5th District Update

By John Ruch

Nikema Williams, state senator for District 39 and Democratic Party of Georgia chair, is the party’s replacement nominee for the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis in the 5th Congressional District race.

Before his death on July 17, Lewis had easily defeated a Democratic challenger in the June 9 primary and was scheduled to face Republican challenger Angela Stanton-King on the Nov. 3 ballot.

State law allowed the state executive committee of the Democratic Party to appoint a replacement nominee. A special election will be called to fill out the remainder of Lewis’s term, which runs into January. That election likely will be held on Nov. 3 as well, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office. It was not immediately clear whether Williams would run in that race also.

“We congratulate Nikema on this appointment and look forward to working with her in this new capacity as we uphold and build on Congressman Lewis’ legacy and elect Democrats across Georgia this November,” said Scott Hogan, executive director of the Democratic Party of Georgia, in a press release.

Hogan also cited Lewis’s legacy as a voting rights activist and acknowledged that the

“system was not perfect” with the requirement to appoint rather than elect a replacement nominee.

Williams was elected to the Georgia Senate in a special election in 2017 after Vincent Fort resigned to run in the Atlanta mayoral race. She was elected to lead the Georgia Democratic Party in January 2019, becoming the first Black woman, the third woman, and second African American to chair the party.

During her acceptance speech on July 20, Williams said she would carry on Lewis’ legacy of “good trouble,” noting her arrest at the State Capitol in 2018 during a voting rights demonstration.

An Alabama native like Lewis, Williams said Congress needed “someone who is not afraid to put themselves on the line for their constituents in the same way Congressman Lewis taught us to do.”

— Collin Kelley contributed to this report

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