In a historic vote in DeKalb County, former county commissioner Lorraine Cochran-Johnson defeated Larry Johnson in Tuesday’s runoff election for the office of chief executive officer.

Cochran-Johnson will become the first Black woman and the second female in the history of DeKalb County to be elected to the post. Unofficial results show her holding a 3-1 margin over Johnson with 59 percent of the precincts reporting.

During the May 21 primary, Cochran-Johnson garnered 46% of the vote and carried 156 of 191 precincts, but failed to obtain the 50% threshold to take the office. Johnson took 34% of the vote, and third-place finisher Steve Bradshaw, with a substantial amount of money in his war chest and endorsements from high-profile officials, only captured 19%. 

Since there is no Republican candidate running for the position, the winner of the run-off will be DeKalb’s next CEO. 

Unofficial results posted by the Georgia Secretary of State website, soon after the polls closed, reported that absentee and advance voting totals had Cochran-Johnson taking 59% of the 17,762 votes cast. 

That trend continued – with 55 of 191 precincts reporting, Cochran-Johnson held that margin, garnering 61% to Johnson’s 39%. Around 9:15 p.m., the margin held with more than 30,000 votes cast.

Johnson, who has represented DeKalb’s District 3 for 22 years, ran on a platform of  “A Better…Safer…Stronger DeKalb that Thrives” and promised world-class infrastructure, an innovative economy, and healthy livable communities if elected. 

Johnson also had the backing of several former and current elected officials, including his primary opponent Bradshaw, former State House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, State Sen. Gloria Butler, former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, and House Rep. Hank Johnson, among others.

Cochran-Johnson said, in an earlier interview with Rough Draft, although she has received significant endorsements from many elected officials supporting her, “endorsements, in my opinion, come in the form of votes.”

“I’m frankly sick of the endorsement game,” she said. “I don’t want someone to get up on a stump and shout my name. I want to carry the message to the people, and I will win on the merits of my hard work.”

Cochran-Johnson, a Greenville, Alabama-native, was voted onto the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners in 2018, representing Super District 7. She has a background in political science and criminal justice, economic development, entrepreneurship and visual media. 

Her platform focused on issues such as DeKalb’s housing crisis, gun violence, youth empowerment and support for small businesses.
 

Hall loses bid to retain Fulton Commission seat

Incumbent Natalie Hall appears to have lost her bid to retain her Fulton County Commission District 4 seat in the Democratic primary runoff election on Tuesday.

Mo Ivory won the runoff election with 3,537 votes with 100 percent of precincts reporting. Hall’s 1,075 votes were just 23 percent of the total votes cast in unofficial returns.

Hall was censured by her commission counterparts in September 2023 over a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against the county by her former chief of staff. The county paid almost $1 million in a judgment against the county in the lawsuit.

MORE RESULTS: See additional results from the June 18 runoff here.

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Rough Draft Atlanta.

Tags: Georgia  Dekalb County  Fulton County