Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp privately signed legislation Tuesday that removes party labels from local elections in the state’s five most populous counties, according to the Associated Press. The signing immediately drew a threat of a lawsuit from two Democratic prosecutors, who called the measure an unconstitutional effort to aid Republicans in Democratic strongholds.
The law covers Fulton, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties, all in the Atlanta metropolitan area, and applies to most county-level offices, though sheriffs and district attorneys are exempted. It shifts elections for affected officials to May, when voters choose nonpartisan judges and partisan primaries are held, a change that is widely expected to reduce turnout compared with November general elections. Candidates who fail to win a majority would face a June runoff.
The measure is the latest in a series of Republican-led efforts targeting Willis, who gained national prominence after prosecuting former President Donald Trump for his attempts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Georgia Republicans have previously passed legislation creating a commission that can remove local prosecutors and have sought to limit Willis’s authority.
State Sen. John Albers, the Roswell Republican who sponsored the bill, said during the legislative session that he believed it would promote public safety, AP reported. But opponents, including Willis and DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, condemned the measure as a partisan power grab. “This is a blatant attempt by Republicans to give their candidates an edge in Democratic counties by hiding their party affiliation from voters,” the two Democrats said in a statement Tuesday. They also noted that each of the three core Democratic counties — Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton — has elected a Black woman district attorney, arguing the law is designed to undermine their offices.
Democrats have argued that if nonpartisan elections are good policy, they should apply statewide, not only to five urban and suburban counties where Republicans have lost ground. Cobb and Gwinnett counties, once GOP strongholds, have trended Democratic since 2016. The shift to May elections is likely to attract a smaller, more Republican-leaning electorate than November general elections.
Willis and Boston said the law violates the state constitution and promised to sue. The state District Attorneys’ Association has separately argued that the legislature cannot change the partisan status of district attorneys without a constitutional amendment, because they are state judicial branch officers, not county officers. Such an amendment would require a two-thirds vote in the General Assembly, which Democrats can block in the current chamber.
The new law, which takes effect in 2028, is the latest in a broader Republican push against local prosecutors in Georgia, a state where Democrats have steadily eroded Republican officeholders in the core Atlanta counties.