Georgia voters kept two Republican-backed justices on the state Supreme Court, delivering a setback to Democrats who tried to turn nonpartisan judicial elections into a fight over abortion rights, voting rights and control of the state’s highest court.
Presiding Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren defeated former state Sen. Jen Jordan, while Justice Charlie Bethel defeated attorney Miracle Rankin. Justice Benjamin Land, the third Georgia Supreme Court justice on the ballot, ran unopposed, according to WABE.
Warren’s race was not especially close. She defeated Jordan with 59% of the vote, while Bethel survived a tighter contest against Rankin with 51%.
Both Warren and Bethel were appointed to the court in 2018 by former Republican Gov. Nathan Deal and won reelection in 2020. The incumbents framed the races around judicial impartiality, while Jordan and Rankin argued state courts play a major role in protecting abortion and voting rights.
The contests were officially nonpartisan, but they carried an openly political edge. Gov. Brian Kemp and other Republicans backed Warren and Bethel, while former President Barack Obama and other Democrats supported Jordan and Rankin.
Democrats hoped the races could produce the first defeat of an incumbent Georgia Supreme Court justice since 1922. Instead, the results left the court’s Republican-appointed majority intact.
The campaign took a late legal turn when the Judicial Qualifications Commission said Jordan and Rankin violated rules tied to campaign statements and public support for each other, though the Associated Press reported the statements were not final determinations.
The results give Warren and Bethel new six-year terms and show that even in a heated primary environment, Georgia voters were not ready to oust sitting Supreme Court justices.
