Though two Democratic candidates appear to have ousted Georgia’s incumbent Republican senators in yesterday’s runoff elections, there was one GOP candidate on the statewide ballot who managed to get reelected: eighty-two-year-old Lauren “Bubba” McDonald Jr.
As of this morning, McDonald was well ahead in the vote count and appears to have won reelection to the Georgia Public Service Commission, on which he has served for 17 years. His opponent, Daniel Blackman, would have been the first Democrat to serve on the five-person commission in 15 years.
According to the New York Times, McDonald not only won his race but also managed to pull in more votes than either David Perdue or Kelly Loeffler did in their respective contests:
Perdue ran ahead of Loeffler by tens of thousands of votes, reflecting his slightly higher favorability rating, but in the end both candidates appeared on track to finish well behind the only other Republican on the ballot for statewide office, Georgia’s public service commissioner, Lauren McDonald Jr., known as Bubba, who was re-elected yesterday.
As of Wednesday morning’s tallies, McDonald had received a total of 2,214,057 votes, while Perdue had 2,194,578 and Loeffler had 2,176,048. It’s also worth noting that, at latest count, McDonald had received more votes than Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff, who at 2,211,603 is ahead of Perdue by about 20,000 votes and appears likely to win the seat.
His ability to run ahead of both incumbent Republicans is interesting, but perhaps not too surprising given the position he occupies. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Public Service Commission on which McDonald serves plays an important role in the lives of Georgians: “It oversees utility and energy issues and decides what Georgia Power and Atlanta Gas Light can charge consumers and businesses. It will determine how much customers will pay toward Georgia Power’s billions of dollars in overruns on the nuclear expansion of Plant Vogtle.”
McDonald’s win suggests that, while Georgia turned purple for this year’s presidential race and subsequent Senate runoffs, most of its voters retain conservative sympathies — especially in races that aren’t consumed by national politics and the ongoing controversies stirred up by President Trump.