Bethlehem woman announces challenge to Hice for Georgia’s 10th District in 2018

The mid-terms are still almost 18 months away, but the election is already beginning to take shape. Although he was re-elected unopposed in 2016, U.S. Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.10) can expect a Democratic challenge next time around.

Lee Becker with Oconee County Observations reported that at the Oconee County Democratic Party meeting last week, a Bethlehem woman took the opportunity to announce that in 2018 she will be mounting a challenge to Hice for his seat in Georgia’s 10th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Becker said Chalis Montgomery, a musician and music educator from Barrow County, made the announcement and went on to ask for help in forming her campaign committee. She told the group that her focus is healthcare and her motivation is her 7-year-old daughter who has rheumatoid arthritis.

Hice, who currently holds the 10th District Seat, was first elected to the 10th District in 2014 and then ran unopposed for re-election in 2016. According to his bio, the congressman served as a pastor for almost 25 years and also was a conservative talk radio personality with the Jody Hice Show before being elected to Congress. He currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations for the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The Congressman has an office in downtown Monroe. He and his wife, Dee, recently re-located to Greensboro, Ga.

Becker noted that Montgomery is a former children’s minister, currently working as a piano teacher, who has lived in Bethlehem for 15 years.

Georgia’s 10th District covers a large swath of land between Atlanta and Augusta, including the cities of Athens, Eatonton, Jackson, Milledgeville, Monroe, Watkinsville and Winder. Counties included, either fully or in part, are Baldwin, Barrow, Butts, Clarke, Columbia, Glascock, Greene, Gwinnett, Henry, Jasper, Jefferson, Johnson, Lincoln, McDuffie, Morgan, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Putnam, Taliaferro, Walton, Warren, Washington, and Wilkes.

For more information on Montgomery, as well as Deborah Gonzalez, an attorney from Athens who announced a run for the 117th District in the Georgia House of Representatives, which includes parts of Oconee County, click or tap on this link to Oconee County Observations.