Qualifying for May 21 primaries, special elections closes

Qualifying closed Friday for the May 21 primaries and special elections in Georgia with a surprise or two locally.

Just hours before the deadline, State Sen. Shelly Echols (R-Hall County) announced she would not seek re-election. Simultaneously, her husband Drew, announced he would run for her post. He won’t be running unopposed, however. Josh Clark of Flowery Branch also qualified for it..

EARLIER STORY: Shelly Echols not running for re-election; husband, one other to seek post 97.5 Glory FM | North Georgia’s Family Radio Station (wgtjradio.com)

Elsewhere locally, Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch qualified for re-election but he’ll have opposition as will county commission chairman Richard Higgins, and three candidates qualified to run for the State Court judgeship being vacated by John Breakfield who is running for Superior Court Judge. Click here to read the full list of local qualifiers which includes the candidates who’ll be running for the Gainesville City Council seat vacated George Wangemann last year shortly before his death: 20240308135935889-PDF (hallcounty.org)

Other than Sen. Echols, all members of the Georgia General Assembly who represent Hall County qualified for re-election as did 9th District Congressman Andrew Clyde (R-Jackson County) and Rich McCormick (R-Suwanee) whose district, because of redistricting last year, now includes parts of Hall County starting next year.

You can find the complete list of candidates for every post in every corner of the state to be voted on May 21 here: Qualifying Candidate Information (ga.gov)

About the Author

Ken Stanford is Online News Editor for GLORY 97.5, a position he has held since August 2022.

Ken was born in Moultrie, Georgia, and says he knew from the time he was 5 or 6 he wanted to be a “radio announcer.” That dream was realized when he was hired by Moultrie radio station WMTM in 1960 at the age of 15 as a weekend disc jockey. A 1963 graduate of Moultrie (now Colquitt County) High School, he has spent his whole career in Georgia working for stations in Atlanta, Marietta, and Gainesville – most recently as News Director for 40 years at WDUN in Gainesville. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Ken retired in 2011 but came out of retirement last year to help GLORY, on a part-time basis, beef-up its online news presence.

He is the recipient of many Associated Press awards and is a former judge of state and national Associated Press broadcast news contests. In 2005, he was presented with the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s President’s Award for Excellence in Journalism and in 2019 was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He lives in Gainesville with his wife of 52 years, the former Sandra McKnight of Clio, Alabama, and they have one child, a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Cumming with her family.