<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655821848507,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017f-e2f4-de00-a7ff-e7fff8030000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655821848507,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017f-e2f4-de00-a7ff-e7fff8030000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55748421", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1036615"} }); ","_id":"00000181-8254-ddcb-a3e1-cf5698210000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedChris West on Tuesday beat Jeremy Hunt in a Republican runoff election for a southwest Georgia House seat the GOP believes it can wrestle away from a 30-year Democratic incumbent.
West will meet Rep. Sanford Bishop Jr. in a November matchup.
GEORGIA REPUBLICAN’S HOUSE BID PLACES ‘WOKEISM’ IN CROSSHAIRS
The race to represent newly reconfigured Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District, which stretches from Columbus down to the Florida state line and includes all or parts of 30 mostly rural counties, is considered the only competitive contest in the state and could help flip the House.
Republicans need to win five seats in the 435-member chamber to win back the majority they lost in 2018.
Hunt, a political commentator, pulled in high-profile endorsements from former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton. Despite having politically connected allies, the West Point graduate has faced criticism for being a newcomer to the district.
West, a Thomasville native, had been considered the front-runner before Hunt got into the race. Neither met the threshold for an outright win in the May 24 primary election and were forced into a runoff.
Hunt, who is black, is among a slate of minority candidates who are running as Republicans across the country.
House Republicans have recently tailored their recruitment efforts to woo candidates like Hunt in an attempt to change the makeup of the party, which has been largely made up of white men. Every Republican who flipped a House district in 2020 was either a woman or a person of color — a fact that did not go unnoticed.
During a recent rally for Hunt, Haley said she’d been hyperfocused on “trying to expand the tent” of Republican politics and promised increased representation would soon take shape.
Haley said she supported Hunt because “it’s not just about winning races, it’s about getting the right types of people in these races,” Axios reported.
Hunt has said he is “not afraid of the cultural fight” and told a room of about 200 white veterans that it was time “we get back our culture.”
“I don’t want to be telling stories about how America used to be,” he said. “And I don’t want my daughter to grow up in an America where she’s told that she’s a victim based on the color of her skin. You can take that foolishness back to the 1960s, where it belongs.”
Hunt has been in a tricky spot. He had to win over a conservative base that has felt besieged by the “woke mob” while still appealing to black voters who have felt alienated by the Republican Party for decades. The district is 49% black, down from 51% after it was redrawn by the GOP-led state legislature last year.
Hunt, a Fox News contributor and Yale Law School student, has outraised — and outspent — West by about 10 to 1. He has raked in $700,000 from outside groups such as American Patriots PAC and American Values First.
While West hasn’t been able to score big-name political endorsements like Hunt, he has nabbed endorsements from state lawmakers and some of his former primary rivals.
He has pitched himself as the “homegrown” candidate and claimed the district’s voters want “to send somebody to Washington to represent us, not Washington sending somebody to us, to represent us in Washington.”
“I’m born and raised here and have created a lot of jobs in this community, and I think the way to beat Sanford is by showing you’re a trusted member of the community,” he told WTVN-9.
West, a staff attorney with Georgia-based construction company Teramore Development, has campaigned on bringing more accessible healthcare to rural communities, gun rights, and energy independence.
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“I’m going to continue to live, work, and pay taxes in this community,” West said. “I suspect Jeremy, if he’s not successful, will move back to Connecticut. … I think the way to beat Sanford is to be from here and truly know middle and west Georgia.”
Bishop, first elected to the House (and the 2nd District) in 1992, easily won his Democratic primary election with nearly 94% of the vote.
