SANFORD BISHOP

Sanford Bishop, a Democrat congressman who has served 15 terms, is facing his toughest Republican challenger yet in this year's election. Bishop faces Chris West, a GOP newcomer.

West said his own experience as a commercial developer would help improve the fortunes of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District, long one of the nation's poorest. And we have been in the top 10 poorest congressional districts for the last 30 years," West told supporters. It shouldn’t be.”West and Bishop are rarities in the Deep South: candidates for a congressional race that is even marginally competitive. Last year, Georgia Republicans redrew the district to make it somewhat more favorable to their party, sparking fresh interest from GOP candidates. Many of those districts heavily favor Democrats, while adjoining districts are often heavily white Republican strongholds, reducing competitiveness.

Southwest Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District may be the only Deep South House race in which the two major party candidates are remotely competitive.

State Rep. Bee Nguyen will be the Democratic candidate for Georgia secretary of state in November.

Katie Britt has won the Republican nomination for Senate in Alabama, defeating six-term Congressman Mo Brooks in a primary runoff after former President Donald Trump endorsed and then un-endorsed him.

The two Republican candidates in Alabama’s U.S. Senate primary runoff on Tuesday can each boast that at one point they had Donald Trump’s endorsement in the race.

The Republican-controlled state legislature last year redrew his 2nd District seat in southwest Georgia to dilute the influence of Black voters. Bishop, 75, became the senior congressman in Georgia following the 2020 death of Rep. John Lewis. He played a key role in passing $19.1 billion in disaster aid in 2019, nearly a year after Hurricane Michael devastated crops in Bishop's district. He left Yale Law School to run for Congress and is one of two Black Republicans in the primary. Biden, who got 56% of the vote in Bishop's district in 2020, still would have carried the reconfigured district by a slightly lower margin.

Georgia's senior congressman is facing his toughest challenge from Republicans in more than a decade.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON House Speaker Nancy Pelosi choked up Monday recalling Georgia Rep. John Lewis, with whom she served in Congress for 33 years, and their last conversation the day before he died. He always worked on the side of the angels and now he is with them, Pelosi said. Pelosi will preside in the House later Monday morning during a moment of silence in Lewis' honor. For now, Pelosi said the congressional delegation from Georgia, under Rep. Sanford Bishop, will honor Lewis during the moment of silence and a bereavement resolution.