ATLANTA (AP) - Two longtime Georgia state House members have been defeated in Democratic runoffs in metro Atlanta races.
In DeKalb County’s House District 86, attorney Zulma Lopez beat 20-year incumbent Michelle Henson on Tuesday. In House District 65, including south Fulton County and a sliver of Douglas County, challenger Mandisha Thomas beat incumbent Sharon Beasley-Teague.
Henson had been in the state House since 1991, but was widely seen as vulnerable as the share of the white population in her district has fallen. No other candidate has qualified for the November general election, making it likely that Lopez will win the seat.
Beasley-Teague has been in the House since 1993. She led Thomas in the June primary, but didn’t win a majority in a three-way race. Thomas faces no other opposition in the November general election, making it likely that she will win the seat.
Two other incumbents in the 180-member House lost in primaries in June. Pastor and bank manager Sharon Henderson beat five-term Conyers Democrat Pam Dickerson in House District 113 in the eastern Atlanta suburbs. Three-term Republican Jeff Jones of Brunswick lost to former House member Buddy DeLoach in House District 167 on the Georgia coast.
No incumbents in the 56-member state Senate lost primaries.
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