Sen. Cowsert Ask Oconee Republicans To Support House Candidates

State Sen. Bill Cowsert called on Oconee County Republicans to turn out to vote in the Nov. 3 election to make sure that Houston Gaines and Marcus Wiedower, who represent the county in the Georgia House, are sent back to Atlanta to protect the party during redistricting.

Cowsert, who, like Gaines and Wiedower, has Democratic opposition on the November ballot, was dismissive of the possibility that he might be defeated, but he said the districts Gaines and Wiedower represent are “close, very close” and “if we don’t get out and vote for them” they can be defeated.

Gaines is being challenged by Democrat Mokah Jasmine Johnson, an Athens educator and community activist, in the 117th House District, which includes the East Oconee, Bogart and Marswood Hall precincts in Oconee County as well as parts of Clarke, Jackson and Barrow counties.

Wiedower has opposition from Democrat Jonathan Wallace, a software developer who represented the 119th House district in 2017 but lost to Wiedower in 2018. The 119th includes the remaining nine Oconee County precincts and is about evenly split between Oconee and Clarke counties.

Cowsert was joined at the late August meeting of the Oconee County Republicans by John King, Georgia Insurance and Fire Safety Commissioner, and Annette Davis Jackson, one of six Republicans running in the non-primaried special election on Nov. 3 for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Kelly Loeffler.

King and Jackson joined Cowsert in attacking Democrats and presenting a bleak picture of what will happen if Republicans are not successful in the November election, with particular focus on civil unrest and policing.

Republican and Democratic candidates for the Oconee County Board of Education are meeting at 8 p.m. on Thursday in a virtual candidate forum. Details on how to register for the forum are listed in the right-hand column of the Oconee County Observations home page.

For more on this story, and details on how to register for the candidate forum on Thursday evening, please go to Oconee County Observations.