Elections in Atlanta help advance Denise Majette, Cynthia McKinney

Jet, August 9, 2004

A first-term Black Atlanta congresswoman faces a runoff for the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Zell Miller, while another Black congresswoman vies for her former position.

Georgia Rep. Denise Majette, a former judge who won national attention two years ago by ousting Rep. Cynthia McKinney, finished first in a recent election with 41 percent of the vote to millionaire entrepreneur Cliff Oxford's 21 percent.

Failing to reach the 50 percent threshold needed to win the nomination outright, Majette must face Oxford again in a runoff election Aug. 10.

If she wins, she would be the state's first Black Senate nominee and will face Republican nominee Rep. Johnny Isakson, a veteran Georgia politician who replaced House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Congress. Isakson defeated two rivals to win the GOP nomination outright.

Meanwhile in another Georgia primary, McKinney, Georgia's first Black congresswoman, won a chance to take her old seat back in an Atlanta suburb with 51 percent of the vote.

The feisty politician beat five other Democrats in that contest to earn enough votes to avoid a runoff. McKinney concentrated on working the heavily-Black neighborhoods that previously sent her to Congress for five terms. Light voter turnout among her base was blamed for her upset in 2002.