State Senate Runoff: Jordan Trounces Howard

MARIETTA, GA — Jen Jordan, a local attorney, won a seat in the Georgia State Senate in Tuesday's runoff election by defeating Jaha Howard with 64 percent of the vote, according to media reports. Both candidates are Democrats, and Jordan's election spells the end of a two-thirds supermajority enjoyed by Republicans in the legislature's upper chamber, the Cobb County Courier reported.

Jordan will fill the District 6 seat vacated by Hunter Hill, a Republican who's running for governor next year. She and Howard, a pediatric dentist, were the top two finishers in a crowded field of eight candidates in the Nov. 7 special election for the state Senate seat.

District 6 covers parts of Cobb County and northern Fulton County, including Smyrna, Vinings, Buckhead and Sandy Springs.

With more than 16,000 votes cast, Howard won handily in the Cobb County portion of District 6, the Cobb County Courier reported. But Jordan won by a wide margin in Fulton County, giving her nearly two-thirds of the vote total.

Jordan centered her campaign on raising Georgia's minimum wage to $10.10 per hour, or giving local municipalities the power to set their own wage standards, according to the Cobb County Courier. Howard focused on eduction issues.

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