Fleming, Reynolds advance in Georgia secretary of state runoff, CBS News projects
Georgia state Rep. Tim Fleming and former Fulton County State Court Judge Penny Brown Reynolds will face off against each other on the ballot in November to see who will become Georgia's next secretary of state.
Fleming won the Republican runoff Tuesday, defeating Vernon Jones to claim the GOP nomination and advance to the November general election, CBS News projects.
Fleming led the field in the May 19 primary with 39.3% of the vote, approximately 287,535 votes, while Jones finished second with 27.8%, or about 203,161 votes. The two advanced after defeating Kelvin King, Gabriel Sterling, and Ted Metz.
Reynolds led the May 19 Democratic primary with 42.5% of the vote, about 339,514 votes, while Dana Barrett finished second with 34.6%, or roughly 276,892 votes. Both advanced after defeating Cam Ashling and Adrian Consonery Jr. in the primary.
Reynolds brings an extensive public record to the race. She served as executive counsel to former Democratic Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, who has endorsed her candidacy. In 2022, she was appointed by the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She has also served in other state and federal roles. Her reality TV show, "Family Court with Judge Penny," ran for one season and was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2009. She is also an ordained minister.
Throughout the campaign, Reynolds stressed protecting voting rights and defending Georgia's elections from what she described as ongoing political attacks.
Barrett, who lost Tuesday's runoff, was elected to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners in 2022 and was a vocal member of a Democratic majority that last year refused to approve two Republican nominees to the county election board, saying their past actions made them unsuitable.
Debate over how Georgia's elections are run
The victory gives Fleming the Republican nomination for an office at the center of a contentious debate over how Georgia runs its elections. The race comes as the state faces real uncertainty over its voting system. Gov. Brian Kemp called lawmakers into a special session beginning June 17 to address a looming deadline: a law passed two years ago prohibits the use of QR codes on Georgia's touch-screen ballot printouts for the official vote count after July 1, but lawmakers have yet to agree on a replacement method. The next secretary of state will likely be involved in putting a new system in place by 2028.
Fleming has said he believes there were some "irregularities" in Georgia's 2020 presidential election but that "great strides" have been made to address them. During his time in the state legislature, he sponsored bills that restricted voting access, including banning absentee ballot drop boxes on the weekend before Election Day and withdrawing Georgia from a national voter registration accuracy program.
Jones, his runoff opponent, had taken a sharper stance on 2020, repeatedly echoing former President Trump's false claims that the election was stolen.
"I believe there were many irregularities. I believe violations have taken place," Jones said during the campaign. "I stand with those who believe there was election fraud." Jones, a former Democratic state representative and DeKalb County CEO who switched parties to become a Republican and Trump supporter, fell short Tuesday.
