, led an effort to raise an unprecedented $5 million for Republican members, triple what the caucus had ever raised before.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same result. So you have to change,” said Jay Walker, director of House campaigns for the Republican caucus, in a previous interview.

Until this cycle, he said, there hasn’t really been a “need for an overall caucus strategy” since Republicans took the House in 2004. This time around, they raised funds, recruited candidates and tailored policy toward swing districts.

Ralston posited that the strategy worked: “The blue wave, when it got to this House of Representatives, was a squirt gun this week.”

“I’m very proud of our accomplishments. We had some districts where our candidates ran ahead of the president. They ran ahead of candidates for county offices and really kind of defied the odds,” he said. “And really, I think, that’s because we gave them a great message.”

Lauren Groh-Wargo, former campaign manager for gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and CEO of Fair Fight Action, pointed out that Georgia was the only state where Democrats managed to gain seats in both the state House and the state Senate.

Ralston, however, cautioned his caucus that now was not the time to stop working. “We cannot rest on the laurels of our success,” he said.

“In fact, we have a challenge to meet right now. We must set aside our own preferences that we had and come together to carry both David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to victory,” said Ralston, who had endorsed Loeffler’s opponent Doug Collins.