ATLANTA — Republicans across Georgia named incumbent Gov. Nathan Deal as their candidate to face Democratic challenger Jason Carter in the November general election.
Deal claimed victory with 70 percent of the vote against three challengers. He beat former Dalton Mayor David Pennington and State Schools Superintendent John Barge.
Carter ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. Both will face Libertarian Andrew Hunt. Democrats in Georgia are hoping that Carter can mount a serious challenge in a state where a Republican now holds every statewide office.
Democrat Michelle Nunn easily won her party's primary. The Georgia race is among a dozen being watched nationally, as Republicans make a push to claim a majority in the Senate. Democrats consider Georgia a state where they could thwart GOP plans to pick up six additional seats, and Nunn -- the daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn -- has proved to be a formidable fundraiser.
In early returns Tuesday, Nunn showed a sizable lead. Also on the ballot were former state lawmaker Steen Miles, psychiatrist Branko Radulovacki and ROTC instructor Todd Anthony Robinson.
Ex-CEO David Perdue advanced to the GOP runoff in the Georgia Senate race with Congressman Jack Kingston. For Republican Senate candidates to avoid a primary election runoff, a candidate would have needed to win with more than half of the vote.
The primary campaign was a more low-key affair for Deal than four years ago when he competed for what was then an open seat. As an incumbent, Deal enjoys advantages that include more widespread name recognition, the pulpit of the governor's office and an established fundraising network. The economy has improved since Deal took office, helping stabilize the state budget and allowing Deal and other leaders to restore some — though nowhere near all — of the spending cuts made during the Great Recession.
His administration this year restored some cuts made to public school districts. He earlier supported cuts to the popular HOPE college scholarship, which Deal's administration say was necessary to save a financially over-stretched program. More recently, Deal has been able to boost that scholarship funding. Deal has also pushed for federal funding to expand the Port of Savannah and moved to steer more nonviolent offenders away from prison and toward rehabilitation programs.
Deal has been dogged by ethical entanglements. In April, a Fulton County jury awarded $700,000 to the former director of Georgia's ethics commission, Stacey Kalberman, in a lawsuit that contended her salary was cut and her deputy removed while she investigated complaints against Deal. The governor was cleared of major violations in that ethics probe, but he agreed to pay $3,350 in administrative fees to end an investigation into his 2010 campaign reports and financial disclosures.
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