Cobb County Commissioner Jerica Richardson reaffirms congressional run

ATLANTA — Cobb County Commissioner Jerica Richardson isn’t daunted by U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath’s decision to seek reelection in the newly redrawn 6th Congressional District.

Richardson announced Tuesday that she still plans to run for the seat, which will pit her against McBath, D-Marietta, in May’s Democratic primary.

Richardson first indicated she would run for Congress before legislative Republicans drew a new congressional map during the General Assembly’s recent redistricting session. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, who forced the special session by ruling in October that the 2021 congressional map violated the Voting Rights Act, upheld the new map late last month.

McBath, who has been representing the 7th Congressional District during the last two years, immediately responded to Jones’ ruling by declaring her intention to run in the 6th District this year. The redrawn 6th is much friendlier turf for a Democrat than the new 7th, which now extends north through heavily Republican Forsyth, Dawson, and Lumpkin counties as well as portions of Cherokee and Hall counties.

The new 6th District includes central and southern Fulton County, South Cobb, eastern Douglas County, and northern Fayette County.

“When asked previously about whether I would stay in this race if the maps forced any current members of the Democratic Congressional Caucus to join this race in the 6th, I answered honestly that my intention in entering this race was never about challenging a sitting Democrat,” Richardson said.

“I entered this race solely focused on delivering for the constituents of the 6th, many of whom are my current commission constituents. … I have decided that I’m going to keep surfacing the issues that voters care about, because our voters deserve to know we are listening.”

Richardson noted that Republicans in the General Assembly also have drawn her out of her commission district, the only county commissioner in Georgia to suffer that fate. Cobb County officials are vowing to appeal a ruling this week by Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris upholding the legislature’s authority to draw county commission maps.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Capitol Beat.