by Maya Homan, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

August 30, 2025

The winds of change might be blowing through Georgia.

At least, that’s what Democrats are hoping for as both parties gear up for a competitive runoff election for an open state Senate seat. 

Georgia Democrats’ hopes were lifted when Democrat Debra Shigley easily secured the top spot in a seven-way race Tuesday and advanced to a runoff in a district that overwhelmingly reelected a Republican senator last year and helped send President Donald Trump back to the White House. 

Shigley, who was the only Democrat in the first round of voting, is now preparing for a tougher challenge: a head-to-head race with a Republican. Her opponent will likely be Jason Dickerson, who held a narrow 65-vote edge for second place over fellow Republican Steve West as the votes were tabulated Tuesday night. West could still ask for a recount. 

Shigley, a Milton mom, attorney and small business owner, is running on a platform of improving affordability for families, strengthening public school systems and expanding access to health care. Dickerson, a Cherokee County resident, is the president of a private investment firm and has cast himself as a political outsider who plans to prioritize property tax relief and improving access to affordable housing for seniors. They were among the seven candidates who sought to replace Alpharetta Republican Sen. Brandon Beach, who resigned from the Senate earlier this year after Trump appointed him to serve as the 46th U.S. Treasurer. 

The district, which includes parts of Fulton and Cherokee counties, is predominantly Republican, with Beach receiving upwards of 70% of the vote against a Democratic challenger in 2024. But Tuesday night’s turnout, in which Shigley garnered nearly 40% of the vote against Dickerson’s 17%, might be an early bellwether for Democratic enthusiasm in Georgia and across the country. In some precincts, Democratic support jumped by as much as 30 points.

Shigley, who said she is ramping up campaign efforts ahead of the runoff election, attributed her success to her willingness to stand up against Trump’s agenda, as well as growing frustration with the president’s policies.

“The fact that we were running against six very MAGA Republicans in the jungle part of this election, I think people were frustrated,” Shigley said. “They were frustrated with the status quo, and said as much, and were encouraged by the vision that I’m offering.”

The special election is what is known as a jungle primary, where instead of holding separate primaries for Democrats and Republicans, the candidates are all running against each other at once.

Dickerson’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment. But in an online post Wednesday, Dickerson tried to rally Republicans behind his campaign. 

“There is much at stake over the next month – the woke left is mobilizing and will pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into our community to try to flip this seat,” Dickerson wrote in the post. “Now is the time to unite the conservative movement behind our campaign and send these liberals packing once and for all!” 

Democrats also saw successes in other elections nationwide. An Iowa special election held the same night resulted in Democrats flipping a seat in a historically red district, breaking the Republican supermajority in the Iowa state Senate.

Nate Rich, the Cherokee County Democratic Party chair, said Tuesday’s turnout signals a growing frustration with Republican policies at both the federal and state level.

“People are looking for a way to make a meaningful impact and make a difference, and so they’re showing up to knock on doors and write postcards and phone friends,” he said. “Anything they can do to get Debra across the finish line is kind of an act of protest with our national politics.”

He also credited the high Democratic turnout in the historically red county to Shigley’s strength as a candidate.

“When you spend some time with her, it’s hard not to have this infectious energy and optimism,” Rich said. “And so I think that that really puts gas in people’s tanks.”

GOP chairs in both Fulton and Cherokee counties did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon cautioned voters against reading too much into the outcome in comments he made on the night of the election.

“This is an election taking place in the dead of summer,” he said. “People are returning from summer vacation. People don’t know there’s an election. They’re not used to voting at this time of year.”

According to University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock, Shigley will likely face an uphill battle in the runoff election, but added that the increase in turnout was a good sign for Democrats.

“The fact that the Democrat made it into the runoff, that’s probably significant,” Bullock said. “I suspect going into it, the expectation was it’ll be two Republicans, and it isn’t.”

Most likely, Bullock said, the Republican candidate will ultimately pull through as GOP voters consolidate around one candidate in the runoff election. But he said the competitive Republican race, which included attacks from Dickerson’s campaign aimed at former Commissioner Steve West, and a separate attack website aimed at Dickerson, could potentially dampen GOP turnout.

“What we’ve seen in past elections, if there has been a really bitter contest on the side of the majority party, that may make it difficult for the majority party to reunite as it moves to the next phase,” Bullock added. “This creates a situation in which the minority party can slip by and win a contest that, if you looked at it objectively beforehand, you’d say ‘we don’t have much of a shot here.’”

The top two candidates will face off for a second time on Sept. 23. One week of early voting will begin on Monday, Sept. 15, according to the secretary of state’s website.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.