Open seat in northern Atlanta suburbs draws crowded field for special Georgia Senate election
Five candidates for Georgia state Senate District 21 participated in a candidate forum. From left, Lance Calvert, Stephanie Donegan, Brice Futch, Steve West and Brian Will. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder.
Georgia's state Senate will have a new face when lawmakers return to work next year, and seven people are vying to be the one posing for photos under the Gold Dome when the dust settles.
The spot opened in this off-year election after Alpharetta Republican Sen. Brandon Beach stepped down following his appointment to serve as U.S. Treasurer under President Donald Trump.
Election Day is scheduled for Aug. 26.
Senate District 21 includes much of Cherokee County and some of north Fulton County. With seven candidates on the ballot, it's likely that none will win an outright majority, and the most probable outcome is a runoff between the top two vote getters regardless of their party. The runoff is planned for Sept. 23.
Beach has been a stalwart ally to Trump – he was a leader in backing the false idea that the 2020 election was rigged and in pushing back against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' criminal case against Trump – and his former district rewarded him for his devotion.
Beach, who had served in the Senate since 2013, won just over 70% of the vote against his Democratic opponents in 2024 and 2018, the only times he faced a challenge from the other party. In 2024, Beach slightly outperformed Trump in the district, earning 81,481 votes, good for just over 70%, compared with Trump's 78,544, or about 66.5%, according to data from the Georgia Secretary of State's office analyzed by the Georgia Recorder.
So it's no surprise that six of the seven Senate hopefuls are running as Republicans. Five of them came to Canton Monday for a forum hosted by the conservative Americans for Prosperity and answered questions about their commitment to principles like smaller government and lower taxes.
Policy-wise, there was not a whole lot of space between the candidates at the forum. Each said they support legislation expanding school vouchers, reducing or eliminating the state income tax and reducing government regulations – though the candidates did express some disagreement on accomplishing those goals.
Lance Calvert is the founder and owner of a Canton-based maintenance and repair business for retail and restaurants who says he wants to help repair the country.
'God's going to fix this country, but he's got some people that he needs to participate with him. Trump got this thing started, whether he knew or not to begin with. But there's a lot of people who've been called forward, and they're going to answer the call, we're gonna do this. We're going to turn this country around.'
While some candidates proposed a gradual approach to reducing the state income tax, suggesting a state equivalent to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, Calvert advocated for a quick and direct approach.
'Eliminate it. We've got the money,' he said.
Income taxes account for about half of state funds, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, with sales taxes making up the second largest revenue source at about a quarter.
Stephanie Donegan, an entrepreneur and business strategist, said she's seen the effects of rising prices for things like health insurance and will support conservative fiscal policies she says will help people keep more of their income.
'I love Georgia, I love the people of Georgia, and what I've been seeing is that what the people in Georgia have been asking for and need, we have not been getting. I truly believe I am that person who can do it. I can clearly sit up here among a group of amazing men, but men nonetheless, and still have a voice,' she said.'
Responding to a question about outreach to Latino voters, Donegan, who is Black, said Republicans have not done enough to reach minority voters.
'If we're not careful, we're going to become a blue state,' she said. 'We are purple. We have a lot of people moving in here from blue states, from Philadelphia, New York, California, and if we don't get people to understand that they have a place in this party and why they should vote for these conservative values, we're going to lose this state, and that's going to be a shame.'
Brice Futch, a Cherokee County firefighter, said he'll push for expansive conservative policies, including replacing the state income tax with a consumption tax on goods and services purchased as well as expanding Georgia's school voucher program.
'I believe the next step is ESAs, education savings accounts,' he said. 'With that, the full amount of money that is given to the student over the life of the student would be loaded on a debit card. Parents would take their debit card and go to the education institution of their choice. If they decided they want to homeschool, they could also use that for homeschool curriculum as well. I also think it needs to apply to local funding and not just state funding.'
Georgia's current school voucher program is available to students in low performing schools and provides funds based on the state's share of the cost to educate that student, with the local share of the money staying in the local district.
Though Monday's discussion centered on economic policies, Futch also pledged to be a strong voice on cultural issues.
'I believe you have to look at broader moral values,' he said. 'If you want somebody that's going to stand up and introduce legislation to outlaw puberty blockers in 2026, I'm your guy.'
A ban on the drugs that doctors prescribe to some transgender youths to delay the onset of puberty has been proposed but hasn't passed. Georgia prohibits gender affirming surgeries and hormone treatments for transgender minors.
Steve West, the CEO of a metal fabrication company, stepped down from a seat on the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners to run for the seat.
'I want to run for the state Senate so I can go down to represent our district and cut taxes, bring business in, keep Georgia the best place to work, the best place to do business. You can tell I'm one that doesn't speak very well. But I love the county. I love District 21. I've been a life-long resident of this district.'
West, who was first elected to the commission in 2014, said he may not be the slickest orator, but he says he has a record of serving the community and proposed ending the state film tax credit.
'I'm not the guy that wants to have his picture put in the paper every day. I want to be the one that goes down and fights for District 21 on the issues that we're talking about tonight,' he said. 'I want to go down and look at doing away with funding Hollywood and putting that money back into the income tax. Take away the income tax, quit funding Hollywood. Let's look at deregulation so we can get projects done.'
Brian Will, an entrepreneur and author, resigned from a seat on the Alpharetta City Council to seek a place in the Senate.
For a Republican candidate, Will took several unorthodox positions on popular conservative programs, including the school voucher program and eliminating the state income tax.
In each case, Will supported the concept but found fault with how state leaders implemented them.
He said he supports the voucher project but said not enough people can take advantage of it and fully funding it would be too expensive. He said eliminating the state income tax and instituting a consumption tax would harm low-income Georgians who spend a greater portion of what they earn.
'This is why we need Georgia DOGE. We've got to go find out where the money went, who got it, for what, and how much, and then start cutting what we're spending and come back and lowering the taxes.'
Will also had different ideas on the bill sometimes billed as Georgia DOGE, the Red Tape Rollback Act supported by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, which passed the Senate this year but stalled in the House. He argued the proposal would create more red tape.
'Simply put, we have 150,000 rules and regulations in the state of Georgia. We have 100 different agencies. Each agency is going to be required to go through every single one of those rules to determine if that rule costs more than $3 billion to implement over a five-year period. Now I've done math on this. I've done some research on it. It'll take us about four years to get through every single rule to figure out if it's a good rule that doesn't cost money. The problem now is that the clock starts again. We have to do this every four years.'
One Republican candidate qualified with the Georgia Secretary of State's office to appear on the ballot but did not participate in Monday's forum.
Jason Dickerson did not respond to a request for comment, but according to his qualifying documents, Dickerson is a Cherokee County investment manager. On his campaign website, he describes himself as 'A conservative Republican businessman – not a typical politician.'
Attorney Debra Shigley is the sole Democrat in the race, who announced her candidacy last month.
Members of her party are likely hoping that a crowded Republican field will split the conservative vote and put her into a runoff at a time when turnout could be low and Democrats are riled up to vote.
In a phone call, Shigley said voters in the district are not happy with what they are seeing from the government and she's hoping to convince them she can help be a part of the solution.
'I know what it's like to be a hardworking Georgian raising a family and wanting to make sure that they have every opportunity in front of them. I have been raising my kids here in the district and I never thought I would get into this arena, but as a mom, as a lawyer, as a small business owner, I just felt I could not stay on the sidelines because what we're seeing here in our own community as well as in the state and even in our country is not going in the right direction, and something's got to change.'
Reporter Maya Homan contributed to this report
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