Georgia voters elected eight Democratic women to statewide offices Nov. 3, giving women seven of the state’s eight major executive positions and a seat on its utility regulatory commission.
The winners are:
- Keisha Lance Bottoms: Governor
- Penny Brown Reynolds: Secretary of state
- Tanya Miller: Attorney general
- Keisha Sean Waites: Insurance and safety fire commissioner
- Nikki Porcher: Labor commissioner
- Katherine Juhan-Arnold: Agriculture commissioner
- Lydia Powell: State school superintendent
- Shelia Edwards: Public Service Commission, District 5.
Brown Reynolds, a lawyer and former Fulton County judge, defeated Republican Tim Fleming to become the first Black woman elected Georgia secretary of state. She succeeds Republican Brad Raffensperger, who ran unsuccessfully for governor. The office gained national attention after Donald Trump pressured Raffensperger in a January 2021 phone call to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn his Georgia defeat. Raffensperger refused. Brown Reynolds will now serve as the state’s top elections official.
Miller, a state representative and former federal and county prosecutor, defeated Republican Brian Strickland to become Georgia’s first Black female attorney general. Waites, a former Atlanta city councilor and state representative, unseated Republican Insurance Commissioner John King.