Sonya Halpern
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Sonya Halpern (Democratic Party) is a member of the Georgia State Senate, representing District 39. She assumed office on January 11, 2021. Her current term ends on January 13, 2025.
Halpern (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the Georgia State Senate to represent District 39. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Biography
Sonya Halpern was born in Atlanta, Georgia.[1] Halpern earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts and an M.B.A. from the University of Hartford.[2] Her career experience includes working in executive roles with the YMCA, YWCA, President's Advisory Committee on the Arts, Electing Women Alliance Atlanta, Atlanta School for the Arts Foundation, Public Broadcasting Atlanta, and South Arts.[1][2]
Committee assignments
2023-2024
Halpern was assigned to the following committees:
- Senate Appropriations Committee
- Banking and Financial Institutions Committee
- Education and Youth Committee
- House Health and Human Services Committee
- Urban Affairs Committee, Vice Chair
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2021-2022
Halpern was assigned to the following committees:
- Banking and Financial Institutions Committee
- Education and Youth Committee
- Senate Health and Human Services Committee
- State Institutions and Property Committee
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Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Elections
2024
See also: Georgia State Senate elections, 2024
General election
General election for Georgia State Senate District 39
Incumbent Sonya Halpern won election in the general election for Georgia State Senate District 39 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sonya Halpern (D) | 100.0 | 77,153 |
| Total votes: 77,153 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Georgia State Senate District 39
Incumbent Sonya Halpern advanced from the Democratic primary for Georgia State Senate District 39 on May 21, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sonya Halpern | 100.0 | 16,079 |
| Total votes: 16,079 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
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Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Halpern in this election.
2022
See also: Georgia State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for Georgia State Senate District 39
Incumbent Sonya Halpern won election in the general election for Georgia State Senate District 39 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sonya Halpern (D) | 100.0 | 60,401 |
| Total votes: 60,401 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Georgia State Senate District 39
Incumbent Sonya Halpern advanced from the Democratic primary for Georgia State Senate District 39 on May 24, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sonya Halpern | 100.0 | 21,276 |
| Total votes: 21,276 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2020
A special Democratic primary election for Georgia State Senate District 39 was called for November 3, 2020. A primary runoff election was scheduled for December 1, 2020. The candidate filing deadline was September 4.[3]
The November 3 special Democratic primary for District 39 was called after incumbent candidate Nikema Williams (D) withdrew from the race after advancing from the regular Democratic primary held on June 9, 2020. She was chosen by the Democratic Party of Georgia to replace incumbent candidate John Lewis (D) on the general election ballot for Georgia's 5th Congressional District race after Lewis' death on July 17, 2020.[4]
Democratic primary runoff election
Special Democratic primary runoff for Georgia State Senate District 39
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sonya Halpern | 80.8 | 4,435 |
 | Linda Pritchett | 19.2 | 1,055 | |
| Total votes: 5,490 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Special Democratic primary for Georgia State Senate District 39
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sonya Halpern | 45.2 | 31,294 |
| ✔ | | Linda Pritchett | 25.4 | 17,573 |
 | JoAnna Potts | 15.5 | 10,751 | |
| Zan Fort | 13.9 | 9,636 | |
| Total votes: 69,254 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Halpern's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Sonya Halpern did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
Sonya Halpern did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Sonya Halpern completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Halpern's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My experience includes leadership roles in both the private and public sector. I worked with ESPN and Cox Enterprises early in my career before moving on to advocacy work in education, the arts, and politics. I have now spent the better part of the last 20 years working with community organizations and nonprofits throughout Senate District 39. That work has included being the founding co-chair of the Electing Women Alliance Atlanta, a founding member of the Atlanta School for the Arts Foundation, and an Executive Committee member of YMCA of Metro Atlanta. In these roles, I have come face to face with the myriad problems that arise from poor policy decisions at the state level, from lack of healthcare access to crippling poverty. I realized that the only way to create meaningful change is at the state level. I have spent decades fighting the symptoms of bad policy that leaves so many people behind - now I'm ready to tackle the issues head on.
- Everyone should have access to quality, affordable health care.
- Every child should be able to get a good public education, regardless of where they were born.
- All workers should receive a livable wage.
I'm personally passionate about five key areas of public policy - health care, education, economic equality, criminal justice reform, and voting rights. I believe all of these policy challenges intertwine and must all be addressed to ensure that the people of my district and my state have the opportunity to live healthy, happy lives.
At this particular moment in time, we also must address the COVID-19 crisis which has done so much damage to people's health and stability. Expanding Medicaid would be the single most beneficial policy in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic as it would bring health care coverage to the hundreds of thousands of people for whom COVID-19 presents the greatest threat. It is also essential that we bolster funding for struggling hospitals across the state so that they can afford critical supplies. We must ensure that they are also prepared for vaccine distribution once it becomes available. Once the pandemic is in check, I will fight for policies which close the gaps that made this pandemic into one of the greatest crises of the 21st century.
The most important qualities for an elected official are their ability to connect with the people of their district and the skills to navigate complex challenges in government.
I would like to leave a legacy of creating new opportunities to succeed for the people of my district. Right now, too many people are held back by a lack of health care, inability to get a good education, and low wages. We have a responsibility to do better for the people who are struggling in our district.
It is absolutely beneficial to build relationships with other legislators. Over the last twenty years, I have seen firsthand how much can be done when we work closely with our leaders, even those we disagree with. No single legislator can pass a bill on their own - we need dozens of others on our side. As senator, I would work to build relationships to pass policies which benefit my district.
I favor a completely non-partisan redistricting process. Voters should choose their elected officials, not the other way around.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Georgia scorecards, email suggestions to [email protected].
2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
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In 2023, the Georgia State Legislature was in session from January 9 to March 29.
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2022
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2022, click [show]. |
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In 2022, the Georgia State Legislature was in session from January 10 to April 4.
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2021
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2021, click [show]. |
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In 2021, the Georgia State Legislature was in session from January 11 to March 31.
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See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Georgia State Senate District 39 |
Officeholder Georgia State Senate District 39 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on November 17, 2020
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sonya Halpern for GA State Senate 2020, "Meet Sonya," accessed May 8, 2021
- ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "SPECIAL DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ELECTION SET FOR GEORGIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 39," accessed September 4, 2020
- ↑ Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Democrats tap Nikema Williams to replace John Lewis on November ballot," July 20, 2020
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Nikema Williams (D) |
Georgia State Senate District 39 2021-Present |
Succeeded by - |
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