Harlem accountant Alison Couch beat incumbent Dewey Galeas for the district 4 Columbia County Commission seat in the only upset in the county’s elections.
Couch won 2,161 to Galeas’ 1,928. The district covers Harlem, Grovetown and Appling.
“I’m going to get to work. I’m going to look at Exit 183 immediately,” Couch said, referring to the Interstate 20 exit that is under construction and has caused serious traffic problems in Grovetown. “I am going to talk to the other commissioners and start building relationships with them.”
Galeas refused to answer questions, texting a reporter “Sorry sir. A family night.”
Galeas is a retired Army officer and anesthetist, and he touted his efforts to get Columbia County to take over the Harlem Water Department as one of his crowning achievements. He acknowledged, in a previous interview, that he had angered Harlem’s elected officials, especially after he successfully worked against Harlem’s efforts to annex residential property and expand the city limits.
Couch expanded her base beyond Harlem, and at the two debates with Galeas, her supporters outnumbered his three to one. And they wore her campaign T-shirts.
Though Couch and Galeas, both Republicans, faced off in a primary, no other candidates from any political party filed for the office. Therefore, Couch is the winner. In fact, no Democrats filed for any partisan offices in Columbia County.
In the county’s other two contested elections, both incumbent school board members won against challengers. The school board election is a non-partisan race.
One of the winning incumbents, Judy Simmons Teasley, said voters rejected the challengers’ focus on banning books and concern over teaching America’s history of racism.
“I think they instilled more fear than anything else, which is regrettable,” Teasley said of the candidates focused on book bans. “It’s only a distraction to what we actually need to be doing.”
Teasley won with 4,271. Ashley Lee got 2,970 votes. Melvin Mahone got 762 votes.
The other winning incumbent, Kristi Baker, said she focused her campaign on the work she does for children and said the book bans and concern for teaching Critical Race Theory really aren’t issues in Columbia County.
Baker won with 4,485 votes. Her closest challenger was John Duggan with 1,902 votes. Sandy Steed got 622 votes and Lee Benedict got 475 votes.
Other vote totals for Columbia County:
County Commission Chairperson Douglas Duncan ran unopposed in the county-wide seat and got 21,463 votes.
County Commissioner Connie Melear ran unopposed in District 1 and got 6,600 votes.
Columbia County District Attorney Bobby Christine ran unopposed and got 21,700 votes.
State House Representative District 123
Rob Leverett – 505
State House Representative District 125
Barry Fleming – 6,515
State House Representative District 127
Mark Newton – 6,032
State House Representative District 131
Jodi Lott – 8,496
State Senate District 23
Max Burns – 5,794
State Senate District 24
Lee Anderson – 15,703
Columbia County Superior Court
James Blanchard – 28,086
Columbia County Superior Court
J. Wade Padgett – 28,185
Governor Republican primary
Brian Kemp – 17,061
David Perdue – 5,892
Kandis Taylor – 809
Catherine Davis – 183
Tom Williams – 56
Governor Democratic primary
Stacey Abrams – 7,520
Lt. Governor Republican primary
Burt Jones – 12,431
Butch Miller – 5,290
Mac McGregor – 2,879
Jeanne Seaver – 1,732
Lt. Governor Democratic primary
Renitta Shannon – 1,358
Kwanza Hall – 1,254
Erick Allen – 1,087
Charlie Bailey – 928
Tyrone Brooks – 890
Tony Brown – 349
Jason Hayes – 272
Derrick Jackson – 794
R. Malik – 178
Secretary of State Republican primary
Jody Hice – 11,464
Brad Raffensperger – 10,163
T.J. Hudson – 890
David Belle Isle – 952
Secretary of State Democratic primary
Bee Nguyen – 2,353
Dee Dawkins-Haigler – 2,012
John Eaves – 518
Floyd Griffin – 953
Michael Owens – 1,338
Attorney General Republican primary
Chris Carr – 16,699
John Gordon – 6,070
Attorney General Democratic primary
Jennifer Jordan – 5,328
Christian Smith – 1,821
U.S. Senate Republican primary
Herschel Walker – 19,202
Gary Black – 1,681
Josh Clark – 749
Kelvin King – 624
Jonathan McColum – 838
U.S. Senate Democratic primary
Raphael Warnock – 7,181
Tamara Johnson-Shealey – 344
U.S. House of Representative Republican District 12
Rick W. Allen – 21,945
U.S. House of Representative Democratic District 12
Elizabeth Johnson – 6,926
Georgia Supreme Court
Veronica Brinson – 8,021
Verda Colvin – 20,561
Georgia Supreme Court
Shawn LaGrua – 27,471
Georgia Supreme Court
Carla McMillian – 27,502
Georgia Court of Appeals
Anne Barnes – 27,501
Georgia Court of Appeals
Chris McFadden – 27,476
Georgia Court of Appeals
Trea Pipkin – 27,295
Commissioner of Agriculture Republican
Tyler Harper – 21,115
Commissioner of Agriculture Democrat
Nakita Hemingway – 4,074
Winfred Dukes – 1,883
Fred Swann – 1,063
Commissioner of Insurance Republican
John King – 16,280
Ben Cowart – 2,001
Patrick Witt – 4,086
Commissioner of Insurance Democrat
Janice Robinson – 3,639
Raphael Baker – 2,383
Matthew Wilson – 1,019
State School Superintendent Republican
Richard Woods – 17,464
John Barge – 4,843
State School Superintendent Democrat
Alisha Searcy – 4,057
Currey Hitchens – 943
Jaha Howard – 1,009
James Morrow – 1,082
Commissioner of Labor Republican
Bruce Thompson – 12,630
Mike Coan – 6,255
Kartik Bhatt – 1,507
Commissioner of Labor Democrat
William Bodie – 1,714
Thomas Dean – 671
Nicole Horn – 1,639
Lester Jackson – 1,427
Nadia Surrency – 1,599
Joshua B. Good is a staff reporter covering Columbia County and military/veterans’ issues for The Augusta Press. Reach him at joshua@theaugustapress.com
