All Politics is Local: Surprises in the Georgia State Senate

Last Minute Qualifying on Georgia State Senate 49

Friday was the last day of qualifying. Sen. Shelly Echols was the last remaining incumbent left to qualify. She and her husband, Drew, entered the space for qualifying together and Drew Echols qualified for the seat. Shelly and Drew have two children. In a press release put out around noon, they shared that their son who has Down Syndrome was having some issues and needed “mom” to be around more. So Drew decided to run.

There are people that will say this was a switch but I think it was a family making a decision. The Echols family has been involved in charitable and business and agricultural development in Hall County for as long as anyone can remember.

Former State Rep Josh Clark heard about the qualifying. He had been praying that the seat would open up and says he got in his car and went straight down to qualify. I will leave it to others to work out the timing on all of this because it would be pretty hard to get from South Hall County to the Capitol in an hour to qualify in time, but Clark says they headed down quickly.

Josh Clark is a good man who represented Gwinnett County in the last decade and ran for U. S. Senate 2 years ago. He has been looking for another way to serve.

I talked to both of them on Monday, you can listen to Josh Clark and Drew Echols below.

Josh Clark

Drew Echols