Democrat Eric Gisler flipped a Republican-held Georgia House seat, a stinging reversal in a district that President Donald Trump won by double digits, according to media projections.
Gisler said his win was down to Democratic enthusiasm and Republicans looking for a change, the Associated Press reported.
CNN, Decision Desk HQ, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) all projected Gisler’s victory over Republican Mack “Dutch” Guest in the 121st House District, which includes parts of Oconee County and Athens.
The district last year voted for Trump by about 12 percentage points. Gisler also ran for the same seat last year and lost by 22 points.
Gisler’s win follows a series of stinging election defeats for the GOP last month, when Democrats secured victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City.
Charlie Bailey, the Georgia state Democratic Party chair, said, “Our momentum is only growing, and we will continue outworking, out-organizing, and out-strategizing Republicans to turn it into more wins for the people of Georgia in 2026.”
The win continues the 2025 trend in which voters have signaled frustration with Trump amid his lowest approval ratings since returning to office. A senior White House aide warned in October that the numbers posed a serious problem for Republicans heading into next year’s midterms.
Speaking to AP, Gisler said he believes his team “had the right message for the time.”
“A lot of what I would call traditional conservatives held their nose and voted Republican last year on the promise of low prices and whatever else they were selling,” Gisler added. “But they hadn’t received that.”
The AJC’s chief political reporter, Greg Bluestein, described the win on X as a “stealth upset.”
The race was held to replace Republican Marcus Wiedower, who had held the seat since 2018 and stepped down to focus on business interests.
The Daily Beast reached out to Gisler and Guest’s campaigns for comment.
Gisler’s win added to a string of Democratic successes. This week, Miami elected its first Democratic mayor in 30 years, after Trump-backed Republican candidate Emilio González lost to Eileen Higgins.
Meanwhile, Trump’s approval ratings have dipped to 38 percent, the lowest since he returned to the White House for a second term, according to polling data from Ipsos/Reuters last month.
Former California GOP political director Mike Madrid told The Wall Street Journal that the trend suggested even Donald Trump is not immune to the physics of politics, which is that a lame-duck leader is going to start to see people abandon him.”
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