Georgia WIN List is proud to endorse Esther Panitch for House District 51 in a primary contest for an open seat representing the North Fulton area. A Republican is on the ballot for November’s General Election.

A Miami native, Esther has lived in Sandy Springs with her husband Roger and three children since 2004. Following the activist example set by her mother and grandmother, Esther lobbied school bus seat belts as a teenager. She received her BSC and JD degrees from the University of Miami, where she was Speaker of the Student Government Senate as an undergraduate.

Esther was chosen for Georgia Trend’s LegalElite List and named a SuperLawyer each year since 2019. Her work on high-profile cases attracted national attention leading to more than 100 appearances on Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC, CNN and WSB and quoted as a legal expert in the AJC and the New York Times. Esther has been a keynote speaker since 1996 to nationwide audiences for her expertise in civil, criminal and domestic violence issues.

Four issues are central to her campaign:

• Choice and equality: As the mother of a college-aged daughter, advancing a pro-woman, pro-choice, equality agenda is incredibly personal to Esther. Having fought for the rights of battered women and survivors of childhood sexual assault, It is clear women have the fundamental right to do as they choose with their bodies. These victims should not be forced to carry the children of their abusers.  
• Voting rights: In the General Assembly, Esther will work to protect voting rights as an essential constitutional right by making it easier to vote early or by absentee ballot and repealing Georgia’s discriminatory voter ID law.
• Healthcare:  Esther fully supports comprehensive healthcare reform and will advocate to expand Medicaid to cover an additional 600,000 Georgians without healthcare. The Kemp Administration allocates state dollars, that could reduce Georgia’s astronomical maternal mortality rate, to “pregnancy resource centers” which spread misinformation about reproductive healthcare and discourages women from seeking abortion care.
• Transportation and infrastructure: Expanding MARTA is an environmental and an economic justice issue. The average district commute time is 30 minutes, and the closest MARTA station is at least 15 minutes away. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives infrastructure in the district a nearly failing grade in its latest report card.