The race for a state Senate seat representing parts of Forsyth, Fulton and Gwinnett counties has turned contentious, with both candidates saying their opponent represents the worst in partisan politics.
It was already a competitive legislative seat, with Democrats looking to Forsyth as an opportunity to expand their coalition and Republicans aiming to maintain the county as a GOP stronghold. But in recent weeks, the animosity has become even more pronounced as negative campaign mailers have struck a chord.
Peach State Values, a political action committee that supports Senate Republicans, sent out mailers earlier this month claiming Ashwin Ramaswami solicited private information about students at a local high school.
“If you or your teenager is approached inappropriately by creepy Ashwin Ramaswami, call the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office,” one campaign mailer states, according to images reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Ramaswami called the mailers “antidemocratic fearmongering” and said he had requested students’ names to organize a voter registration drive and find ways “to get more young people involved in politics.”
Still said he didn’t review the mailers before they went out because of rules that bar campaigns from coordinating with PACS. But he said Ramaswami’s story has changed multiple times and called his request for teenagers’ names and contact information “creepy and weird.”
“Adults do not need to be talking to minors about anything unless there is parental consent,” he said. “I have three teenage daughters, so I have different alarm bells going off in my head than someone else may have.”
After the mailers went out, Ramaswami said he received a death threat that he reported to law enforcement.
According to a report filed with the Johns Creek Police Department, Ramaswami received a threatening text from an unknown number in reply to a mass voter outreach message. The text stated, “I will kill you and your whole family.”
In a news conference Ramaswami held Tuesday, he said the threat had shaken him.
“We’ve had to fear for the safety and security of us and that of all people, both young and old, working across my campaign,” he said. “Politics should never be about that.”
Aside from his safety concerns, Ramaswami said the ads are racist because they darkened his skin.
“Shawn Still represents the worst of American politics,” he said.
Ramaswami demanded Still issue a “public and formal apology and retraction of this misleading and inflammatory political mail and digital advertisements.”
Still said he condemns any political violence, but he said he did not believe the mailers ever called for violence and did not denounce them.
Still said that Ramaswami’s campaign sent campaign flyers with a doctored version of his mug shot from when he was charged in Fulton’s election interference case. He also said supporters of Ramaswami sent out an ad that claimed he was killing Georgia women through his legislative votes, a reference to Still’s position on reproductive rights that he said upset his 13-year-old daughter.
Georgia’s 2019 restrictive abortion law was passed before Still was elected to office, but he said he supports the law as is.
“I am of the opinion that we don’t need to change any laws of what we currently have,” he said. “I believe our heartbeat bill (House Bill 481) is the right, measured approach for this with the exceptions that it has.”
The mailers crossed the line, he said.
“It makes my blood boil as a father, as a parent, as a businessman, but just as a human,” Still said. “This is the level of extremism that he has brought into this campaign, and the hypocrisy that he stands under is truly laughable and I think has set a new standard of how low someone can go in a campaign.”
The hostility started with Still’s indictment in 2023, alongside 17 others, including former President Donald Trump, who is accused of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential vote in the state. Still faces multiple felony charges involving his participation as a Republican elector in Georgia who cast Electoral College ballots for Trump even though Joe Biden had won the state. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“I maintain my innocence that I had no ill intention. I was not part of any conspiracy,” Still said Thursday in an interview with the AJC.
Ramaswami said the indictment propelled him to enter the race, and he has used it as evidence for why voters should reject Still at the ballot box.
“When I saw the Shawn Still indictment, I reached out to the Senate Democratic Caucus,” he said. “I was like, ‘What’s going on? This seems like a competitive seat. Is someone running here?’ And I realized that Democrats were looking for a strong candidate who could raise money.”
Ramaswami has raised over $780,000, the most money of any legislative candidate, according to the most recent campaign disclosure filings.
Still said his case is the only thing Ramaswami is campaigning on.
“He does not want this to be about the issues. His whole centerpiece, this entire thing, has been about the indictment,” Still said.
The case against Still and his co-defendants is unresolved, and it may remain so.
The Georgia Court of Appeals will hear arguments Dec. 5. against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who defendants say should be disqualified from the case because of a romantic relationship she had with former special prosecutor Nathan Wade. If Trump is elected in November, it is likely that the case will be stalled until after he leaves office in 2029.
“This will be gone. I will win, and hopefully I can have my life back next year, and hopefully we can resume normalized relations,” Still said.
Still and Ramaswami are running in Georgia’s 48th Senate District, which Still won in 2022 with nearly 57% of the vote.
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