With their candidates losing in metro Atlanta, Georgia GOP seeks to remove party labels

ATLANTA — With Democrats steadily wiping out Republicans electorally in the core Atlanta counties of swing-state Georgia, Republicans have a new idea: Make most local candidates run for office without party labels.

The Republican-majority Georgia House on Friday gave final passage to a bill that would require nonpartisan elections in the five most populous counties in metro Atlanta. Among officials affected would be Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, whom Republicans have repeatedly targeted because of her prosecution of Republican President Donald Trump after he pushed to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s key win in Georgia in 2020.

State Sen. John Albers, a Republican from the Atlanta suburb of Roswell who pushed the bill, said he believed it was needed to promote public safety, even though the counties’ elected sheriffs will continue to be elected under party labels when it goes into effect in 2028.

“This is a bill that makes perfect sense,” Albers said during Senate debate Thursday. “If you’re playing politics, you’ll be against this. If you want to keep Georgians safe, you’ll be for it.”

The measure would require nonpartisan elections for district attorneys, lower level county prosecutors called solicitors general, county commissioners, court clerks and tax commissioners.

It would apply in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, as well as the suburbs of Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties. Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties are the three most important Democratic jurisdictions in the state. Cobb and Gwinnett, once the suburban heartlands of Georgia Republicans, have increasingly come under Democratic control since 2016.

Democrats assailed the bill as trying to rig elections so Republicans running without party labels had a better chance to win.

“The reason we’re putting this bill forward 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 spokesperson for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, declined to say Friday whether Kemp will sign the bill into law.

While the bill’s primary sponsors have denied the measure targets Willis, other Republicans edged closer to that theme.

“By passing this legislation, we’re giving voters the opportunity to rid themselves of district attorneys who are more concerned with playing partisan games than prosecuting and delivering justice,” said Rep. Trey Kelley, a Republican from rural Cedartown.

Republicans have passed multiple bills in recent years targeting district attorneys and Willis in particular. The association representing district attorneys argues that the law can’t change the partisan status of district attorneys because they aren’t county officers, but instead state judicial branch officers.

The association argues that a state constitutional amendment is what’s needed instead. That would be exceedingly unlikely given Democrats have enough strength to block the two-thirds vote needed in the General Assembly to propose such a measure to go before Georgia voters.

Two of the 99 Republicans voted against the bill, including Republican Jordan Ridley, whose district includes part of Cobb County.