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Ga. House Rep. David Stover resigns

Stover, a Newnan Republican, represented District 71 in the Georgia House of Representatives.

David Stover, the District 71 representative in the Georgia House, has resigned, according to Gov. Brian Kemp's office.

According to the governor's office, Stover is leaving office in order to spend more time with his wife, who lives in England and is pregnant.

Stover had served in the Georgia House for more than six years.

In a resignation letter, he called his time as a representative "one of the greatest honors of my lifetime."

Stover previously faced allegations that he was living full-time in the United Kingdom.

Voters told 11Alive last year that is chronically absent from his legislative office in Newnan.

After 11Alive attempted to track him down, Stover told a local newspaper that he was in the U.K. and admitted that he was overseas during a special session that was held for Hurricane Michael relief.  

He denied at that time to no longer living in Newnan. He maintained that he lived in his mother’s basement – the same house he grew up in on Ridley Road.

His wife, a U.K. citizen, did not appear to ever reside there with her children.

After he married his wife, he put a house he owned in Newnan up for sale.

After 11Alive's reporting, he defended his attendance record at the state legislature as falling well within the average and adamantly denied living in outside of his district.

"I do not reside in the UK," he wrote in a Facebook post. "Further, I do not have a visa to stay in the UK long-term and I have not applied for one." 

In his resignation later, Stover said it was his intention to remain in office through the end of his term in 2020 and consider at that time whether to run again, but that the pregnancy became a "game changer."

"Recently we were granted a great blessing - a baby on the way, my first biological child, due in the early days of the 2020 legislative session," Stover wrote. "That is a game changer. My first priority is my family and the pending birth of our baby is something I don't plan to miss a minute of, and my wife deserves for me to be by her side as she brings our baby safely to term.

"I want to be a day one and everyday hands on caregiver and co-nurturer when our baby is born."

A special election will now determine who fills the District 71 seat.


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