Democrats ousted two Republican members of Georgia’s powerful Public Service Commission Tuesday, sending a resounding message that voters are fed up with pricy electric bills and that they may, at least for now, be souring on Republican leaders and policies.
With unofficial results tallied, Alicia Johnson defeated Tim Echols with nearly 62% of the vote, while Peter Hubbard toppled Fitz Johnson with just over 62% of the vote.
Those results are a huge overperformance from last year, when President Donald Trump won the state with just shy of 51% support.
There hasn’t been a Democrat to serve on the Commission since 2007.
The races were on the ballot after a federal lawsuit in 2020 argued Commission elections were unfair to Black voters. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful, but the case delayed elections, prompting Special Elections this year.
The timing was opportune for Democrats who were able to tap into pain points among residents over growing electric costs amid a backdrop of affordability issues more generally across the country.
Over the past two years, the conservative Commission has approved six rate increases for Georgia Power, which is the state’s largest provider of electricity.
The race, like others across the country on Tuesday night’s off-year election, was seen as a bellwether for races nationally next year.
It suggested that affordability was a top concern among voters, and perhaps offers a playbook to both parties ahead of 2026 elections that could tip the balance of power in Washington, D.C., as Democrats look to regain majorities in the U.S. House and Senate.
“Johnson and Hubbard won tonight’s Georgia Public Service Commissioner race by focusing on the issue that matters most to Georgians: lowering costs,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said.
“This victory is a direct response to Trump’s cost-raising agenda that is squeezing pocketbooks in Georgia and across the country. As the first Georgia Democrat to win a non-federal statewide election in nearly 20 years, Johnson and Hubbard will fight to bring down utility costs and make life more affordable, and their election should serve as a warning sign to Republicans in Georgia and beyond. Costs are too damn high and Trump and Republicans are to blame.”
Two states north of Georgia, in Virginia, Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger’s successful campaign to flip that state’s Governor’s Office (Democrats also won the Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General races there) offers perhaps one of the best examples for Democrats. Spanberger focused her campaign more on healing financial turmoil for residents and less on making her race a referendum on Trump, though certainly he and Republicans in Congress were not entirely ignored.
And like other races, Georgia’s Special Elections also occurred amid the backdrop of the ongoing government shutdown, which as of Wednesday is now the longest in American history. Last weekend, people who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), missed their first reload of benefits over the weekend, adding a more tangible impact to the shutdown that likely helped Democrats ahead of Tuesday’s election.
But in Georgia, turnout also could have hampered the Commission races. Atlanta and other Democratic-heavy areas had local elections on the ballot, meaning increased turnout there, paired with lower turnout in red areas of the state, could have given Democrats a boost.
