Democratic Senate Candidates Stress Importance Of Election

Raphael Warnock, running as a Democrat in the special election for the U.S. Senate, told Oconee County Democrats earlier this month at the party’s virtual meeting that the country is facing a number of crises and the election underway is a particularly important one.

The country is being called on “to figure out how we navigate our way through this,” Warnock said. “And I think that on moral and practical grounds, we’ve got to see that the only way to do it is to do it together.”

Ed Tarver, also running as a Democrat in the special election, had told the Democrats at their virtual meeting the month before that he considered this “the most consequential election of my lifetime” and asked for “support if we’re going to be able to set Georgia out on a new course.”

Speaking at that same meeting in September, Matt Lieberman, also running as a Democrat in the special election, said “It truly is no ordinary time,” the views and needs of Georgians are not being represented in the Senate, and the Senate is dysfunctional.

Lieberman promised, if elected, to offer a “a new politics of patriotism” to address these problems.

Eight Democrats are on the ballot in the nonprimaried special election to fill the unexpired term of Johnny Isakson, who resigned for health reasons, and the local Democratic Party heard from another of the four, Richard Dien Winfield, on Aug. 20.

The names of six Republicans are on the ballot, and the Oconee County Republican Party has heard from five of them: Kelly Loeffler in May, Wayne Johnson in June, Annette Davis Jackson in August, and Kandiss Taylor and Derrick Grayson in September.

Doug Collins, the sixth candidate, is scheduled to speak at the party meeting at 6:30 p.m. tonight (Monday) at party headquarters, 1050 Barber Creek Drive, off Mars Hill Road. He will be joined by Tim Burgess, incumbent Board of Education member seeking re-election, and James Chafin, running as an independent for District Attorney.

As of the end of voting on Saturday, 11,357 Oconee County voters had cast a ballot in-person in early voting. By the end of the day on Friday, another 4,512 absentee ballots had been received. So 15,869 of the county’s 31, 594 eligible voters, or 50.2 percent, already have cast a ballot.

For more on the story, with videos of the meetings at which Warnock, Tarver and Lieberman spoke, please go to Oconee County Observations.