Update to an earlier report: This article includes new information about a story we previously covered. Read our earlier report.
Georgia House Democrats have selected Columbus Rep. Carolyn Hugley as their presumptive speaker, setting up a decision by the full chamber in January. Democrats will hold the majority when lawmakers vote.
The caucus chose Hugley on Thursday, Nov. 12. Its decision does not make her speaker: the full House must still elect her. If lawmakers do, she would be Georgia’s first Black woman elected to the role.
State Sen.-elect Teddy Reese, a Columbus Democrat representing District 15, said Hugley would also be the first woman elected to serve a full term as speaker, although women have held the position before. Columbus Rep. Marquese “Skinny” Averett said his first vote was for Hugley. Averett defeated Republican Edward Kvietkus in District 140 with more than 80% of the vote.
Hugley has pointed to former Columbus lawmaker Maretta Mitchell Taylor as a friend and mentor. Taylor was the first Black woman elected to represent Georgia House District 94, now District 134, and died in 2013. Hugley said an interchange at Buena Vista Road is being named in Taylor’s honor.
Hugley has also cited Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress, as a political inspiration. In a local election earlier this year, Hugley’s husband, Isaiah Hugley, became Columbus’s first elected Black mayor.
Vincent Caldwell
News Now Georgia
