Floyd Griffin Jr. and Kenneth Vance are on the ballot for Georgia’s House of Representatives District 149 seat. Griffin is running as a democrat and Vance is running as a republican.
District 149 is made up of the majority of Baldwin County, including Milledgeville, eastern Bibb County and Jones County south of Highway 49.
This is a new district after the United States District Judge Steve Jones ruled that the Georgia legislature had redrawn districts in a way that diluted the votes of Black Americans in Georgia. Jones instructed the lawmakers to redraw the districts so there is a fair distribution of voters among all districts. The new districts had to be drawn by Dec. 8, 2023.
Though not all districts needed redrawing in this process, Milledgeville’s District 149 was adjusted. There were two state senate districts created and five house districts created and one congressional district.
This has resulted in some incumbent lawmakers running for re-election in the same or similar geographic regions but under a different district number than in their previous election.
Griffin Jr. is a retired U.S. Army colonel. He spent 23 years serving in the military and started his career as a helicopter pilot before turning to politics.
Griffin was elected as a state senator in 1994 for a two year term and reelected in 1996 for another two year term. He went on to run for lieutenant governor of Georgia in 1998 but lost, and in 2001 he ran for mayor of Milledgeville and won. He has served on the Board of Trustees at GCSU and Georgia Military College, or GMC.
Griffin has based his campaign on supporting women’s reproductive rights and helping the veteran community.
“The first issue is women’s rights to choose, that’s my number one issue,” Griffin said. “And then civil rights, voter’s rights, education, military and elderly individuals.”
Griffin is a funeral director at Slater Funeral Home and works alongside his family members.
“I’ve served on national boards like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,” Griffin said.
His opponentVance is a former law enforcement officer at the Baldwin County Sheriff`s Office and a teacher at Baldwin High School. He was also a public safety officer at GCSU in 1982.
Though both candidates have served before, Vance is running for active reelection as the current incumbent. Due to the redistricting, he is currently representing District 133. Some of his key campaign issues are fiscal responsibility, public safety and quality education.
“The priorities I have for my district are one, help them out economically,” Vance said. “If I can be of service in helping bring a business to the district, either of the three counties, I want to do that. If I can help with public safety in any way and help out local law enforcement and state law enforcement in keeping communities safe, that’s what I want to do.”
Griffin and Vance are working towards gaining the people’s vote and representing the citizens of Baldwin County. Though many GCSU students are not locals, results will still impact students’ years spent in Milledgeville.
