Former teen pundit C.J. Pearson and former Columbia County commissioner Gary Richardson head to a March 12 runoff to represent House District 125 in the Georgia General Assembly after none of five candidates garnered more than 50% of votes in Tuesday’s special election.
Richardson was the top finisher with 37.5% or 1,691 votes, while Pearson had 30.8% or 1,389 votes in the low-turnout contest, in uncertified results. Barely 6.9% of voters participated.
“In the back of my mind I was probably thinking a runoff, but I was hopeful we could get there without that,” Richardson said. “The point that I hate the most is District 125 in Columbia County and McDuffie County is unrepresented at this time. It’s right in the middle of the process of what happens in the session.”
Richardson, Pearson and three others – fellow Republican Jim Steed with 17.6%, Democrat Kay Turner with 13.6% and Libertarian John Turpish with 0.6% of votes – faced off Tuesday to represent the two-county district.
The seat has been empty since the recent resignation of Rep. Barry Fleming, whom Gov. Brian Kemp appointed to a vacant Columbia County judgeship. The legislative session has been underway for about 20 days.
“The Republican Party is again showing that we are the party of the future,” Pearson, 21, said at a watch party. “We’re the party of opportunity.”
Had he won outright, “it would mean that history was made today in the sense that the youngest Black legislator in America would now be a Republican,” he said.
Instead, the pair face off in a March 12 runoff, the same day as Georgia’s Presidential Preference Primary, when former President Donald Trump appears on the Republican ballot next to former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.
Pearson, who raised $71,000 during a monthlong campaign, did better in Columbia County with 30.8% of votes to Richardson’s 36.8% than in McDuffie, where he had 30.2% to Richardson’s 43.6%.
The district includes Grovetown, Harlem and the Dearing and Appling areas.
“We’re proud of the campaign we’ve run,” Pearson said. “We’ve reached young people, we’ve reached people that typically don’t even vote Republican. We’re proud of that.”
Richardson said he appreciated the work of his campaign team. “They’re committed to seeing it to the end,” he said. “We’re going to regroup tomorrow, figure out where we need to focus our energy and we’re going to move forward.”
Pearson, whose campaign faced attacks over behavioral issues he’d had as a teen in Columbia County schools, said his team would focus on the issues “the people of this district care about,” including eliminating the state income tax, fully-funding the police and keeping the state Republican, “by defending our traditional values.”
Pearson rose to internet fame in middle school with a video attacking President Obama.
Supporter Celestine James said a win by Pearson would “signal change, positive change, because the Republican Party has become stagnant here,” and lost support from the young.
“We’re not in the business of running away our young people. We want them to be involved, be engaged in the community. When we get to throwing our weight around, it’s never a good thing, because you send out a negative message,” she said.
Staff writers Stephanie Hill and Skyler Andrews contributed to this report.
