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Sonya Halpern

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Sonya Halpern
Democratic Party
Candidate, U.S. House Georgia District 6
Georgia State Senate District 39
Tenure
2021 - Present
Term ends
2027
Years in position
5
Predecessor: Nikema Williams (D)
Compensation
Base salary
$25,315.32/year
Per diem
$247/day
Elections and appointments
Last election
November 5, 2024
Next election
May 19, 2026
Education
Bachelor's
University of Massachusetts
Graduate
University of Hartford
Personal
Birthplace
Atlanta, GA
Profession
Nonprofit executive
Contact
Official website
Campaign website
Campaign X
Personal Facebook
Personal X
Personal Instagram
Personal LinkedIn

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 11, 2027.

Halpern (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Georgia's 6th Congressional District. She declared candidacy for the Democratic primary scheduled on May 19, 2026.[source]

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

2025-2026

Halpern was assigned to the following committees:

2023-2024

Halpern was assigned to the following committees:

2021-2022

Halpern was assigned to the following committees:


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

2026

See also: Georgia's 6th Congressional District election, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on May 19, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 6

Chris Capparell and Sonya Halpern are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Georgia District 6 on May 19, 2026.

Candidate
Image of Chris Capparell
Chris Capparell
Image of Sonya Halpern
Sonya Halpern

There are no incumbents in this race.

Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 6

Justin Pinker is running in the Republican primary for U.S. House Georgia District 6 on May 19, 2026.

Candidate
Image of Justin Pinker
Justin Pinker

There are no incumbents in this race.

Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.

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
✔
Image of Sonya Halpern
Sonya Halpern (D)
 
100.0
 
77,219

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 77,219
Candidate Connection = 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
✔
Image of Sonya Halpern
Sonya Halpern
 
100.0
 
16,079

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 16,079
Candidate Connection = 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 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
✔
Image of Sonya Halpern
Sonya Halpern (D)
 
100.0
 
60,401

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 60,401
Candidate Connection = 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
✔
Image of Sonya Halpern
Sonya Halpern
 
100.0
 
21,276

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 21,276
Candidate Connection = 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 legislative special elections, 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
✔
Image of Sonya Halpern
Sonya Halpern Candidate Connection
 
80.8
 
4,435
Image of Linda Pritchett
Linda Pritchett Candidate Connection
 
19.2
 
1,055

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 5,490
Candidate Connection = 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
✔
Image of Sonya Halpern
Sonya Halpern Candidate Connection
 
45.2
 
31,294
✔
Image of Linda Pritchett
Linda Pritchett Candidate Connection
 
25.4
 
17,573
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
JoAnna Potts
 
15.5
 
10,751
Silhouette Placeholder Image.png
Submit photo
Zan Fort Candidate Connection
 
13.9
 
9,636

There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 69,254
Candidate Connection = 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

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Sonya Halpern has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Sonya Halpern asking her to fill out the survey. If you are Sonya Halpern, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

Who fills out Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey?

Any candidate running for elected office, at any level, can complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Survey. Completing the survey will update the candidate's Ballotpedia profile, letting voters know who they are and what they stand for.  More than 24,000 candidates have taken Ballotpedia's candidate survey since we launched it in 2015. Learn more about the survey here.

You can ask Sonya Halpern to fill out this survey by using the buttons below or emailing sonya@sonya4ga.com.

Twitter
Email

2024

Sonya Halpern did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2022

Sonya Halpern did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Candidate Connection

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.

Sonya Halpern campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2026* U.S. House Georgia District 6Candidacy Declared primary$0 N/A**
2024Georgia State Senate District 39Won general$177,600 $69,016
2022Georgia State Senate District 39Won general$126,150 $0
Grand total$303,750 $69,016
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in Georgia

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


2023


2022


2021








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External links

Candidate

U.S. House Georgia District 6
  • Website
  • X
    		•

    Officeholder

    Georgia State Senate District 39
  • Website
    		•

    Personal

  • Facebook
  • X
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
    		•

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on November 17, 2020
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sonya Halpern for GA State Senate 2020, "Meet Sonya," accessed May 8, 2021
    3. ↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "SPECIAL DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY ELECTION SET FOR GEORGIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 39," accessed September 4, 2020
    4. ↑ Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Democrats tap Nikema Williams to replace John Lewis on November ballot," July 20, 2020

    Political offices
    Preceded by
    Nikema Williams (D)     		Georgia State Senate District 39
    2021-Present    		 Succeeded by
    -


    Georgia's current delegation to the United States Congress
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    Vacant
    Republican Party (8)
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    Vacancies (1)



    Current members of the Georgia State Senate
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