ATLANTA — Voting concludes in the swing state of Georgia on Tuesday in competitive primaries for governor and a U.S. Senate seat that could decide control of the closely divided chamber.
The nomination contests will set the stage for two of November’s marquee races that could have long-lasting political implications far beyond the state’s borders.
Georgia voters will also pick nominees for U.S. House, the state Legislature and a long list of statewide offices, such as lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and state attorney general. Also on the ballot are nonpartisan judicial races, including two competitive contests for state Supreme Court.
Eight Republicans are vying for the nomination to succeed term-limited GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, including state Attorney General Chris Carr, health care executive Rick Jackson, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Jones has President Donald Trump’s endorsement, but Jackson is testing the value of the president’s backing by pouring more than $83 million into the race from his personal fortune.
The Democratic field includes former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former state Sen. Jason Esteves, state Rep. Derrick Jackson, and former state labor commissioner and former DeKalb County CEO Mike Thurmond.
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If no candidate receives a majority of the primary vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to a June 16 runoff.
Whoever succeeds Kemp will be in office in 2028 and could emerge as a key figure in the next presidential election if Georgia remains as competitive as it was in 2020 and 2024. Trump blamed Kemp for refusing to help overturn his 2020 loss in Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden, but the two reached a détente in 2024 ahead of Trump’s reelection victory.
In the U.S. Senate race, five Republicans are running to take on first-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is unopposed for renomination. The field includes U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins, as well as former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley, who has Kemp’s endorsement.
Carter has outraised and outspent the rest of the GOP field, but he, Collins and Dooley began the month on roughly equal financial footing with campaign war chests of about $1.7 million each.
An Ossoff reelection victory in November is critical to Democratic hopes of retaking the chamber.
The Atlanta-area counties of Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb and DeKalb are the most populous in the state and play important roles in both Democratic and Republican statewide primaries. Fulton and DeKalb tend to be more influential in Democratic primaries, while Cobb and Gwinnett tend to contribute a larger share of the total vote in Republican contests. Cherokee and Forsyth counties are also in the greater Atlanta metro area and tend to be bigger players in Republican primaries than in Democratic ones. The two counties went heavily for Trump in all three of his presidential campaigns.
Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:
When do polls close?
Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.
What’s on the ballot?
The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, agriculture commissioner, insurance commissioner, state school superintendent, labor commissioner, Public Service Commission, state Senate and state House, as well as nonpartisan elections for state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
Who gets to vote?
Any registered voter may participate in either primary. Voters in Georgia do not register by party.
How many voters are there?
As of Thursday, there were about 8.1 million registered voters in Georgia.
How many people actually vote?
In 2022, roughly 1.2 million votes were cast in the Republican primaries for governor and U.S. Senate, while about 730,000 votes were cast in the Democratic primaries.
How much of the vote is cast early or by absentee ballot?
About 51% of the 2022 Democratic primary vote and about 41% of the Republican primary vote was cast before primary day.
As of Thursday, about 696,000 ballots had already been cast in Tuesday’s election, including about 381,000 in the Democratic primary and about 305,000 in the Republican primary.
When are early and absentee votes released?
Counties release results from mail and early in-person at the start of the night. More than half the counties tend to release all or almost all their mail and early in-person results in the first vote update.
How long does vote-counting usually take?
In the 2022 primary, the AP first reported results at 7:13 p.m. ET, or 13 minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 3:29 a.m. ET with about 99% of total votes counted.
Georgia Governor
Democrats:
Keisha Lance Bottoms(D)
Olu Brown(D)
Amanda Duffy(D)
Geoffrey “Geoff” L. Duncan Jr.(D)
Jason F. Esteves(D)
Derrick L. Jackson(D)
Michael “Mike” Thurmond(D)
Republicans
Chris Carr(R)
Clark Headrick Dean(R)
Rick Jackson(R)
Burt Jones(R)
Gregg Kirkpatrick(R)
Brad Raffensperger(R)
Thomas “Tom” E. Williams(R)
Ken Yasger(R)
Lieutenant Governor
Blake Tillery(R)
Brenda Lynn Nelson-Porter(R)
David Clark(R)
Greg Dolezal(R)
John Flanders Kennedy(R)
Josh McLaurin(D)
Nabilah Aishah Islam Parkes(D)
Richard N. Wright(D)
Steve Gooch(R)
Takosha Swan(R)
Georgia Secretary of State
Candidates
Adrian Consonery Jr.(D)
Cam Thi Ashling(D)
Dana Barrett(D)
Kelvin King(R)
Penny Brown Reynolds(D)
Robert “Gabriel” G. Sterling(R)
Ted Metz(R)
Timothy “Tim” K. Fleming(R)
Vernon Jones(R)
State Attorney General
Bill Cowsert(R)
Bob Trammell Jr.(D)
Brian Strickland(R)
Tanya F. Miller(D)
State Agriculture Secretary
Katherine E. Juhan-Arnold(D)
Sedrick Kent Rowe Jr.(D)
Tyler Harper(R)
State Superintendent of Schools
Anton Anthony(D)
Fred “Bubba” Jackson Longgrear(R)
Lydia Catalina Powell(D)
Mesha Mainor(R)
Nelva Lee(R)
Otha E. Thornton Jr.(D)
Randell Eugene Trammell(R)
Richard Woods(R)
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