Barrow Journal

The three incumbent Barrow County commissioners up for re-election fended off Republican primary challenges Tuesday by convincing margins.
District 4 commissioner Isaiah Berry defeated challenger Derek Cox, 427-257, garnering 62.4 percent of the vote. In District 5, commissioner Billy Parks won over challenger Debbie Reid with 71.1 percent of the vote (652-265), and in District 6, commissioner Ben Hendrix held off challenger Deborah Lynn with 58.8 percent of the vote (596-418).
Barrow County voters also overwhelmingly voted down an advisory referendum that, if approved, would have established a commission to spend up to $100,000 to study the effects of possible consolidation of county government and the municipal governments located wholly within the county (Winder, Statham, Bethlehem and Carl). That measured failed 70.9 to 29.1 percent (4,439-1,822).
Berry, Parks and Hendrix are virtual locks for re-election in November as they will not face any Democratic opposition.
In other contested races, state Sen. Frank Ginn of District 47 won 69.5 percent of the vote in Barrow County and had a commanding lead of 71 percent over Republican challenger Scott Howard district-wide with 50 percent of the vote in.
Barrow County Republicans backed Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle for governor by a narrow margin over Secretary of State Brian Kemp (1,730-1,706. or 34-33.5 percent). Hunter Hill had 715 votes, followed by Clay Tippins (637) and Michael Williams (303). County Democrats went with Stacey Abrams over Stacey Evans (69.9-30.1 percent). Those results were reminiscent of the statewide tallies as Abrams won convincingly over Evans, and Cagle and Kemp were trending toward a runoff with 71 percent of the statewide vote in as of 10:20 p.m.
Republican U.S. Rep. Jody Hice of District 10 also carried his district and Barrow County convincingly over a pair of primary challengers. Democrat Tabitha Johnson-Green carried Barrow County over Chalis Montgomery and Richard Dien Winfield and had over 56 percent of the district-wide tally with 64 percent of the vote in as of 10:20 p.m.
Turnout in Barrow County for the primary was 14.58 percent as 6,545 out of 44,903 registered voters cast ballots.
See full coverage in the May 23 edition of the Barrow News-Journal.