There’s an open seat in Congress on ballot in Columbus area elections. See results here

Mark Rice
·2 min read

A combined 13 candidates competed in the primary election Tuesday for two U.S. House seats to represent the Columbus area in Congress. Here are the results:

District 2: incumbent Sanford Bishop (D) of Albany, a former attorney, ran unopposed. He will compete in the Nov. 5 general election against one of these two Republicans: Wayne Johnson, a Bibb County businessman, and Chuck Hand, a Taylor County construction superintendent.

Johnson and Hand are the top two finishers out of four candidates in the Republican primary Tuesday, when none of them received a majority of the votes. So state law requires a runoff, which will be conducted June 18.

With an estimated 89% of the votes in the district counted as of 11:16 p.m., the Associated Press reported Johnson with 13,863 votes (44.5%) and Hand with 10,000 votes (32.1%).

The other candidates were Michael Nixon, a Colquitt County purchasing director, and Regina “Reggie” Liparoto, a Muscogee County substitute teacher. Nixon received 5,853 votes (18.8%) and Liparoto 1,475 votes (4.7%).

District 3: No incumbent was on the ballot because Drew Ferguson (R) decided not to seek re-election. This primary had contests among six Republicans and two Democrats.

Competing in the Republican primary were:

  • Jim Bennett, a retired Carroll County resident

  • Ray Blair, a Muscogee County insurance agent

  • Mike Crane, a Heard County general contractor and a former state senator

  • Mike Dugan, a Carroll County retired military veteran and a former state senator

  • Brian Jack, a Fayette County political adviser for Donald Trump

  • Philip Singleton, a Coweta County chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick and a former state representative.

As of 11:33 p.m., the Associated Press estimated 93% of the race’s votes as counted and reported Jack and Dugan advanced to a June 18 runoff. Jack received 32,779 votes (46.7%), Dugan 17,484 (24.9%), Crane 11,145 (15.9%), Singleton 4,726 (6.7%) and Bennett 4,051 (5.8%).

Competing in the Democratic primary were:

As of 11:33 p.m, the Associated Press estimated 97% of the race’s votes as counted and reported Keller won with 13,148 votes (53%) to for 11,625 (47%) for Almonord.