It was a good night to be an incumbent in local elections across metro Atlanta.
Incumbent sheriffs in Fulton and county commission chairwomen seemed to win decisive victories in unofficial results.
That includes Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat, who has been at the center of multiple controversies and has even threatened to sue the county’s Board of Commissioners. Labat appeared to win handily over a write-in opponent after upending three opponents in May’s Democratic primary.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Feuding between Labat and some members of the county’s Board of Commissioners is likely to continue into a second term, given how frustrated they are with the sheriff for entering into spending contracts and then asking the county to pay the bills. Labat has said he plans to file a lawsuit against the board, which he accuses of illegally trying to “control and dictate” how his budget is spent.
Some criminal justice advocates are concerned about Labat leading the office for a second term, saying he has presided over too many inmate deaths at the Rice Street jail. For his part, Labat says his office has addressed overcrowding, reducing the number of people in his custody by about 1,000 since he took office in 2021.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Sheriffs in Cobb and Gwinnett counties also held wide leads over their challengers, too, with all precincts reporting.
In Gwinnett County, incumbent Sheriff Keybo Taylor held a lead of roughly 33,000 votes over challenger Mike Baker. In Cobb County, incumbent Sheriff Craig Owens held a lead of about 47,000 votes over his opponent David Cavender.
Taylor and Owens ran for second terms after a 2020 blue wave in both counties swept them into office. Both are the first Black sheriffs in their counties. They were also the first Democrats in decades to win their respective counties’ badges.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
And both have faced controversies.
The Georgia Attorney General’s Office investigated extortion allegations against Taylor after bail bond company owners claimed he revoked their licenses for refusing to donate to his 2020 campaign. The attorney general’s office ultimately closed the case without attempting to prosecute.
Owens was caught on body camera video last year calling armed deputies to a Burger King to help him dispute an order.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Commission Chairs
County commission chairwomen in Cobb and Gwinnett appeared to win easily Tuesday. Like the sheriffs, both Cobb chairwoman Lisa Cupid and Gwinnett chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson were swept into their seats during the blue wave elections.
Cupid, who was first elected as a commissioner in 2013, appeared to defeat Republican challenger Kay Morgan by about 40,000 votes, while Hendrickson held an even wider lead of about 71,000 votes over Republican John Sabic.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
County Commissions
Incumbent county commissioners in Fulton and Gwinnett counties appeared to cruse to reelection.
In Fulton, Republican incumbent Bob Ellis appeared to sneak by Democrat Megan Harris by about 8,000 votes with all precincts reporting. Ellis was elected to office in 2014 and served as vice chairman of the board of commissioners from 2017 to 2019 and again from 2023 to 2024.
In Gwinnett, incumbent Kirkland Carden held a lead of approximately 14,000 votes over opponent Tim Le in the District 1 race, while Jasper Watkins III appeared to win his race by 22,000 votes over challenger Bobby Howard.
Cobb Superior Court Clerk
Controversial Cobb County Superior Court Clerk Connie Taylor, a Democrat, held a commanding lead over former Cobb County Attorney Deborah Dance of about 64,000 votes.
Taylor won as the first Black superior court clerk in 2020 along with a ‘blue wave’ of Democrats that swept countywide offices in Cobb.
Taylor faced several controversies during her first term. In 2022, an AJC investigation reported that she took over $425,000 in passport fees, which clerks are allowed to take as personal income under Georgia law.
She then faced a GBI investigation after a whistleblower employee alleged Taylor ordered her to delete records instead of handing them over in an AJC request under the Georgia Open Records Act. The GBI’s investigation has been referred to the AG’s office for prosecutorial review.
In July, Superior Court Chief Judge Gregory Poole issued an emergency judicial order suspending certain deadlines and rules of the court due to faults within Taylor’s office causing extreme delays and issues in court processes. Taylor did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Dance previously said she came out of retirement to run for clerk after she heard about the issues plaguing Taylor’s office.
--- Staff reporters Alia Pharr, Sara Gregory, Reed Williams and Taylor Croft contributed to this report
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