PEACHTREE CORNERS — Almost as soon as state Rep. Scott Hilton sat down at Darlene Penner’s dining room table, he was faced with a question that has dogged him and fellow Republicans even before news that a 14-year-old had allegedly used an assault-style rifle to kill four people at a Barrow County high school 45 minutes away.
“There has to be a better way to get automatic weapons out of the picture. What are we doing about that?” asked Penner, 54, whose neighborhood is in Georgia House District 48, which includes parts of Roswell, Alpharetta, Johns Creek and Peachtree Corners.
Hilton, who was elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 2016 and 2022, pieced together a response that could satisfy Penner and her husband Ken while sticking to his conservative beliefs. He told them he cosponsored a bill that would have provided a tax credit to gun owners who buy storage devices that keep their guns securely held, but Senate Republicans failed to move it forward.
Hilton is in the middle of an intense campaign to retain his House seat after the most recent round of redistricting made the voters in these geographic boundaries more politically competitive. His Democratic challenger, Laura Murvartian, is a business executive who became a U.S. citizen three years ago.
President Joe Biden won the district in 2020 with 51% of the vote. However, in 2022, the district went for Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock by 58% and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp at 56%.
Now, Democrats and Republicans are not only competing to win the state for the presidency, they’re battling over a handful of swing legislative districts, particularly in north Fulton and Gwinnett counties, and they are spending lots of money.
House Speaker Jon Burns and Gov. Brian Kemp’s leadership fundraising committees provided a combined $2.5 million for candidates in hotly contested districts. The Democratic National Committee gave nearly $1 million to the state Democrats to support Vice President Kamala Harris and down-ballot candidates.
If Hilton is to win, he needs to outrun former President Donald Trump — convincing voters to back his candidacy even if they support Harris at the top of the ticket. He’s been knocking on doors for weeks, he said. If he loses, it’s not for lack of effort.
“We have the second most competitive seat in the state,” he told Penner. “This election will come down to just a few hundred votes.”
For Murvartian to win, she needs to overcome Hilton’s name recognition.
Hilton voted for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in the presidential primary and has distanced himself from Trump. Many voters in his district don’t like Trump either.
“I don’t feel like I can vote for Trump, so that’s very clear. I’m not thrilled with our other option,” Penner said.
No easy answers on abortion
Republican candidates in swing districts have found themselves in an equally tough position on reproductive rights.
In 2019, Republicans passed House Bill 481, which bans abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, typically about six weeks after conception and before many women even know they are pregnant. According to a January poll from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 44% of respondents in Georgia said they wanted abortions to become easier to obtain, compared to 47% who either wanted to keep current restrictions or make abortions even harder to get.
Hilton was not in office in 2019, having lost his 2018 reelection bid. He declined to say whether he would have voted in favor of the 2019 abortion law, but he said he supported “protecting the lives of the innocent, which includes the unborn.”
This year, however, Hilton sponsored a resolution to support in vitro fertilization access after the Alabama Supreme Court had ruled earlier this year that embryos at any stage, including those used in IVF, are legally children.
Murvartian, however, has been more sure-footed on the issue.
“I’m running to protect people’s rights. It’s women’s rights, it’s LGBTQ rights, it’s immigrant rights, it’s people’s rights,” she said at a Democratic fundraiser.
She also has staked out a middle-ground position on gun violence.
“I’m a proponent for responsible gun ownership,” she told a voter. But noting that the number one cause of death for children is guns, she said, “I’m not OK with that.”
Education in an affluent district
Hilton, a small business owner, is more confident when it comes to talking about his views on the state economy and his support for a highly debated education bill this year.
Senate Bill 233, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in April, uses taxpayer money to subsidize the cost of private education. Parents of students in lower-performing schools can get $6,500 per year they can put toward a private school or home-school education.
Hilton, who serves as vice chair of the House’s Education Committee, said the legislation gives students more options, “allowing kids in failing schools to receive money to go elsewhere.”
The problem, Murvartian said, is that there are no failing schools in the district, so none of the kids here would benefit. However, because of the way funding works in Georgia, the law would take money out of Fulton County schools and send it to private schools.
The AJC poll from January also found that 44% of respondents were strongly opposed and about 16% were somewhat opposed to the idea of school vouchers.
Persuadable voters
Both candidates have said internal polling shows the race is close but winnable. They have not publicly released their data, but interviews with voters in the district reveal how neck-and-neck the battle is.
“I hold values in both parties, honestly. We see the big divide, and that’s really frustrating to me,” Amy Younkins told Murvartian, while sitting with her husband and six children in their garage.
Standing on her porch, Andrea DiVenardo told Hilton that while she hadn’t made up her mind on the presidential election, she was “leaning toward” him in this race.
“I am highly in favor of balance,” she said. “So if I go one way at the top, I may go the other way more locally because somehow I feel like maybe that’ll balance, even though it may make things more complicated in the end.”
When Hilton asked what issues were important to her, she added, “I would like a bit tougher gun control.”
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