Erick Allen and Jaha Howard Lead Democratic Primary for Open Seat on Cobb County Commission
The general election for Georgia's third most populous county was delayed from last year due to racial gerrymander litigation.
The Democratic and Republican primaries occurred today in Cobb County, Georgia to select candidates for the general election to fill two seats on the Board of Commissioners. These elections were originally scheduled to occur in 2024. However, they were delayed following litigation over whether the district lines drawn by the Board or by the Georgia state legislature should be used.
In Georgia, a candidate must obtain a 50%+1 majority in the primary to receive their party’s nomination for the general election. If no one achieves that, then the top two finishers will advance to a runoff - which is scheduled for March 11.
The Cobb County Board of Commissioners is currently split between 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans, with one vacancy. Democrat Jerica Richardson most recently held District 2. She was pushed out of her district due to residency requirements. She then ran an unsuccessful campaign last year against U.S. Representative Lucy McBath in the Democratic primary for the newly redrawn 6th Congressional District to the U.S. House of Representatives. That created an open contest to succeed her in this office.
Meanwhile, the Democratic incumbent in District 4 - Monique Sheffield - is running for re-nomination. She has been able to continue serving on the board until the general election is certified.
For District 2:
Erick Allen and Jaha Howard led the Democratic primary with 45.5% (1,669) and 42.7% (1,568) against Tracy Stevenson with 11.8% (432). 3,669 votes counted.
Alicia Adams won the Republican primary unopposed.
For District 4:
Incumbent Monique Sheffield won the Democratic primary with 72.1% (2,927) against Yashica Marshall with 27.9% (1,132). 4,059 votes counted.
Matthew Hardwick won the Republican primary with 70.7% (463) against Julien Grhas with 29.3% (192). 655 votes counted.
The general election to fill these seats in Cobb County, Georgia will occur on April 29, 2025. According to 2023 estimates, Cobb County is the third most populous county in Georgia - following its neighbors in the Atlanta Metro Area, Fulton and Gwinnett Counties.
For the second half of the 20th century, Cobb County was a reliable Republican county. Following population growth that brought racial demographic changes, the county flipped to Democrats in 2016 when Hillary Clinton took a plurality of the vote in the presidential contest. In 2018, Stacey Abrams become the first Democrat to win the county in the gubernatorial election since the 1986 landslide for Joe Frank Harris.
Cobb County continues to trend in favor of Democrats. Joe Biden carried the county with a 56.3-42.0 majority in 2020. That came alongside his victory of Georgia overall in the presidential contest. While the state went back to Republicans in 2024, Kamala Harris extended the Democratic edge in Cobb County with a 56.4-41.7 margin.
In 2020, Democrats gained majority control of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners for the first time in 36 years. With the elections of Chair Lisa Cupid, Richardson and Sheffield, the majority was also comprised of Black women for the first time.