(The Center Square) – Georgia voters on Tuesday will go to the polls to decide who fills more than 800 elected positions, with two contest slots on the state’s public utilities regulatory board getting the most attention.
Georgia, carried by Joe Biden in 2020 and Donald Trump in 2024, is a competitive state for both parties that leans “somewhat more red than purple,” Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia professor of political science, told The Center Square.
Georgia has a Republican governor, Brian Kemp, but also two Democrats in the U.S. Senate, Jon Osoff and Raphael Warnock.
Two Republican incumbents on the Georgia Public Service Commission, Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson, face reelection challenges by Democrats.
Kemp has been running television commercials supporting the two incumbents.
Republicans are worried about the commission contests because they are the only statewide contests on the ballot Tuesday, Bullock said.
Low turnout in the rural areas, where the GOP has its strongest support, could hurt the Republican incumbents, he said.
“For people who live in rural parts of Georgia, this is the only thing on the ballot,” Bullock said. “But people don’t get excited about voting for this.
“If you live in a city, there is always the potential that you have a municipal election.”
The city of Atlanta, for example, has elections for mayor and City Council on Tuesday.
If the Democrats score an upset in one or both of the commission races, it would be the first time since 1998 that a Democrat has won a state office, Bullock pointed out. That year, Roy Barnes was elected governor. The U.S. Senate seats held by Ossoff and Warnock are federal offices.
The Democratic challenges in the commission race could be helped by inflation in recent years and rising power bills from the expansion of a nuclear power plant in Georgia, Bullock said.
The Atlanta contests are nonpartisan but incumbent Mayor Andre Dickens does not appear to be in danger of losing to three opponents who are not widely known.
“But then again, he’s going to be trying to turn out his people,” Bullock said of Dickens. “He’s not in danger, but it will increase turnout in Democrat areas.”
