With the state’s primary runoff just a little over a month away, the race for the District 50 State Senate seat is heating up. Mt. Airy real estate developer Stacy Hall will face off at the polls against Cornelia attorney Bo Hatchett on August 11 in the GOP primary runoff.
Hall, who serves as the current chair of the Habersham County Commission, is hammering away at Hatchett’s youth and inexperience and his ties to the legal community. Hatchett, who is making his first bid for public office, is focusing on his conservative principles as a pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, “homegrown Republican” born and raised in the district he hopes to serve.
Former Governor Nathan Deal endorsed Hatchett at the outset of the campaign when there were six challengers in the race. Now that the field has narrowed to two, Hatchett has picked up support from three of his former challengers.
Clarkesville attorney Tricia Hise, an active member of the local and state Republican party, today threw her support behind Hatchett, asking those who voted for her to do the same.
“I have always had the best interests of Senate District 50 at heart,” Hise said in her announcement. “Through my own campaign, I have had opportunities to witness the character and the conservative values of Bo and I am asking for all you who voted for me in the primary to Vote Bo Hatchett in the runoff.”
Hise received the third-highest number of votes in the six-person race on June 9. Two other Republican candidates who ran, Jackson County realtor Andy Garrison and Franklin Springs Mayor Lee Moore, also have publicly announced they’re supporting Hatchett.
Garrison says he was impressed by Hatchett’s “character and passion” for the district which includes all or portions of eight Northeast Georgia counties including Banks, Franklin, Habersham, Hall, Jackson, Rabun, Stephens, and Towns.
Reacting to the support offered by his fellow challengers, Hatchett says it proves Northeast Georgia “is a special place. The kind of place where ‘opponents’ become friends.”
Hall, too, is touting his support from across the district. He’s been endorsed by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and Georgians for Lawsuit Reform. He’s also been endorsed by a number of area community leaders including the mayors of Clarkesville, Cornelia, and Tallulah Falls.
The winner of the GOP primary runoff will face Democrat Dee Dailey in the November 3 general election.
