We Didn't Win Every Race, but We Moved the Numbers

3 hours ago

6 min read

Election night looks like a scoreboard, with a winner and a loser in each race. If that's all you look at, you'll miss what happened across North Georgia on November 3. Some of our candidates won. Many didn't. Almost all of them gained ground in places that were written off as safe two years ago, and that's the story worth telling.

What This Election Showed Us

When Democrats ran, the numbers moved, often by a lot. Kori Simmons improved on the last Democrat in Senate District 21 by about six points. James Shade gained about ten points in two years in House District 22.
Candidates who came back a second time did better. Danielle Bell, Maggie Goldman, and James Shade all ran again after losing, and two of them won.
The empty seats are where we're losing the most ground. Steven Rogers got 44.5% for a county commission seat that hadn't had a Democrat on the November ballot since at least 2018.
The next chances are coming soon. Georgia's city elections are in November 2027, and most county offices are on the ballot in 2028.

Senate District 21

Last year Debra Shigley ran in the special election for this seat with national backing, including a visit from the DNC chair. She earned about 38.5% in a low turnout runoff, with roughly 12,000 votes.

This year Kori Simmons (https://korisimmons.com) ran with a fraction of the party support Shigley got. He earned 35.7% with 33,352 votes, nearly three times as many as she did. In 2024 the Democratic challenger for this seat got 29.65%, so Kori improved on that by about six points. In the Fulton part of the district he got 47.27% and came within about five and a half points of the incumbent. In the Cherokee part, the Democratic share rose from about 22% in 2024 to almost 28%.

Kori ran a grassroots campaign without the attention Shigley got, and he still moved the district. Imagine what's possible when candidates like him get the backing they deserve.

Cherokee County Commission District 4

Steven Rogers, a first time candidate from Towne Lake, ran against incumbent Corey Ragsdale and earned 12,999 votes, or 44.5%. Ragsdale kept the seat with 55.5%.

In 2018 and 2022, Ragsdale had no opponent in November, so voters in this district had no choice in the general election. This year Steven gave them one and came within about 3,200 votes. He won the mail ballots outright and stayed close in early voting. His share was far above the 30% Kamala Harris got countywide in Cherokee in 2024.

Nobody had tested this seat in years. Steven showed it's closer than anyone assumed.

The Close Calls

Several races in our region came down to a few points.

In House District 22, James Shade came within 273 votes of incumbent Jordan Ridley, 49.5% to 50.5%. He ran against Ridley in 2024 and got 39.5%, so he gained about ten points in two years. In Senate District 32, Michael Hettig got 49% against Kay Kirkpatrick. In House District 46, Dumont Walker got 48.3% against John Carson. In House District 47, Lindsay DeFranco (https://lindsayforga.com) came within single digits for an open seat. In Senate District 56, Patrick Thompson got about 46% against John Albers.

The same pattern showed up in counties that rarely see competitive races. In Forsyth, Shuchita Patel earned 41.6% for County Commission District 3, and Vishal Srivastava earned 45.9% for Board of Education District 5. In Bartow, Willie Coombs earned 37.2% for an open Board of Education seat, and Jon Ossoff got over 35% countywide in a county Donald Trump carried with 75% two years ago.

Every one of these seats is more competitive today than it was before these candidates stepped up.

The Wins

When the margins close, seats start to flip, and some did this year.

Danielle Bell (https://www.danielleforgeorgia.com) flipped House District 44 by beating Don Parsons, who'd held the seat for about 30 years. She ran against him in 2024 and got 43.1%. This time she came back and won. Maggie Goldman flipped Fulton County Commission District 1 in her rematch with Bridget Thorne. In 2022 she lost that race by 394 votes. Micheal Garza beat three term incumbent David Chastain for Cobb Board of Education Post 4, which gives the board a Democratic majority.

Two of these wins came from candidates who lost the first time and ran again. A close loss is often the first step toward a win.

The Floor Is Rising

In Cherokee, Jon Ossoff got almost 40% countywide this year. In 2022, Raphael Warnock got about 29% there. That ten point jump in four years is the kind of movement that turns safe seats into competitive ones.

Where We Still Have Work to Do

Too many races had no Democrat on the ballot. In Cherokee, that included the Board of Commissioners Chair, Commission District 1, four Board of Education seats, and the Solicitor General. Pickens County's commission and school board races had no Democrat either. Each of these is a race where voters had no choice and nobody made the case for a different direction.

Steven Rogers showed what happens when someone steps up for a seat that's been left empty. When we run candidates, they get votes. When they get votes, the margins move. When the margins move enough, we win.

Running for office also gives a candidate a platform, and Steven used his. He talked with voters about putting people over profits and reining in developers, issues that rarely get a public hearing when an incumbent runs unopposed. Nearly every Democratic and progressive candidate on our ballots this year did something similar. They used their campaigns to educate voters, raise issues that had been ignored, and show their neighbors what different leadership could look like. That work matters whether a candidate wins or loses, and it makes the next campaign stronger.

Our Next Move

The next chance comes in 2027. Georgia's city elections are on November 2, 2027. City races don't carry party labels, so a progressive neighbor can run on the local issues people already talk about, like housing, traffic, water, schools, and how growth gets approved. In 2023 and 2025, qualifying for city races in our area took place in the third week of August.

Several seats on that ballot had no contest last time. In Alpharetta, the mayor and three council posts went uncontested in 2023. In Smyrna, the mayor and all seven council wards are up, and four of those wards had no challenger in 2023. Kennesaw's mayor ran unopposed in 2023, and Mableton elects its mayor and three council districts. In Canton, the mayor and three council seats are up. Two of those council seats had only one candidate in 2023, and the third was decided by 19 votes. Woodstock's council seats for Wards 2, 4, and 6 are on the ballot. In Jasper, the mayor and three council posts are up, and Post 3 had no challenger in 2023. In Talking Rock, the 2023 election was cancelled because nobody ran against anyone.

Then comes 2028, when most county offices are on the ballot. In Cherokee, the sheriff, clerk of superior court, tax commissioner, coroner, surveyor, and district attorney all ran in 2024 without a single opponent in the primary or the general. In Bartow, the sole commissioner, sheriff, tax commissioner, clerk, coroner, district attorney, two school board seats, and State Senate District 52 had no Democrat in 2024. In Forsyth, the sheriff, clerk, tax commissioner, coroner, probate judge, district attorney, and Commission District 2 had no Democrat that year. In Pickens, no Democrat ran for any county office in 2020 or 2024, and State Senate District 51 had no Democrat in 2022 or 2024. Cobb Democrats hold every countywide office, and the three Republican school board seats up in 2028 were won in 2024 with 52 to 55 percent. The Cherokee seats that had no Democrat this year come up again in 2030.

In 2024 and 2026, qualifying for county and legislative races took place in the first week of March. A campaign for sheriff or school board takes most of a year to build, so the people who'll be on the 2028 ballot are making their decisions over the next several months.

How You Can Help

Running is one way to help, and there are many others. You can tell us which seat in your city or district matters to you, help us find a neighbor who'd be good at the job, host a house meeting, knock doors for someone running for the first time, or help register voters. NGA CAN volunteers across all six counties are building the list of open seats and the people willing to fill them. If you've ever thought about running, or you know someone who'd be good at it, we'd like to hear from you.

Keep the Pressure On

Not every candidate we supported won this time. These numbers still show that people across our six counties are paying attention, showing up, and ready for change. We need to keep the pressure on our elected officials, keep recruiting candidates for every race, and keep showing up between elections, at commission meetings, school board meetings, and in our neighborhoods.

Thank you to every candidate who put their name on a ballot this year. Thank you to every volunteer who knocked a door or made a call, and to every voter who showed up.

We'll see you at the next one.