Dugan Advances in District 30 Race

Residents in Senate District 30 now know who they’ll see on their ballots in a special election next month.

After precincts in Paulding, Carroll and Douglas counties had tabulated their votes, it was Mike Dugan, a general contractor from Carrollton, who had prevailed in Tuesday’s runoff to determine the Republican nominee in the District 30 race, according to the Secretary of State’s website. Dugan had 3,606 ballots while 2,857 votes went Bill Hembree, who earlier this year resigned from his reelection bid in House District 67 to pursue the Senate seat.

Dugan had 55.8 percent of the vote to Hembree’s 44.2.

But the three counties represented in the race were split on the candidates. In Douglas County, Hembree took 1,526 of the 1,894 ballots cast—80.6 percent of the votes there. Paulding also favored the longtime legislator, with 354 votes in his column out of 543 cards cast in the four county precincts within the district.

But Carroll was key in the race as most of the county is within the district. Dugan carried his home county, as 3,049 Carroll voters favored him compared to Hembree’s 977 there.

Tuesday’s runoff was the result of the two men earning the most votes in a four-man special election held Nov. 6; also vying for the GOP nomination were Glenn Richardson and Jim Naughton. Hembree in last month’s election took 48.4 percent of the vote—not enough to escape the runoff—while Dugan was second with nearly a quarter of the vote.

Dugan now replaces on the ballot Bill Hamrick, the Republican who previously represented District 30 and who earlier this year was tapped by Gov. Nathan Deal to serve as superior court judge.

Dugan’s name will appear opposite James Camp, a Libertarian, in a Jan. 8 special election to ultimately determine the district’s next senator. No Democrats qualified for the office.