ATLANTA – Georgia Democrats selected state Senator Nikema Williams, chairman of the state party, to replace Representative John Lewis on the ballot in November.
The Georgia Democratic Party executive committee overwhelmingly voted for Williams on Monday to take Lewis’s place on the ballot for the Atlanta-area 5th Congressional District after the death of Congressman and civil rights leader last week.
Williams, 41, was chosen from a list of five finalists as the group works to quickly fill the place in accordance with state law. She is almost certain to win in November in the heavily Democratic district.
The state party said it received 131 requests for the site. The group was reduced to five finalists, who spoke before the committee of top officials of the state party.
Williams beat State Representative Park Cannon, Georgia NAACP President James Woodall, Atlanta City Councilman Andre Dickens, and Robert Franklin, former president of Morehouse College in Atlanta.
Williams has served in the state Senate since 2017 and is the current chair of the state Democratic Party. He will face Republican Angela Stanton-King in November. Stanton-King is a television personality and was pardoned earlier this year by President Donald Trump for her role in a stolen car ring, after serving six months of home confinement in 2007.
Lewis won more than 84 percent of the vote the last time he faced a Republican opponent in the district in 2016.
The seat will remain empty until Georgia Governor Brian Kemp schedules a special election. The Republican governor has not indicated when he will hold an election with just over six months remaining in Lewis’s term.
Lewis, 80, died on Friday, several months after he was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. Funeral plans have not been announced. Kemp stated that the flags in Georgia will be at half-mast until sunset on the day of Lewis’s funeral.
Hundreds of people flocked to a giant Lewis mural near his home in downtown Atlanta on Sunday to pay their respects.
Flowers, balloons, photos, candles, and cards stacked at the base of the building where “HERO” was written about the painting of Lewis speaking.
