Georgia’s Competitive Districts: SD-8
As a reminder, this is a district breakdown in a series of posts on the competitiveness of Georgia legislative districts. For a review of the methodology and background information, please start here:
District Data
Demographics and Registration
Check out more details and great visualizations from Statistical Atlas:
Model Projections
**Updated 10/28/16 at 1:56pm**
Candidates
Ellis Black — Republican (Incumbent)
Website:
Fundraising:
As of September 30th filing:
Total raised — $110,310.70
Raised in this period — $68,550.00
Total spent — $15,941.17
Spent in this period — $8,912.94
Cash on hand — $94,369.53
Bio:
- First elected to SD-8 in 2014
- Served in the Georgia House representing HD-174 from 2001 to 2015
- Switched to the Republican party after the 2010 election
- Vice Chairman of the Senate Retirement committee
- Served on the Lowndes County Board of Education as Chairman
- Served on the Board of Directors for the Lowndes County Farm Bureau
- Graduate of the University of Georgia
Gregory Williams — Democrat
Website:
I couldn’t find an official website, and no website is listed on the Georgia Democrats list of candidates. However, here is the best information I could find:
Fundraising:
As of September 30th filing:
Total raised — $150.00
Raised in this period — $150.00
Total spent — $150.75
Spent in this period — $150.75
Cash on hand — ($0.75)
Bio:
Without an official website, I can’t be certain as to the biographical information, but this is the biographical information from the website above:
I was born in Hahira, GA, and graduated from Valdosta High School in 2000. I studied Pre-Medicine and African American Studies at Valdosta State University. I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management and a Master of Business Administration in Healthcare Administration from South University in Savannah, GA. As of October 2015, I am a Doctor of Public Health Candidate from Capella University. In 2013, I founded a local not-for-profit scientific research and community action organization where I am the President of the Board and Principle Investigator.
Analysis
There’s not much to say here. Mr. Williams has no chance of winning this election. I originally included this district as part of Category 1 as it was one of the top 5 competitive districts based on the HVI analysis. That this is one of the top 5 competitive senate districts once again shows how uncompetitive the senate districts are.
Hats off to Mr. Williams for deciding to put his name on the ballot, but we have to do more to support candidates like this. Without a simple campaign structure (basic website and fundraising), there is no chance for a victory. At least there is a democrat on the ballot, but we can do more.
The demographics don’t currently favor the democrats, and facing an incumbent who has been representing Lowndes County since 2001 will always be an uphill battle. Even so, there are only so many senate districts that are even this competitive. The Georgia Democrats need to start making progress in districts like this to have any chance of taking a majority.
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