Richmond County Sheriff Loses; new state representative; GOP judge makes headway

Lina Portman3 weeks ago

0 1 minute read

Richmond County voters will have a new sheriff in 2025.

Eugene “Gino Rock” Brantley, a Richmond County Marshal's Office sergeant with 16 years of experience in the sheriff's office, stunned 11-year-old incumbent Sheriff Richard Roundtree in a runoff election Tuesday. neck-and-neck elections for the main law enforcement post.

With all 68 polling places, Brantley, who ran a campaign emphasizing “accessibility, affordability and active engagement,” won 10,087 votes for 52.77 percent. Roundtree, who became sheriff in 2013 after Ronnie Strength retired, won 9,027 votes for 47.23 percent.

With no emerging Republican challenger for the position, Brantley is running as the de facto sheriff-elect.

In the race for Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court judge, local attorney Charles HS Lyons III overtook challenger Matt Matson to win the seat of incumbent Judge Danny Craig.

Lyons, who declared himself a candidate for the position in February 2022, received 14,526 votes for 65.1%. Matson, an Augusta attorney who clerked for Superior Court Judges J. Carlisle Overstreet and Carl C. Brown Jr., won 7,786 votes for 34.9 percent. Richmond County Juvenile Court Judge Willie Saunders was voted out of that race in May's primary and nonpartisan general election.

Lyons won a majority in both counties — 13,792 to Matson's 7,267 in Richmond and 734 to Matson's 519 in Burke County. The two counties make up the Augusta Judicial Circuit.

In the Columbia County runoff to select a Republican candidate for the Georgia House District 131 seat, Rob Clifton defeated Paul Abbott by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. They ran to replace Republican Rep. Jodi Lott , who did not seek re-election.

Clifton, CEO of his own construction company, received 1,561 votes for 73.29 percent. Abbott – an educator and administrator, and 22-year veteran of the Georgia Army and National Guard – received 569 votes for 26.71% of the vote. All 16 constituencies have been reported.

Because District 131 covers only part of Columbia County, voters in only 16 precincts in Evans and Grovetown counties cast ballots for the race.

Clifton will now face Democratic challenger, retired Army officer and married mother of four, Heather White, in the November general election.

Lina Portman

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