Democrat Lesli Messinger seeks to end 20 years of Republican domination in coastal Georgia. It’s a particularly difficult challenge to unseat an incumbent, and harder still for a Democrat in a Congressional District that’s been Republican-ruled for 20 years.

The only Democratic woman candidate running for a national office this election season in Georgia, she’s a lone progressive Democrat amid the state’s Congressional candidates.

But that could mean higher visibility. With public disapproval of a Republican-dominant Congress now at an all-time high, this anomaly might make her more of a standout.

Traditionally Democratic, Georgia has “flipped” politically in the last decade. Republicans currently control both U.S. Senate seats and eight of the 13 U.S. House seats — plus all of the state’s 13 constitutional offices. Here, 82 percent of state legislators are male. The last Congresswoman from Georgia, 11th District Rep. Cynthia McKinney, lost her bid for re-election in 2006 to current U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson.