Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) signed a bill just before Georgia’s legislative deadline, making several Atlanta-area elections nonpartisan, a move that could weaken the Democratic stronghold.
The legislation, House Bill 369, switches all county offices, except the sheriff’s offices in Gwinnett, Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, and Cobb counties, to nonpartisan elections. Though Kemp signed the bill into law on Tuesday, it will not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2028, meaning it will not be in place for the 2026 elections.
The bill’s Republican sponsors have said the point is to take politics out of local elections and to focus on other matters, like public safety. Republican state Sen. John Albers, the bill’s initial sponsor, told a local Atlanta outlet that his bill “has nothing to do with a party.”
“We have the Super Bowl coming here,” Albers said. “We have the NCAA. We had the World Cup. We have all these conglomerations of federal, state, and local agencies working together. If we can take the politics out of that equation, that means we’re focusing on public safety, which is my number one priority.”
But the state’s GOP has not been shy about celebrating how the bill could give Republicans a boost and cut away at Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s margins. The Democratic district attorney has drawn the ire of Republicans across the country after she brought a failed racketeering case against President Donald Trump.
Willis and DeKalb County District Attorney Sherri Boston slammed the bill as one crafted with “bad faith and unconstitutional motives.” The two vowed to fight the bill in court and said that taxpayers will “sadly” be the ones footing the bill.
“House Bill 369 is clearly unconstitutional, and we are appalled at Governor Brian Kemp’s decision to sign it into law,” Willis and Boston said in a joint statement. “This is a blatant attempt by Republicans to give their candidates an edge in Democratic counties by hiding their party affiliation from voters.”
PRESSURE MOUNTS FOR KEMP TO SUSPEND PRIMARIES AND TAKE UP REDISTRICTING
The move to sign the elections bill comes as Kemp has faced widespread pressure from the state’s GOP legislators and 2026 election candidates to jump into the national redistricting battle and redraw the Peach State’s congressional map in favor of Republicans.
Kemp has held out so far on redistricting for 2026, voicing concern that early voting for the state’s primaries is already underway. He has instead vowed to redraw the map in line with the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision for the 2028 election cycle.