Runoff to decide Democratic nominee for Georgia's Public Service Commission

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Policies around Georgia's Plant Vogtle are overseen by the Georgia Public Service Commission. (Photo by Pallava Bagla/Corbis via Getty Images)

ATLANTA - Georgia voters will head back to the polls on Tuesday to pick which Democratic candidate will be on November's ballot for one of the posts on the Georgia Public Service Commission.

The commission oversees utilities, including Georgia Power.

The backstory:

Keisha Waites and Peter Hubbard are competing in a runoff after neither won a majority on June 17. Waites earned 47% of the vote, while Hubbard received 32% in the three-way race. Under Georgia law, when no candidate wins a majority, a runoff is required to choose a winner.

A green energy advocate, Hubbard touts his experience testifying before the commission and developing alternative plans that emphasize a shift toward solar power stored in batteries, rather than building more natural gas plants.

Waites is a former state House member and former Atlanta City Council member. She emphasizes that she would give representation to Black people and Democrats on the commission. In a statement Wednesday, Waites said her previous experience in office would help her work with others to lower rates.

Dig deeper:

Turnout was exceedingly low in early voting, and fewer than 100,000 voters are likely to decide the nominee.

Debate has centered on bills charged by Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co. Georgia Power customers have seen bills rise six times in recent years because of higher natural gas costs and construction projects, including two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, and other factors. A typical Georgia Power residential customer now pays more than $175 a month, including taxes.

The commission sets rates and oversees generation plans for Georgia Power, which serves 2.3 million customers statewide. 

The five-member commission, currently all Republicans, also oversees some natural gas rates for Atlanta Gas Light and Liberty Gas.

Georgia usually doesn’t have statewide elections in odd-numbered years, but these were pushed back after elections were delayed by a lawsuit that unsuccessfully challenged the statewide voting scheme as discriminatory towards Black people. No Georgia Public Service Commission elections have been held since 2022 because of the lawsuit.

What's next:

The winner of the primary will face incumbent Republican Fitz Johnson, who ran unopposed in the primary. Johnson was appointed to the commission in 2021 by Gov. Brian Kemp and has never faced voters. He was originally scheduled to run in 2022 for the last two years of his predecessor’s term . Instead, the District 3 winner can run again next year for a six-year term, after lawmakers rewrote the terms.

In the District 2 Republican primary, incumbent Tim Echols won the primary. Echols has been on the Public Service Commission since 2011.

Echols will face Democrat Alicia Johnson, who ran unopposed in the primary, come November.