Republican wins hotly contested state Senate runoff election

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - After finishing behind Democrat Debra Shigley in last month’s special election primary, Jason Dickerson held onto Senate District 21 for Republicans in Tuesday’s runoff.

Dickerson, president of a private investment firm, defeated Shigley, whose campaign brought out several national Democrats in the runoff’s waning days.

Dickerson won by 9,432 votes to Shigley’s 7,009 votes.

Dickerson’s victory keeps Republicans’ 33-23 advantage over Democrats in the state Senate. The Cherokee County resident replaces Brandon Beach, who was appointed U.S. Treasurer by President Donald Trump back in March.

Beach, a Republican, was first elected to the seat in 2013 and most recently won re-election last November.

On Aug. 26, seven candidates — six Republicans and one Democrat — vied for the seat. Shigley shocked many political reporters and pundits when she received a little more than 39% of the vote in a heavily Republican district.

Because no candidate got more than 50% of the vote, the election was set for a runoff.

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District 21 includes much of Cherokee County and a significant chunk of north Fulton County.

Beach is the first Georgian to serve as U.S. treasurer, a position which was created in 1775, before the country was founded. He has joined former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who now runs the Small Business Administration, and former Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, who now runs the Veterans Affairs Department, in Trump’s administration.

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