State Senate victory in Gwinnett lifts Democratic turnout hopes for midterms

Democrats are hoping last week’s narrow victory in a Gwinnett County state Senate special election will have implications for November.

Democrat Adrienne White defeated GOP opponent Aizaz Shabaz Shaikh for the District 7 seat vacated by former Democratic state Sen. Nabilah Parkes in March. Parkes resigned to run for higher office.

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Credit: Courtesy Adrienne White

Credit: Courtesy Adrienne White

The district, which stretches from Peachtree Corner to just north of Lawrenceville, has been comfortably Democratic since 2022, but Democrats worried the seat would flip to Republicans because the race would be decided in last week’s primary runoff election. Democratic voters didn’t have a governor or U.S. Senate runoff on their ballot to incentivize voters to show up like Republicans did.

Instead, they turned to grassroots organization: door knocking, phone banking and even offering rides to the polls. And it worked.

White won by a 2-point margin, beating Shaikh by just under 400 votes.

“I’m extremely satisfied, excited, euphoric and so proud of the team that was put together,” said Gwinnett County Democrat Kathleen Carey, who helped with canvassing ahead of the election. “I have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this.”

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Expecting low turnout from Democrats, Gwinnett County Republicans had a rare opportunity to win the seat back but fell short by 374 votes. But Republican state Rep. Scott Hilton, who lives in the 7th district, does not see this as a loss.

“I view last night as a win for Republicans,” he said Wednesday. “We outperformed in a Kamala (Harris) +14 seat against a serious investment from the Democrat side in trying to hang on to that seat.”

Hilton thinks they may have another chance of flipping the seat come November.

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White will serve the district for the remainder of the year. Shaikh is back on the ballot for the November general election, but he will face Democratic state Rep. Ruwa Romman. The winner of that matchup will serve a full two-year term beginning in January.

With Shaikh getting to continue the momentum from his already established campaign, along with having name recognition on the ballot, it might just be the leg up that Gwinnett Republicans need, Hilton said.

For Gwinnett County Democrats Carey and John Davis, this special election was the most essential race on the runoff ballot, as it decided who would represent them during Georgia’s special session that convened Wednesday. Lawmakers were set to redraw political maps for 2028 until House and Senate Republicans nixed those plans hours before the session.

However, Democrats said the GOP could still take up redistricting after the November elections.

Since Republicans already have a majority in the Legislature, Gwinnett County Democratic Party Chairman Curt Thompson said having a Democrat in the seat won’t change much in the session.

What it really boils down to is optics, he said. Keeping the seat in Democratic hands signals “how much turnout matters as far as November goes,” he said. “It’ll be a huge reminder.”

Davis, who also lives in House District 99, knows all too well the importance of turnout. In 2024, Democrat Michelle Kang came just 621 votes short of GOP opponent Matt Reeves for that state House seat. Kang and Reeves will battle it out again in November.

“It is a very blue district,” Davis said, describing the loss as “a fluke” caused by low turnout.

Despite being excited about the special election results, Davis remains concerned about redistricting — whenever it may happen.

“I’ve got a pit in my stomach,” he said. “The governor wants to put all of us in the back seat of the bus again. He wants to get rid of all the minorities in voting by gerrymandering.”

Gov. Brian Kemp added redistricting to the special session agenda in response to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in April, which significantly weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

“We’re trying to build a real ground swell here in Duluth and Gwinnett County because we do have the numbers,” Davis said. “We’ve just got to keep ourselves organized and focus on getting every voter to the polls.”

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