Who Will Replace John Lewis in Congress? Georgia Democrats Are Moving Fast to Fill His Seat

ATLANTA — Georgia Democrats were poised on Monday to pick a replacement for Representative John Lewis on the November ballot, reaching a decision less than 72 hours after the civil rights leader turned 17-term congressman died.

On Monday morning, party officials announced a list of five finalists selected from a pool of dozens who submitted applications over the weekend. The final candidates will speak in the afternoon during a virtual meeting of the party’s executive committee, which will pick a nominee. Whichever candidate is chosen will almost certainly win the general election, given the Democrats’ tight hold on the district, which covers a swath of Atlanta and adjoining suburbs.

The finalists are Park Cannon, a state representative who became the youngest member of the General Assembly when she was sworn in at the age of 24 in 2016; Andre Dickens, who serves on the Atlanta City Council; Robert M. Franklin Jr., a scholar of theology who served as the president of Morehouse College, a prestigious historically Black higher education institutions in Atlanta; Nikema Williams, a state senator who is also the chair of the state Democratic Party; and James Woodall, the president of the Georgia N.A.A.C.P. and, at 26, one of the youngest leaders in the organization.

The choice has fallen to the party leadership because Georgia’s primary elections were held last month. The seat is likely to remain vacant until the winner of the November election is inaugurated in January.

The process is being overseen by a committee that includes some of the state’s most prominent Democrats, including Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Atlanta mayor who catapulted to national prominence in recent months after her response to unrest in the city and clashes with Gov. Brian Kemp over coronavirus precautions, and Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost the race for governor in 2018 to Mr. Kemp.

Still, some in the party, including Tharon Johnson, a longtime aide to Mr. Lewis, are calling for the committee to nominate a place holder who would resign the seat upon being sworn in, giving way to a special election in 2021.

Mr. Lewis’s death on Friday at the age of 80 has plunged much of Atlanta into mourning, a reflection of the singular role he played in the city as one of the last surviving leaders of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Mr. Lewis, who arrived in Atlanta in 1963 to become the chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, was elected to Congress in 1986.