On January 28, the Georgia House Governmental Affairs Committee passed HB 757 by a vote of 8-2. It changes the rules for some U.S. Senate special elections. Currently special elections in Georgia have no party nominees, although party labels appear on the ballot. Every candidate gets on the ballot by paying a filing fee. If no one gets 50%, there is a runoff.

The bill would change that for U.S. Senate special elections that are simultaneous with a regularly-scheduled general election. There will be a U.S. Senate special election in Georgia in 2020, along with a regular election for the state’s other Senate seat. The reason there will be a special election is that U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, who had been re-elected in 2016, quit at the end of 2019. Normally his seat would not have been up until 2022, but because the seat was filled by appointment in early 2020, there must be a special election in November 2020.

The appointed incumbent is Senator Kelly Loeffler, and she expects to run for re-election in this year’s special election. She was appointed by Governor Brian Kemp and is considered a moderate Republican. Most observers believe that she has a better chance for re-election in November 2020 under the current rules, in which there would be several other major party members running, but no party nominees.

The bill would change the special election to provide that there would be a primary for that seat on May 19, 2020, and then the special election in November 2020 would have party nominees. All six of the bill’s co-sponsors are Republican legislators who seem to prefer that Senator Loeffler be defeated for the Republican nomination. The Governor has said that if the bill reaches his desk, he will veto it, because he supports Loeffler. But it is possible his veto will be overridden. Democrats in the legislature probably prefer that the special election be the kind of election with one Republican running against one Democrat (and probably one Libertarian).