House District 7 voters will choose between five Republicans in Tuesday’s special election to fill the seat left vacant by the late Speaker David Ralston. The leading candidates include Ralston’s widow, Kemp-endorsed Sheree Ralston, and radio host Brian Pritchard, who is running further to the right.
Ralston has also announced endorsements from the Chamber of Commerce, and has emphasized her work on mental health, while Pritchard is emphasizing his grassroots appeal and resistance to Kemp and establishment Republicans.
Republican Attorney General Chris Carr’s office has filed paperwork alleging that Pritchard illegally voted nine times while serving a felony sentence in a forgery and theft case, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But Atlanta Tea Party President Debbie Dooley said that was part of an effort to keep Pritchard from winning the election.
“This is just about the Chamber of Commerce and establishment having a puppet under the gold dome that will vote the way they’re told to vote, and Brian Pritchard will not do that,” she told The Star.
“Chris Carr needs to stop pointing out and investigating so-called accusations about Brian Pritchard. All that stuff was over [many] years ago, and Chris needs to start investigating that police cam and election in fraud in Georgia that took place in 2020,” she said.
In December 2020, Pritchard interviewed Speaker Ralston after then outgoing-President Donald Trump tried to pressure the Speaker to hold a special session to review the state’s presidential electors; Ralston said there was a lack of evidence of fraud.
Other candidates in the race include banker Johnny Chastain, Navy veteran Justin Heitman, and Gilmer County GOP Chair Richie Stone.
Pritchard needs strong grassroots turnout in the likely low-turnout special election, but that calculation is complicated by the three other candidates in the race. If no candidate pulls a majority in the election, it will go to a runoff between the top two candidates.
“Every single thing has been manipulated to try to make sure Sheree Ralston wins, even to the point, and I’ll discuss this Wednesday, but even to the point of other candidates being in the race, okay. I’ve been in politics a long time and I know when a candidate is in the race for the block, when the candidate is in the race to try to take votes here,” Pritchard said Monday on Voice of Rural America.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Brian Pritchard” by BKP4GA. Photo “Sheree Ralston” by Sheree Ralston. Background Photo “Georgia State Capitol” by Ken Lund. CC BY-SA 2.0.
