Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday issued an executive order setting Dec. 9 as the date for a special election to fill the vacancy for House District 121, which includes three of Oconee County’s four precincts and parts of Clarke County.
Republican Marcus Wiedower announced on Tuesday morning that he was stepping down as House District 121 Representative to devote more time to his job as vice president of external affairs for Hillpointe, a real estate development and investment management firm.
The next step is for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to set qualifying and early voting dates.
Eric Gisler, who had announced his intent to challenge Wiedower in 2026 as a Democrat, said on Wednesday that he intends to qualify for the special election.
No primary will be held before the special election, and candidates will self designate their party. All candidates will run against each other.
Wiedower did not attend the Oconee County Republican Party meeting on Monday evening, and there was no hint of Wiedower’s decision to step down. Ward Black, who is running to represent Oconee County's Northeast Precinct as part of House District 120, was one of the featured speakers.
On Wednesday, Oconee County Republican Party Chair Kathy Hurley announced on Facebook that she had modified the program for the next party meeting on Nov. 17 to allow for a forum with “ALL the House District 121 candidates.” Hurley said Tim Bryant, host of Georgia's Morning News, has agreed to moderate.
GOP October Meeting
In addition to Black, other speakers at the Monday meeting of the Oconee County Republican Party were Fred “Bubba” Longgrear, who is running for State School Superintendent, and John F. Kennedy, running for Lieutenant Governor.
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| Hurley 10/27/2025 |
Incumbent House District 120 Rep. Houston Gaines is running for Congress and will not seek re-election to the General Assembly next year. Gaines is a Republican.
Chad Paton from Athens-Clarke County also has announced he will seek the Republican Party nomination for House District 120.
Suzanna Karatossos of Jackson County has announced she will seek the Democratic Party nomination for the 120th.
Concerns about turnout for the Public Service Commission races on Nov. 4 came up repeatedly during the Republic Party meeting on Monday.
Incumbent Republican Tim Echols and Democrat Alicia Johnson are competing for the District 2 position, and incumbent Republican Fitz Johnson and Democrat Peter Hubbard are competing for District 3.
Oconee County is in District 2, but candidates run statewide, and Echols told Oconee County Republicans at their September meeting that he is concerned that low turnout is a threat to his re-election, given that many cities in the state are holding local elections and urban areas often have high Democratic registration.
Hurley said her analysis of the early voting in Oconee County was encouraging, as it showed that 60.2 percent of the voters had a record of voting Republican, 30.2 percent were labeled as Democratic voters, and 9.6 percent were “swing voters.”
Fourty-seven people attended the Monday party meeting at the Piedmont Oconee Health Campus lobby meeting room, 1305 Jennings Mills Road, and Hurley urged them all to vote.
Oconee Turnout As Of Thursday
As of Thursday evening–with only one day of early voting remaining–only 3,031 of Oconee County’s 33,839 eligible voters had cast a ballot, or 8.96 percent.
Turnout has been higher in Bishop (58 of 266 voters, or 21.80 percent), and Watkinsville (353 of 2,514 voters, or 14.04 percent), but lower in Bogart (44 of 1,006, or 4.37 percent). In Bogart, voters have to go to two separate locations to vote in the city and county and state elections.
The classification of voters by Party is a proprietary activity of the parties and is not a part of voting records, since voters do register by party in Georgia.
Early voting continues on Friday at the Oconee County Administrative Building, 7635 Macon Highway, north of Watkinsville, for all but the Bogart city races.
Voting for Bogart city races is at the Historical Agricultural Building, 125 East Thompson Street, in Bogart.
Wiedower Announcement
Wiedower sent out a statement just after 8 a.m. on Tuesday to recipients of his newsletter saying “I want to take a moment to personally share some news with you.”
“After seven incredible years serving in the Georgia General Assembly,” the email message said, “I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my role as your State Representative.”
“This decision didn’t come lightly,” he said. “Representing the people of Oconee and Clarke counties has been one of the greatest honors of my life.”
“Together, we’ve worked to make a real difference--strengthening Georgia’s foster care and adoption systems, improving transportation infrastructure, and ensuring your tax dollars are used responsibly and effectively,” he wrote.
“Hillpointe has seen remarkable growth since I joined six years ago,” Wiedower wrote, “from operating in just one state to now having a presence in 13 states across the country.”
“As our work continues to expand nationally, my role will require an increased amount of travel that will physically take me away from the State Capitol during session,” the statement continued. “I believe our community deserves a full voice and vote in every session, and stepping away now is the right thing to do.”
Steven Strickland, who was a listed speaker at the Republican Party meeting on Monday but did not attend, told me in an text message exchange on Thursday (Oct. 30), that he had suspended his campaign for Senate District 46 and now is considering running for House District 121.
Democrat Gisler said in an email response on Thursday morning that he had not heard from Hurley about the Nov. 17 forum with Tim Bryant, but “I'd participate if invited.”
Black And House District 120
Black, who lives in Jackson County, introduced himself by saying he runs a small landscape supply business in Commerce, he is a farmer, and he is the son of former Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black.
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| Black 10/27.2025 |
“We are at a critical crossroads,” he said. “As Republicans, we have the White House, we have both chambers of Congress, we have all of the Constitutional Officers of Georgia, we have both chambers of the Georgia General Assembly.”
“As Republicans,” he said, “we have to deliver. We have to deliver on real issues that affect our quality of life.”
Black said one of the key issues for him is the quality of education.
“We have less than 40 percent of the third graders in the state reading at grade level or above,” he said.
“One of the things I’m extremely passionate about is making sure the foundational tools are there and those students have the financial skills they need to succeed not only through their high school career but as they venture on.”
“I’m very passionate about career technical education,” he continued. “We need more pipe fitters, we need more electricians, we need more plumbers to service all of our communities.”
Other Issues
Black said his second concern was with transportation.
“Having the infrastructure available so we can get goods and services from place to place is so important,” he said.
Ward said the third issue he wants to focus on is public safety.
“I don’t want to see a top down approach,” he said, referring to dictates from the General Assembly. He said the key decisions needs to be made locally.
“The good sheriffs--the Republican sheriffs--are some of the best in the state,” he said, “and they know what works best in their local community.”
In response to a question, Black said “we have to make sure our institutions of higher learning are equipping the next generation of elementary education teachers so they know how to teach the things that work.”
“The professors and the College of Education (at the University of Georgia) needs to be taken a look at,” he said. “The curriculum in the colleges need to be the best that they can be. Right now, it’s not, in my opinion.”
Hurley said the county has benefitted from “the good relationship” between Wiedower and Gaines and asked: “How do you plan on recreating along those lines?”
“The Lord gives you two ears and one mouth for a reason,” Black said. “So I hope to be a good listener. With Marcus going to stay there, we have different interests, different backgrounds, and the ability to represent different areas is a strength.”
Longgrear And Issues
Longgrear, one of five candidates running for the Republican Party nomination for State School Superintendent, currently is in his 11th year as superintendent for Chandler County Schools west of Stateboro.
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| Longgrear 10/27/2025 |
Longgrear said he decided to run after spending about 25 days at the Capitol last year and “there was a great absence from our State School Superintendent in collaborating with the governor, with the House, with the Senate.”
“Because of that absence, a lot of our local districts and local kids are suffering,” he said.
Longgrear said he is running because “we need a more active and engaged superintendent that is a team builder, that’s going to get people to the table and address the issues” in the state.
Incumbent Republican State School Superintendent Richard Woods is running for re-election.
Longgrear said he has three issues he is focusing on in his campaign: school safety, literacy, and career development.
School safety, he said, “includes hardening our buildings” but “it really is about behavioral expectations for students.”
“Literacy should be the number one priority,” he said.
“We can do a better job of preparing students for the workforce,” he said.
Kennedy And Issues
Kennedy is one of seven candidates seeking the Republican Party nomination for lieutenant governor, according to Ballotpedia. (Hurley joked that she had “lost track of how many are in that race.”)
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| Kennedy 10/27/2025 |
Kennedy represents Senate District 18 west of Macon and has served for the last three years as president pro tempore of the Senate. He identified himself as a business litigator.
Kennedy said he is running because “we need to keep Georgia growing. I think we’ve been lucky to have Brian Kemp’s hands on the helm of this state the last six and a half years. And his hands on our economy.”
“I happen to believe if we’ve got a good economy, and folks can have a good job and take care of their family, and be independent,” he said, “then a lot of the social ills that liberals like to talk about and throw your taxpayer money at to go fix it, a lot of those social ills don’t really exist. Folks can take care of themselves.”
Kennedy said his second goal is to “keep Georgia learning.”
“We’ve got to make sure that our public school systems are well resourced, well funded,” he said.
“We’ve got to keep Georgia safe,” Kennedy said, turning to his third goal.
“We’ve got to make sure that our law enforcement--our sheriffs, our state law enforcement, our law enforcement at all levels–are properly funded, are properly resourced,” he aid.
“And they know, we’ve got their back,” he added.
NOTE: The Oconee County Republican Party does not allow video or audio recording of its meetings.
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