How Democrats flipped 22 Georgia counties with a utility board race

Leila Meadows had never heard of Georgia’s Public Service Commission.

But when climate organizers came to her apartment complex in Milledgeville, Georgia, last November and said two Democrats running for the five-member board promised to lower her soaring electric bills, the 62-year-old retired nurse was sold.

“I’m supposed to be living the best years of my life, and here I am going to a food bank once a month and getting food stamps so I can pay my bills,” she said in an interview. “So seeing that possibly I could have a say-so on who decides about our rates and what’s happening with the data centers and all, made me interested.”

Meadows, who voted for President Donald Trump three times, cast her ballot for Democratic candidates Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard in last November’s special election.



https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/08/georgia-affordability-utility-campaign-democrats-00815277