Runoff elections in Georgia will determine the general election matchups for a handful of the nation's most competitive congressional races in November's midterm elections.
Here are key things to watch in the state today:
Trump tries again in Georgia runoffs
Former President Trump's biggest failure in a Republican primary to date came in Georgia, where candidates he supported failed to oust Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom Trump had been targeting for more than a year.
He gets another chance to gauge his influence on Georgia races Tuesday in runoffs for two House seats.
In the Atlanta-area 6th District, Jake Evans, the Trump-endorsed former chairman of the State Ethics Commission, faces Marine veteran and emergency room doctor Rich McCormick, who is making his second bid for Congress. In the 10th District, which stretches east from Atlanta to the South Carolina border, the GOP runoff features Trump's pick, former Democratic state Rep. Vernon Jones, against businessman Mike Collins, who is the son of the late US Rep. Mac Collins and recently earned Kemp's endorsement. Jones originally ran for governor, before switching to the House race with Trump's encouragement.
Will the Stacey Abrams slate succeed in Georgia Democratic runoffs?
An endorsement from Stacey Abrams is one of the most sought-after in Democratic politics across the country and especially in Georgia, where she'll square off in November with Kemp for a second time.
Abrams has endorsed in three Democratic primary runoffs for statewide offices Tuesday as she seeks to help shape the party's ticket this fall.
State Rep. Bee Nguyen, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, is Abrams' pick for secretary of state over former state Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler, who is Black and has said she believes support for Nguyen is the result of party leaders' efforts to diversify the Democratic ticket and appeal to more White voters in November. Dawkins-Haigler has the support of the three candidates who failed to make the runoff. The winner will take on Republican incumbent Brad Raffensperger and Libertarian Ted Metz, a former gubernatorial candidate, in November.
In the lieutenant governor race, Abrams is backing lawyer Charlie Bailey. He is running against Kwanza Hall, who served briefly as a US congressman after winning a special election in 2020 to replace the late Rep. John Lewis. The nominee will face Republican state Sen. Burt Jones, who has been endorsed by Trump.
Abrams has also endorsed state Rep. William Boddie for the Democratic nomination for labor commissioner over businesswoman Nicole Horn. Republican state Sen. Bruce Thompson awaits the winner in the fall.
A Black Republican seeks to flip Democratic-held Georgia district
National Republicans have rallied around Jeremy Hunt, a 28-year-old graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point and a Black candidate in Georgia's plurality Black and rural 2nd District, in the race to take on longtime Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop.
Hunt, who finished first in the May primary with 37% of the vote, faces Chris West, a 38-year-old attorney and former Georgia Air National Guard officer who is White. West is supported by some of the Republicans they faced in the primary. He has cast Hunt, a Fox commentator who recently moved to Columbus while taking Yale Law School classes online, as an outsider to the district.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has campaigned with Hunt, and the National Republican Congressional Committee listed him as an "On the Radar" candidate on its program for promising recruits. He is among a number of Black Republican candidates — which also includes Wesley Hunt in Texas, John James in Michigan and Jennifer-Ruth Green in Indiana — attempting to win seats and diversify the party's congressional membership this year.
Bishop has represented the Southwest Georgia district since 1993. Its large Black population and Bishop's status as a more conservative "Blue Dog" Democrat have made it one of the only rural Southern seats the party still holds. Bishop hasn't faced a truly competitive general election since 2010.
But Georgia's redistricting process made the seat slightly more competitive, and Republicans hope that with economic and historical factors at their back, a wave election would carry them to victory in the district where former Democratic President Jimmy Carter resides.
Here are more key things to watch in Tuesday's elections.
