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Nikki Merritt
Nikki Merritt (Democratic Party) is a member of the Georgia State Senate, representing District 9. She assumed office on January 11, 2021. Her current term ends on January 11, 2027.
Merritt (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the Georgia State Senate to represent District 9. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Merritt completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Nikki Merritt was born in Austell, Georgia. She attended the University of Georgia and earned a bachelor's degree from Georgia State University in 2012. Merritt's career experience includes working in telecommunications at AT&T. She has been affiliated with CWA 3204, the Community Action Network Initiative, the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, and the Gwinnett County Senate Delegation.[1]
Committee assignments
Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.
2023-2024
Merritt was assigned to the following committees:
- Government Oversight Committee
- Insurance Committee
- Natural Resources and the Environment Committee
- Urban Affairs Committee
2021-2022
Merritt was assigned to the following committees:
- Government Oversight Committee
- Insurance and Labor Committee
- Natural Resources and the Environment Committee
- Special Judiciary Committee (decommissioned)
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 9
Incumbent Nikki Merritt defeated Michael Gargiulo in the general election for Georgia State Senate District 9 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Nikki Merritt (D)  | 60.0 | 52,451 |
 | Michael Gargiulo (R) | 40.0 | 35,036 | |
| Total votes: 87,487 | |||
| = 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 9
Incumbent Nikki Merritt advanced from the Democratic primary for Georgia State Senate District 9 on May 21, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Nikki Merritt | 100.0 | 9,206 |
| Total votes: 9,206 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Georgia State Senate District 9
Michael Gargiulo advanced from the Republican primary for Georgia State Senate District 9 on May 21, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Michael Gargiulo | 100.0 | 5,085 |
| Total votes: 5,085 | |||
| = 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
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Merritt in this election.
2022
See also: Georgia State Senate elections, 2022
General election
General election for Georgia State Senate District 9
Incumbent Nikki Merritt won election in the general election for Georgia State Senate District 9 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Nikki Merritt (D) | 100.0 | 47,638 |
| Total votes: 47,638 | |||
| = 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 9
Incumbent Nikki Merritt advanced from the Democratic primary for Georgia State Senate District 9 on May 24, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Nikki Merritt | 100.0 | 13,626 |
| Total votes: 13,626 | |||
| = 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
See also: Georgia State Senate elections, 2020
General election
General election for Georgia State Senate District 9
Nikki Merritt defeated incumbent P.K. Martin in the general election for Georgia State Senate District 9 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Nikki Merritt (D) | 52.0 | 53,941 |
 | P.K. Martin (R) | 48.0 | 49,879 | |
| Total votes: 103,820 | |||
| = 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 runoff election
Democratic primary runoff for Georgia State Senate District 9
Nikki Merritt defeated Gabe Okoye in the Democratic primary runoff for Georgia State Senate District 9 on August 11, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Nikki Merritt | 65.8 | 5,898 |
 | Gabe Okoye | 34.2 | 3,068 | |
| Total votes: 8,966 | |||
| = 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 9
Nikki Merritt and Gabe Okoye advanced to a runoff. They defeated Cheryle Moses in the Democratic primary for Georgia State Senate District 9 on June 9, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Nikki Merritt | 47.7 | 12,535 |
| ✔ | | Gabe Okoye | 27.4 | 7,193 |
 | Cheryle Moses | 24.9 | 6,534 | |
| Total votes: 26,262 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Georgia State Senate District 9
Incumbent P.K. Martin advanced from the Republican primary for Georgia State Senate District 9 on June 9, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | P.K. Martin | 100.0 | 18,277 |
| Total votes: 18,277 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Nikki Merritt completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Merritt's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Healthcare- 1.5 million Georgians lack health insurance, putting Georgia behind most states. Inadequate access to health care puts all of our public health at risk. We must expand Medicaid and provide all Georgians access to quality, affordable healthcare. Healthcare includes reproductive. Senator Merritt has led the fight to protect women's right to choose and to ensure adequate funding is available for healthy women and babies, which is extra essential because Georgia is experiencing a maternal healthcare crisis; we rank last in the nation for maternal mortality at more than 2.5x the national average. The situation is even more critical for African American women, who are dying at twice the rate of white women in the state.
- Equitable Growth- Georgia ranks 40th in the nation for households below the poverty line, 44th for the disparity between the highest and lowest income individuals, and 32nd for food insecurity. The impact on our children is stark. Approximately 1 in 5 children in Georgia live in poverty, 1 in 4 have parents who lack secure employment, and nearly 1 in 3 live in households where the cost of housing exceeds 30% of monthly income. Working families should enjoy fair tax policies, but the wealthiest pay less. The most vulnerable are shouldering the burden of cuts to services like child welfare, senior services, and mental health care. Nikki will fight to preserve the essential services lifelines for working families.
- Voring- Having family members who have historically faced disenfranchisement from voting, Nikki understands attacks on voting place a significant burden, particularly on black voters, our elderly, students, and those with disabilities. Voters deserve to be confident that their votes will be counted accurately and fairly. That’s why Nikki stands committed to strengthening voter protections, rejecting suppressive policies, and working to make voting more accessible for everyone choosing to exercise this most sacred constitutional right. During the 2021 legislative session, Senator Merritt passed bill SB 253, which provides guidelines for poll change locations, which is just one step toward making voter participation more straightforward.
Worker Protection—As a union member for over twenty years, Senator Merritt believes in the power of collective bargaining to create workplaces that support workers through stable employment, fair wages, benefits, and job security. She knows that when workers succeed, businesses thrive, and she is fighting for workers' rights in the state senate to keep Georgia the best state in the Union to do business.
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.
2022
Nikki Merritt did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Nikki Merritt did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
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 editor@ballotpedia.org.
2024
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2024, click [show]. |
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In 2024, the Georgia State Legislature was in session from January 8 to March 28.
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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 9 |
Officeholder Georgia State Senate District 9 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 22, 2024
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by P.K. Martin (R) |
Georgia State Senate District 9 2021-Present |
Succeeded by - |
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