Democrats Lose Bid to Unseat Georgia Supreme Court Justices

Democrats lose – Two Democrats seeking to unseat incumbent Republican justices in Georgia’s Supreme Court are projected to lose their races, dashing hopes within the state party that recent wins could carry into November’s political fights. Miracle Rankin and Jen Jordan both f

For Democrats in Georgia, the hope was supposed to be simple: win these Supreme Court races and carry that momentum into November.

Instead, the outcome is projected to cut against them. Two Democratic challengers—Miracle Rankin, a personal injury lawyer, and former state Sen. Jen Jordan—were both defeated by incumbent Republican justices, Charles Bethel and Sarah Warren.

Rankin lost to Bethel. Jordan lost to Warren. Both Bethel and Warren were appointed by Republican governors, and the result lands in a judicial election system that is officially nonpartisan on the ballot—even as candidates are backed by parties aligned with their ideological causes.

Georgia’s judicial elections have a rare track record: no incumbent justice has lost reelection in the state’s 100-year history of Supreme Court judicial elections. Democrats had pointed to what they saw as a run of good fortune across state-level races over the past year. hoping it would flow into these contests.

In 2025, two Democrats won seats on Georgia’s Public Service Commission by wide margins. Another Democrat won a special election to the state House of Representatives in a district that President Donald Trump won by 12 points in 2024.

Those wins, Democrats argued, suggested their side could keep outperforming expectations. In the days leading up to Tuesday’s Supreme Court races, the state party had hoped Rankin and Jordan could break through.

Turnout, at least at first, did not appear to be the problem. Democrats held a turnout edge on Tuesday. But it didn’t carry through to Election Day.

One factor may have been the structure of the races themselves. Even though the campaigns are effectively partisan in spirit and financing—candidates are not listed as affiliated with a party on the ballot—the nonpartisan ballot format may have muted the very advantage Democrats expected to mobilize.

Rankin and Jordan campaigned together, centering a progressive message in support of voting, civil and abortion rights.

Republicans, however, pressed a different line of attack. They criticized the way the campaigns were run, arguing it crossed the line of what’s permitted for judicial candidates. That dispute escalated into formal scrutiny.

A special committee of the GOP-appointed Judicial Qualifications Commission found that both Democrats violated judicial conduct rules. The finding didn’t simply sit on a shelf. A district court blocked the commission from releasing its findings. issuing a Sunday decision that ruled the commission violated Rankin and Jordan’s free speech rights.

The legal fight, however, sits inside a broader court landscape that is heavily tilted toward Republicans. The court remains under an 8-1 GOP majority, a balance that will likely matter when new cases land.

The Georgia Supreme Court is certain to hear challenges to new maps the Georgia Legislature is expected to adopt at a special session called for this summer by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

That timing is set against a federal backdrop that Democrats have warned could reshape voting power in the state. The special session is being planned in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act.

The through-line in Georgia’s current political chessboard is hard to miss: the Democrats’ momentum story didn’t survive contact with a Supreme Court race where incumbency is nearly invincible. and where the dispute over judicial conduct is already feeding into a court calendar likely dominated by redistricting fights.

Georgia Supreme Court Democrats Republicans Miracle Rankin Jen Jordan Charles Bethel Sarah Warren judicial elections Brian Kemp Voting Rights Act redistricting maps Judicial Qualifications Commission