On the Democratic Side: A Look Ahead to 2026 Statewide Races for Governor, Lt. Governor

It's never too early to talk about the 2026 gubernatorial races which are pivotal for the Democrats here in Georgia. Some names to keep in mind or potential names to succeed term limited Republican Governor Brian Kemp

Governor

Former Dekalb County CEO Michael Thurmond

Thurmond, aged 72, recently completed two successful terms as CEO of Georgia's largest county. He previously served as Georgia's Labor Commissioner from 1998 to 2010 and was elected to the Georgia State House in 1986, representing Athens-Clarke County as the first black candidate elected there since Reconstruction. He also led the of Family and Children's Services and directed Georgia's transition welfare to. Thurmond is known as a centrist, capable of building coalitions across political spectrums. The only question is whether will be able to appeal to a younger, diverse Democratic base since his last run in 2010. He is as bridge from the old guard Democrats of Murphy to the new guard Democrats of Stacey Abrams.

Jason Carter 

Carter, who last ran governor in 2014, is seen as a potential candidate the position. Carter, 49 years old, is the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, who died last week at the age of 100. Currently, he is the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Carter Center It has been ten years since Carter last ran for statewide. If there is better time for Carter to return to politics, 2026 would be the year.

Lester Miller 

Miller, an attorney and small businessman, is his second term as mayor of Macon-Bibb County, a non-partisan seat. Miller's leadership, Macon-Bibb County has seen its property taxes cut in half, an increase in public safety, the removal of eyesores across city, and improved economic development. an eye on Miller for 2026.

Michael Russell 

If I had to name a dark horse candidate, Michael Russell would be. The highly successful CEO of HJ & Company would be an unconventional candidate if he were to. Although his political affiliation is, would be an intriguing prospect for governor. He also serves on the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Board of Directors. His pro-business credentials would be a welcome change to a party that is seen as unfair to the business community.

LT. GOVERNOR:

Jonathan McCollar

McCollar is entering his second and final term as mayor Statesboro, located in east central Georgia. Under his leadership, Statesboro has experienced in economic development, and he has made historic investments in public safety, a 70% reduction in crime over five. Additionally, poverty has decreased 30%. McCollar was also appointed of the National League Cities Universities Communities Council. He brings a Georgia perspective and represents the next of new Democratic leaders in Georgia.

Teresa Tomlinson  

Tomlinson last ran for the U.S. Senate seat the Democratic primary, coming up short against now Senator Jon Ossoff. However, Tomlinson is still regarded as a statewide contender for positions such as Governor, Lt. Governor, Secretary of State, etc. She previously served as Mayor of Columbus is now a partner with Hall, Booth and Smith. 2026 might be the year Tomlinson decides to make run for a statewide seat, or she could position herself as Sanford Bishop's replacement if and when decides to as the 2nd Congressional District Representative.

Michael Angelo James 

James is current mayor of Waycross. He is also a pastor and a professor at Coastal Pines Technical College. rural Georgia becoming more of a priority for State Democrats in the aftermath of the November elections, politicians like James would help rebuild rather thin Democratic bench. His strong connections in the church would appeal to social black conservatives and evangelicals as well.

James Lester "Jim" Gillis IV 

Gillis, IV is an Investment Advisor who hails from Athens. A native of Soperton, Ga, Jim Gillis IV certainly has an impressive lineage! His family has indeed played a significant role in Georgia's political landscape going back over 100 years. Jim L. Gillis Jr., his grandfather, was a notable figure who served as Co-Manager for Lyndon Johnson's 1964 campaign for Governor of Georgia. His brother, Hugh Gillis, was a longtime State Senator, Jim Gillis, Sr was the longtime Highway Commissioner and helped create present day Interstate I-16.  And Neil Gillis, the founder of present-day Treutlen County, was a prominent banker and politician. Quite the legacy!

Bryan Miller 

Miller, a former executive for the Zell Miller Foundation and the grandson of former Governor and U.S. Senator Zell Miller entered the race for Lt. Governor back in 2022 before dropping out early in the primary. Miller platform included preserving the Hope Scholarship that has made an impact on the lives of many Georgians graduating High School. He currently runs Brasstown Strategies, located in Atlanta.

A look at the races for Attorney General, Secretary of State coming Thursday

Rural Georgians to keep an eye on in 2025 and beyond

Ron Johnson

Mayor of Donalsonville (Seminole County)

Johnson was elected mayor of Donalsonville back in 2020, located in the southwest corner of Georgia. A graduate of Florida A&M, He made history in becoming the first black candidate to ever become mayor of the city. Johnson. He currently works for the Seminole County Board of Education.

Jeren Fullmore

Pearson, Ga City Councilman (Atkinson County)

Fullmore elected in 2023 is serving his first term as councilman for the city of Pearson (Atkinson County). Fullmore is a U.S. Army Veteran and former Deputy Sheriff for Tattnall County.

Nikki Bryant

Owner of Adams Pharmacy in Preston, Ga (Webster County)

In a time where many young rural Georgians leave home and never return, Adams did the opposite. Adams who is a third generation Georgian decided to return to her hometown to open a pharmacy to address a crucial need for citizens in her home county as well as surrounding areas of Webster County. Independent Pharmacists like Bryant are need more now than ever in many of rural Georgia's poorest counties. 

James Hitchcock

Owner, 3H Cattle Co. (Washington County)

Hitchcock with his daughter

Hitchcock, a 4th Generation farmer that farms over 1500 acres of land out of Washington County. He currently serves as County Commissioner for Washington County and is considered the leader of the next wave of Georgia Ag producers.

Lisa James Mayor Pro-Tem St. Mary's (Camden County)

James is currently the Mayor Pro Tem of St. Mary's, Ga located in the southeast corner of Georgia. She is the former VP-Regional Business for Bank of America and currently is a financial representative for Modern Woodmen of America

Micah King

Former City Councilman, Glennville (Tattnall County)

King served on the Glennville. Ga City Council later ran for mayor of the city. He is also a community organizer who is an entrepreneur, President at Animation TV Network. He also works as an Financial Counselor at Soldier for Life-Transition Assistance program and at Fort Stewart where he assisted soldiers and their families from military to civilian life.

Jenny Robbins

Community Development Manager, Georgia EMC (Clinch County)

Robbins represents Georgia's Electric Membership Corporations in South Georgia by providing educational training, strategic planning and leadership development. She was also Main Street Manager for the City of Homerville

Jim Gillis, IV

Financial Planner, Investment Advisor (Clarke County)

A native of Soperton, Ga, Gillis graduated from the University of Georgia and now currently serves as a Investment Advisor Representative for Northwest Asset Management. Gillis comes from one of Georgia's legendary political families where his father, great grandfather played major roles in shaping Georgia politics and Treutlen County. Gillis IV is also president of Soperton Naval Stores and trustee of the Georgia Forestry Foundation.

James E. "Jimmy" Carter Died Sunday at 100. (1924-2024)

Jimmy Carter passed away yesterday at 3:45 p.m. in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family. He was 100 years old. His impact on politics and human rights will endure forever. He was a man of the Georgia red clay. Born in 1924 in Plains, Georgia, which is  minutes from my hometown of Oglethorpe, Carter grew up during Great Depression, under the reign of Georgia's infamous Governor Eugene Talmadge and Jim Crow. He graduated from Plains High School and in 1941, enrolled Georgia Southwestern State University. He later Georgia Tech before embarking on a promising career in the U.S. Navy.

In1953, following the death of his father, James Earl Carter, Sr., Carter retired from the Navy and returned to Plains to take over the family farm. Two years later, he ran for his first office, the Sumter County Board of Education. As a graduate of Annapolis, and with the broadening experience of a naval career, Carter was among the more open-minded white rural Southerners of his generation. refused to join the Citizens’ Council of Sumter County during that time.

In 1962, Carter ran for the Georgia State Senate against Homer Moore from Stewart County. Carter explained in "Turning" that in 1962, under pressure from the federal courts, each of the state 54 senate districts was redrawn and apportioned more equally in terms of population by the General Assembly, and election outcomes would be decided exclusively by winning a.
majority of the popular vote. Carter said this made a senate run “attractive” to political newcomers like himself.

Another key reason he ran for senate was a graduation speech he gave (likely in 1964) at Union High School in.which it had to do with his first political in July 1961 when he was the chairman of the Sumter County school board. At the time, led the pro-consolidation campaign in the countywide referendum.

After bypassing a run for Congress, he ran for Governor instead. He finished behind eventual winner Democrat Lester Maddox, Republican Bo Callaway, and former Governor Ellis Arnall, who ran as an independent.

In 1970, he ran again, this time against former popular Governor Carl Sanders Although he was victorious against Sanders, the primary was remembered for what was perceived as a race-baiting campaign against Carl Sanders.

Then in 1974, Carter announced he would run for President, in which he defeated Gerald Ford in the General Election. Carter's first term was mixed, dominated by inflation and an spiraling economy that he inherited from Gerald Ford and in addition the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979. Some of successes were the creation the Department of Education and the 1978 Camp David Accords.

At the same that Carter to come to grips with international, he had to grapple with domestic ones passed on to him Ford. Unemployment, inflation, and the crisis the list. To the economy and supply more jobs, Carter in1978 proposed $23 billion to $30 billion program for the next eighteen. Although the program would increase spending on job-creating programs, it emphasized tax cuts to encourage businessmen to increase capital investments. Congress much of this economic stimulus package.

Before Congress acted and as economic growth accelerated and unemployment declined, Carter dropped a major feature of his economic program, tax rebate; shifted his attention to around 7 percent; strengthened his resistance to federal job programs and a higher level of spending on welfare spending price and wage controls, he several anti-inflation proposals and promised the budget by the end of term. Yet, when the economy slowed, about unemployment mounted, and he returned to plans for tax cuts.

He also pushed for alternative energy, installing solar panels atop of the White House, national healthcare, among other things. In 1980 he went on to lose to Ronald Reagan in the General Election.

Carter returned to Georgia in 1981 thus began one of the most successful post-presidencies in modern history, from Habitat for Humanity to promoting peace and human rights around the world. Carter was the first Southerner to win the White House since Zachary Taylor 1849. He bridged the old guard segregationist Democratic Party to the new Democratic Party during the 1970s. He was a man of deep religious faith, a true Southern gentleman, a statesman, and a perfect example of what a public servant should be. He loved rural America, hunting, fishing, watching Atlanta Braves baseball games, and he loved the Lord.

He was an everyman: a farmer, Navy veteran, graduate of Annapolis, and businessman. He cared for the poor and was ahead of his time. He related to Black voters and their plight. He lived in public housing after he and his wife Rosalynn returned to Plains following the death of his father, James E. Carter, Sr,

who was a State Representative in the Geo
rgia State House. He was close to Martin Luther King, Sr., but remarkably, he never met his son, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was very close to many veterans of the civil rights movement, including Andrew Young, former Atlanta mayor, Congressman and U.S. Ambassador, and Ralph Abernathy.

His rise to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was a remarkable feat. Although he and his Georgia team were treated horribly by D.C. insiders and the Northern press, did the best he could despite half the Democratic Party plotting to defeat him in 1980 before he could even warm his seat in the Oval Office.

We will never see another like Jimmy Carter in my lifetime. He left a lasting legacy that history will view more favorably. Job well done, Mr. President.

Finally, a Rural Democrat on a Presidential Ticket for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Kamala Harris and the Democrats did well to have Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on their national ticket as the vice-presidential nominee. He’s rural, for real. Walz has a broad appeal in the Upper Midwest battleground states, I expect that to trickle down to states like Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina and he is well-versed in the you-betcha vernacular. The blue brand can barely be peddled along the blacktops anymore, but somehow Walz figured out a way to win a congressional seat in a red district and ultimately the governorship.

Republicans will have a hard time defining the 24 Year Army National Guard Veteran as an out-of-control elite liberal. He is an expert marksman, claims he is a better pheasant shooter than his counterpart JD Vance, and suggests that vegetarians should eat turkey since it is not really meat. He hails from West Point, Nebraska and once got pulled over for drunk driving as a young schoolteacher and coach. (He pleaded down to reckless driving and gave up on drinking under his wife’s advice.)

Walz subscribes to the standard Democratic orthodoxy...... pro-choice, supports gay rights, believes in feeding children at school, champions a living wage and backs labor unions. He is no more liberal than the late Hubert Humphrey or Walter Mondale. Walz favors some gun controls, as Ronald Reagan did. He is, in fact, pretty much your White Midwestern dad dude who coached Mankato West High School to a state football title.

As governor, he made way for pipelines supported by union pipefitting members. 

He might even be able to get rural areas to sit up from its one-party stupor and listen. Walz’s politics of joy contrasts with his counterpart JD Vance politics of exclusion, snark and denial.

Trump has no clue what life is like in places like Swainsboro, Ga or Alamo, Ga or any small town in rural America. Unfortunately, his brand of politics of negativity, doom and gloom appeals to some voters in rural America. JD Vance got out of rural America at the first opportunity and only looked back to condemn his country cousins in a memoir. Rural America is more than resentful people in red caps. It’s Barnesville, Sandersville, Fort Gaines, Statenville, Nahunta, Irwinton,  and first-generation college students at Georgia Southwestern State University or Savannah State University.

Walz gets it. That could be a powerful antidote to the decline of political choice out here in the Lowcountry or Wiregrass regions of rural Georgia and throughout rural America. Rural communities struggling to survive needs an alternative, other than simply more tax cuts, bad roads and more grievance. Walz should use his voice while he can, because Humphrey or Mondale could have told him that nobody listens to the vice president much after November.

The Harris campaign will task Walz with campaigning in the Rustbelt States and Georgia, North Carolina, and maybe even Florida. Simply having a candidate on the national ticket who actually baled hay since (Jimmy Carter) under the Nebraska sun should buck us up. 

The Rural Wall has helped Georgia Republicans dominate statewide elections for years. For Dems, it’s time to change that.

Democrats don’t get elected in places like ruby red Atkinson County for example. It’s important to show that yes democrats are there, they are present, and they ain’t scared of no one. It's time to start chipping away at that red wall in rural Georgia that’s holding them back right now. As they begin their 2024, and then 2026 campaigns for state offices from governor to Labor Commissioner, Democrats know they can count on support in Georgia's fast-growing cities. They see increasing their share of votes in rural counties, which have long titled heavily Republican going back to the early 2000s, as a key part of their strategy to win statewide office for the first time in two decades.

Yeah I know places like Dodge County ain’t gonna turn blue any time soon, but if they can even get their Democratic base out 5 more percent and this is true for every rural county, if rural counties went 5 more percent towards any Democrat running for office, that’s really gonna help out, and that’s what’s going to push us over the edge, say in 2026.

Statewide leaders here in Georgia, both parties, tend to focus only on five or six big counties because you do the math and you think that’s where all the votes are. But I just don’t think that’s right.

We all know how big of a state Georgia is, and I know there was no question that running more than once was absolutely essential to success, however courting rural voters is not something the state Democratic Party has embraced in the past decade. 

There’s a big difference between losing a rural county 70-30 and losing it 55-45, and that’s completely acceptable. But you just can’t keep getting creamed in the rural counties and expect you’re going to win anything statewide. They’re going to have to put a lot more energy and time into figuring out how to talk to those voters in such a way they can hear them.

One thing Democrats need to realize....There’s a pretty good bullsh** detector out in the rural areas and they’ll see through that if you’re not genuine to yourself. Just putting on your cowboy boots and coming out here once or twice is not going to get you the kind of votes you need. The thing I think that makes the difference is it’s not just showing up at campaign time; it’s showing up year after year after year and maintaining those relationships.

These Democratic Women Are Rising Stars and Their Futures are Bright

 

Former State Senator and potential '26 gubernatorial candidate Jen Jordan

Tift County Board of Education member Pat McKinnon

State Representative Anne Allen-Westbrook

Leigh Jordan, Washington County Board of Education

Kristi Jenkins, Washington County Board of Education

Tia McWilliams, Taliaferro County Sheriff and the first black female sheriff to be elected in rural Georgia

Teresa Tomlinson, former Mayor of Columbus

Jerica Richardson, Cobb County Commissioner.

Keisha L. Bottoms, Former Mayor of Atlanta

Teri  Anulewicz, Cobb County State Representative 

Democrats lose about 94% of Rural Georgia Counties...Wanna Know Why?

Because they run weak candidates who simply do not align with the culture, values, hopes, aspirations, concerns and worries of rural folks. The messaging and policies for urban and suburban areas are not tailored to rural communities. Democrats simply dismiss those people as politically expedient at best, or a lost cause at worst. Now if you go back to the 2020 election and 2021 runoffs, both Senators Jon Ossoff  and Raphael Warnock put in a lot of time and effort in rural Georgia, especially the black belt areas/ That effort was critical in both winning their races in which gave Georgia two Democratic Senators for the first time since 1986.

At this point in time, there is very little evidence that the Democratic establishment understands these failures. Politicos endorsing fellow politicos, party elites tipping the scales, political hacks who are ahead of their time, none of this mess works for rural Georgians. The Dems failure to appeal to rural voters has consequences. One, extreme polarization, caused by partisan gerrymandering and the huge urban-rural divide. 

Working class, rural communities in Southwest, central and eastern Georgia are marginalized due to the consolidation of economic and political power inside I-285. Georgia needs the Democrats to be competitive in rural communities, just like we need republicans to be competitive in big cities/ Let me tell you what rural folks want...they want to be valued and heard on their own terms, they want their children to have opportunities at home, etc. Democrats can deliver economic opportunities, but it will require Democrats competing in local elections by charting an independent path forward.