With metro Atlanta Democrats steadily defeating Republicans in core counties, Georgia Republicans advanced a plan aimed at changing how many local candidates appear on ballots—by reducing party labels for voters choosing key county officials. The Republican-majority Georgia House gave final passage on Friday to a bill that would require nonpartisan elections in the five most populous metro Atlanta counties, affecting offices including district attorneys and other county prosecutors and administrators.
The bill—set to take effect in 2028—would apply in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, and in the suburbs of Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties. Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton are described as the state’s three most important Democratic jurisdictions, while Cobb and Gwinnett have increasingly shifted to Democratic control since 2016, according to the report.
State Sen. John Albers, a Republican from Roswell, pushed the legislation and said it was needed to promote public safety. During Senate debate Thursday, he said: “This is a bill that makes perfect sense. If you’re playing politics, you’ll be against this. If you want to keep Georgians safe, you’ll be for it.”
Under the proposal, voters would elect district attorneys and lower-level county prosecutors known as solicitors general in nonpartisan races, along with other county officials including county commissioners, court clerks and tax commissioners. Even after the bill takes effect, the elected sheriffs in those counties would continue to be elected under party labels, the report said.
In Fulton County, the bill would include the district attorney’s office held by Fani Willis, a prosecutor Republicans have repeatedly targeted. Carter Chapman, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, declined to say Friday whether Kemp will sign the bill into law.
Democrats assailed the measure as an effort to rig elections so Republicans running without party labels would have a better chance to win. State Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, a Democrat from Smyrna in Cobb County, said: “The reason we’re putting this bill forward is because there’s a certain side that’s losing elections in these counties, so they want to hide behind a nonpartisan badge in order to win them.”
Other Republicans also framed the bill in terms of the prosecutors they say are playing partisanship games. State Rep. Trey Kelley, a Republican from rural Cedartown, said Republicans were “giving voters the opportunity to rid themselves of district attorneys who are more concerned with playing partisan games than prosecuting and delivering justice.”
The association representing district attorneys argued that the law cannot change the partisan status of district attorneys because they are not county officers, but instead state judicial-branch officers. The association said that a state constitutional amendment would be needed instead, noting that such an amendment would require the two-thirds vote needed in Georgia’s General Assembly to propose it—something Democrats said they could block.
After the House vote, the measure passed largely on party lines, with two of Georgia’s 99 Republicans voting against the bill. One of those opponents was Republican Jordan Ridley, whose district includes part of Cobb County; Ridley told reporters after the vote, “If it’s good policy, then it should be statewide.”