COLUMBUS, Ga. - State Rep. Carmen Rice won a second full term in Georgia House District 139 by 2,629 votes, 12,734 to 10,105, according to the certified count posted on the Georgia Secretary of State's results site. In Muscogee County, where seven of the district's 10 precincts sit, the Republican incumbent led Democrat Elliot Valdez by only 329 votes, 8,296 to 7,967, in results the Muscogee County Board of Elections and Registration certified at 3 p.m. Monday. The other 2,300 votes of her margin came from three precincts in Harris County, where Rice beat Valdez 4,438 to 2,138.

The split makes District 139 the closest legislative contest in raw votes on Muscogee ballots this year. Rice took 55.8 percent of the two-county vote. Inside Muscogee alone she took 51.0 percent, and two of the seven Muscogee precincts went to Valdez.

The Muscogee precincts

Valdez carried Chattahoochee Church, the district's largest Muscogee precinct, 1,903 to 1,825, and edged Rice at Britt David, 635 to 632. Rice won the other five, with her biggest Muscogee margin at St. Paul, 1,706 to 1,491. Five of the seven precincts were decided by fewer than 75 votes.

The way people voted mattered as much as where. Muscogee's certified summary shows Rice won Election Day voting in the district 3,592 to 2,403, while Valdez won the three weeks of advance voting 5,170 to 4,372 and absentee-by-mail ballots 394 to 332. Advance voting accounted for 9,610 of the 16,423 ballots cast in the Muscogee portion, so Valdez's early edge nearly wiped out Rice's Election Day advantage.

The Harris County precincts

Harris County's three District 139 precincts told a different story. Rice won Ellerslie 1,913 to 942, Cataula 1,360 to 561 and Waverly Hall 1,165 to 635, taking 67.5 percent across the three. Harris County turnout was 59.6 percent of registered voters, compared with 48.05 percent in Muscogee, according to the state results site, and that gap widened Rice's edge.

Rice, a former chair of the Muscogee County Republican Party, first won the seat in a May 7, 2024, special election runoff over Sean Knox after the death of longtime Rep. Richard Smith on Jan. 30, 2024. She won a full term that November and was unopposed in the May 2026 Republican primary. The new General Assembly convenes on the second Monday in January, which is Jan. 11, 2027.

Senate District 29: the same county-line pattern

The pattern repeated one level up the ballot. Republican Sen. Randy Robertson won Senate District 29 by 11,569 votes, 43,108 to 31,539, across the four counties that report in the district. The Muscogee portion was nearly even: Robertson 12,987, Democrat Jeff Lowe 12,502, a difference of 485 votes out of 25,489.

Lowe carried four of the nine Muscogee precincts in the district, including the two largest. He won Psalmond 2,971 to 2,124 and St. Andrews 2,405 to 2,128, along with Chattahoochee Church, 1,910 to 1,814, and Britt David, 648 to 616. Robertson's best Muscogee precinct was Central Baptist, 2,485 to 1,557. Harris County's 12 precincts then delivered Robertson 11,842 votes to Lowe's 5,273, a 6,569-vote cushion that dwarfed the 485-vote gap in Muscogee.

The rest of Muscogee's legislative ballot

Other Muscogee legislative races were settled by wide margins, and two send new faces to Atlanta. Democrat Tremaine "Teddy" Reese, who has represented House District 140, won the open Senate District 15 seat 36,680 to 14,804 over Republican Chuck Hand, with 29,555 of his votes coming from Muscogee's 17 precincts in the district. He succeeds Sen. Ed Harbison, who announced before the session that he would retire after 33 years, according to Now Georgia's coverage of the race.

Democrat Marquese "Skinny" Averett won Reese's old House District 140 seat 9,088 to 2,157 over Republican Edward Kvietkus, carrying all eight precincts. House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley won District 141 13,486 to 3,624 over Republican Reggie Liparoto. In District 138, Republican Vance Smith won 17,205 to 8,259 district-wide and led Democrat Cyndie Hutchings 3,749 to 2,105 in the two Muscogee precincts that vote in that district. Democrat Debbie Buckner was unopposed in District 137 and drew 17,292 votes, with write-in candidate Stephen Acorn collecting 708 in Muscogee.

Where certification stands

Muscogee's board certified its full count Monday afternoon following its 2 p.m. monthly meeting. The certified summary shows 62,672 ballots cast by the county's 130,429 registered voters, a turnout of 48.05 percent, with all 25 precincts reporting. Harris County's totals were posted as complete on the state results site Monday but had not yet been marked official there as of Monday night.

None of the Columbus-area legislative races is close enough to trigger a recount under the state's 0.5 percent rule. District 139's 329-vote gap in Muscogee is the number party organizers on both sides will study, since the district pairs seven Columbus precincts with three Harris County precincts whose 6,576 voters turned out at a higher rate. The seat is next on the ballot in the May 2028 primary.