State House District 24 will have a new representative next year.
Republican challenger for the seat Carter Barrett, a local banker, defeated incumbent state Rep. Sheri Gilligan, a retired intelligence officer who was first elected to the seat in 2015 by a margin of 58.8% to 41.2% out of nearly 4,000 votes cast in the race. Barrett will face Democrat Sydney Walker in November.
"Thank you Forsyth County," Barrett said in a statement on Wednesday. "It’s an honor to be your Republican nominee for Georgia House District 24. Together, we’re going to win in November, deliver results, and move our community forward."
The District 24 race was one of the more heated races during the primaries, with both candidates pushing back against perceived falsehoods in a recent debate.
In a three-person race in the May 24 General Primary, which also included candidate Ed Solly, Gilligan earned about 49.7% of the total votes and Barrett received about 42% of the total.
In a statement, Gilligan thanked voters for their support and congratulated Barrett.
"Thank you all for believing in me and supporting me," she said. "Serving as your representative has been the honor of a lifetime. God has a plan for me, and I am excited about what's next. Congratulations to Carter Barrett on his victory. May he serve you well."
Barrett has previously said he is in favor of more jobs in the county, lower taxes and legislation to protect citizens from inflation. He said he wants to boost the local economy by brining industries like IT and health care to Forsyth and having school pathways for students to enter those careers.
“That means attracting great jobs like health care and IT opportunities,” he previously told Forsyth County News. “It means supporting our local school system by expanding career counseling and pathways in our high schools as well as improving relevant job-skills courses for continuing education through our local UNG and Lanier Tech programs.
“As Chairman of the Advisory Council for UNG’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, I care deeply about creating economic development opportunities for our current and next generations.”
He has also said transportation projects are one of his priorities if elected and that he will be an advocate for bringing resources back to the district and work closely with citizens and local officials to chart a course for the future.
“I know transportation,” he said, “I know this community and I’ve taken an active role in making improvements, including the $200M bond initiative approved by voters in 2014 that widened Ga. 400 and Mullinax Road among many others.”
