Long-serving Democratic Congressman Sanford Bishop wins Georgia congressional race

By Sahar Akbarzai

Incumbent Democratic candidate Sanford Bishop Jr. has won his congressional district race in Georgia, beating Republican challenger Wayne Johnson.

Bishop received 56.27 percent of the vote, 175,057 votes, and Johnson received 43.73 percent of the votes, 136,019 votes, according to election results on the website for the Georgia Secretary of State.

Bishop has represented Congressional District 2 in Georgia for the past three decades, and will now continue to represent his district for another term in Congress.

District 2 covers middle and southwestern Georgia, which includes 27 counties and parts of another three counties, including Albany, Columbus and Macon.

Bishop has been in office since he was first elected in 1992 to the House of Representatives.

Johnson, a former U.S. Army veteran and entrepreneur, secured the Republican nomination after the Republican primary in May of this year, with 1,567 or 45.04 percent of the vote.

Voters headed to polling booths today in 2^nd Congressional District, where polls were open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., to not only vote for the presidency, but congressional and local offices as well. 

District 2 has a population of about 758,000 people and a median household income of about $48,475, according to DATA USA, an open-source website that collects and analyzes public US Government data.  

The two biggest demographics in the district are Black or African American (49.3 percent) and White (40.1 percent), DATA USA reports.

Record breaking early voter turnout was seen in Georgia this year, according to a press release from the Georgia Secretary of State.

As of November 2, 4,004,588 voters cast ballots either by voting early or absentee by mail, the release reports. With a 55.3 percent turnout, Georgian voters cast 3,761,968 ballots during Early Voting, and 242,620 ballots by mail, the Georgia Secretary of State says.

Ninety-two Georgia counties have exceeded 50 percent turnout, as of last Saturday, the release says. “This is unprecedented in Georgia history,” Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State said, according to the release.

This story was published with support from the election reporting fellowship at The Pivot Fund, a venture philanthropy organization empowering independent BIPOC-led community news.