Tuesday night was unforgettable, and it was well worth the long hours waiting for results and hanging out with our amazing VIPs on the live blog. So much about the night exceeded my expectations, and although not everything went right (I’m looking at you, Newton County, Ga., voters — and at you, College Football Playoff Committee), the sweet far outweighed the bitter.
There are tons of untold stories from Election Day 2024, and here’s one of them. The saying “All politics is local” has been around since the early 1930s, and even though he didn’t coin the phrase, the late Tip O’Neill made it famous.
The Western Judicial Circuit of Georgia is one of the best examples proving this adage. This circuit consists of two counties that couldn’t be more different: Athens-Clarke County is a college town, home of the University of Georgia, and it’s deep blue, while Oconee County is almost as red as Clarke County is blue.
The incumbent district attorney is Deborah Gonzalez, a woke former entertainment attorney. I don’t know if George Soros’ money helped get her elected, but she is of a piece with the soft-on-crime prosecutors that he has helped usher into power. The scuttlebutt is that Gonzalez, not Fani Willis, inspired Georgia’s General Assembly to set up a commission to hold prosecutors accountable for doing their jobs.
One event changed the trajectory of Gonzalez’s career: the murder of Laken Riley. When illegal alien José Ibarra murdered the nursing student on the campus of UGA, Gonzalez not only refused to pursue the death penalty, but she also said she would allow the concerns of illegals to affect her prosecution.
The death penalty should be sought for Jose Ibarra. But Athens District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez has said she won’t seek the death penalty — and said she will “take into account collateral consequences to undocumented defendants”. I sincerely hope she reverses course. pic.twitter.com/m4ufqOulOP
— Houston Gaines (@houstongaines) February 26, 2024
Gonzalez’s treatment of the case, along with that of other Democrats in the Athens-Clarke County government, contrasted sharply with the reaction of the university and the community, both of which banded together to mourn Riley and make the campus safer.
Attorney Kalki Yalamanchili mounted a campaign against Gonzalez as an independent. It was a smart move because many Athens-Clarke County voters might have dismissed him had he run as a Republican.
A first-generation American and the son of legal immigrants, Yalamanchili saw the irresponsibility in Gonzalez’s office and decided to do something about it. As a husband and father, he understood that the safety of these communities was important for the present and the future.
"The safety of our families and our community is not a partisan issue, neither is protecting and respecting our rights,” he said on his campaign website. “This Office should be a place of public service, not a place to relaunch a political career. Right now, we all have the duty and responsibility to do something.”
I visit both counties often, and throughout the campaign, I saw plenty of “Kalki for District Attorney” signs. I only saw one for Gonzalez. Still, I wondered how the election would play out with deep-blue Clarke County exercising such influence.
Tuesday night’s results were a repudiation of Gonzalez and her woke approach to prosecution. Yalamanchili won by a nearly 60-40 margin with just over 14,000 votes separating him and Gonzalez. Oconee County went for Yalamanchili overwhelmingly, and he even won Clarke County, albeit by a razor-thin margin of 623 votes.
People are waking up and seeking change in their communities. Ousting Gonzalez will protect students and townies, along with the thousands who visit the area every week for athletic events and concerts. It’s a new day in Athens!
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