With their candidates losing in metro Atlanta, Georgia GOP seeks to remove party labels
ATLANTA — As Democrats phase out Republicans electorally in key Atlanta counties in Georgia’s swing state, Republicans have a new idea: make most local candidates run for office without a party label.
The Republican-majority Georgia House on Friday finally passed a bill that would require nonpartisan elections in the five most populous counties in metro Atlanta. Among the affected officials is reportedly Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis, who Republicans have repeatedly targeted over her prosecution of Republican President Donald Trump after he pushed to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s key 2020 victory in Georgia.
State Sen. John Albers, a Republican from Roswell, an Atlanta suburb, who supported the bill, said he believed it was necessary to promote public safety, even though elected county sheriffs will continue to be elected along party lines when it takes effect in 2028.
“It’s a completely logical bill,” Albers said during the Senate debate Thursday. “If you are in politics, you will be against it. If you want to keep Georgians safe, you will be for it.”
The measure would require nonpartisan elections for district attorneys, lower-level county attorneys called solicitors general, county commissioners, clerks and tax commissioners.
This would apply to Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, as well as suburbs in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties. Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties are the three largest Democratic jurisdictions in the state. Cobb and Gwinnett, once the suburban heartland of Georgia Republicans, have been increasingly under Democratic control since 2016.
Democrats criticized the bill, calling it an attempt to rig elections so that Republicans running without party labels would have a better chance of winning.
“The reason we’re introducing this bill 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,” said state Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, a Democrat from Smyrna in Cobb County.
Carter Chapman, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, declined to say Friday whether Kemp would sign the bill.
While the bill’s main supporters have denied that the measure targets Willis, other Republicans have leaned closer to that theme.
“By passing this legislation, we are giving voters the opportunity to get rid of district attorneys who are more concerned with partisan gamesmanship than prosecution and justice,” said Rep. Trey Kelley, a rural Republican from Cedartown.
Republicans have passed several bills in recent years targeting district attorneys and Willis in particular. The association representing district attorneys argues that the law cannot change the partisan status of district attorneys because they are not county officers, but rather officers of the state judicial branch.
The association argues that a state constitutional amendment is instead necessary. This would be extremely unlikely given that Democrats have enough strength to block the two-thirds majority needed in the General Assembly to bring such a measure to Georgia voters.
Two of 99 Republicans voted against the bill, including Republican Jordan Ridley, whose district includes part of Cobb County.
“If it’s a good policy, then it should be statewide,” Ridley told reporters after the vote.
