Election 2024: Is former Dem state lawmaker eyeing return to Gold Dome?
Cobb's Erick Allen preps for political comeback
A former Democratic state lawmaker is taking steps toward a political comeback.
Erick Allen, a Cobb County Democratic leader who previously served two terms under the Gold Dome, plans to seek the Atlanta-area seat held by longtime state Rep. Roger Bruce.
The heavily Democratic district was redrawn during last fall’s court-ordered map rewrite and now stretches from South Fulton into unincorporated parts of Cobb. Rep. Bruce, an Atlanta Democrat and a community leader, is expected to step down at the end of his term.
Allen has made no official announcement, but a website for his campaign started appearing online this week. A run for elected office would force him to resign from his leadership post with Cobb Democrats, according to committee bylaws.
A business consultant from Smyrna, Allen was one of around a dozen Democrats who won office in 2018 by flipping Republican-held legislative seats north of Atlanta as part of a major suburban realignment. He captured 58 percent of the vote in his 2020 re-election.
He left the House in 2022 to mount an unsuccessful run for statewide office. But he has continued to remain active in county politics and was chosen to chair Cobb Democrats in 2023.
Allen declined to weigh in on his future when reached for comment, instead speaking highly of the seasoned incumbent and saying that his current priorities are expanding Democratic leadership in Cobb County and re-electing President Joe Biden.
“However, if [Rep. Bruce’s] seat were to be open, I’m pretty sure you will see my name on the ballot.”