Democrats are hoping to shake up a deep red district in a special election Tuesday that promises to send a clear message on President Donald Trump's second term in office.
Debra Shigley, a Democratic attorney and mother of five, has told voters in Georgia to "send a message" to Trump and vote for her for Georgia State Senate, District 21. She's facing political outsider and Republican candidate Jason Dickerson, the Washington Post reported.
The two candidates are vying for the seat north of Atlanta, which became vacant when Trump appointed Sen. Brandon Beach, the Republican incumbent, as U.S. treasurer.
Shigley has campaigned with the head of the national Democratic Party, which hopes to add a win to the red state and add to its string of recent special election victories.
Although Republicans are expected to hold the seat, according to analysts, Democrats could narrow the margin or pull off a shocking win in a district that is "really Republican at the presidential level,” Kyle Kondik, an elections analyst for the nonpartisan site Sabato’s Crystal Ball, told The Post.
Kondik expects Shigley will “at least do better than what the presidential [margin] was.”
In the 2024 presidential election, Trump had two-thirds of the vote. During his reelection last year, Beach had 70% of the vote.
Shigley finished first in initial balloting for the special election and had 40% of the vote in the race as the only Democratic candidate. While Dickerson, who competed against six other Republicans, took the lead in his party.
While off-year elections might not predict the next major election, it is a temperature check. Democrats have seen success in recent months and some Republicans are worried, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) who mentioned the upcoming election and complained in a recent podcast that Republican voters “have completely checked out.”
Democrats see an opportunity to break through in a traditionally Republican state.
“We’re going to fight for every vote in Senate District 21 because the stakes couldn’t be higher,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement. Martin visited the Peach State to campaign with Shigley over the weekend. His goal is to keep pushing the momentum that Democrats have gained while Trump has come back to the White House.