A number of prominent Cobb County Democratic elected officials were critical of a bill signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp that would make a number of metro Atlanta elected offices non-partisan two years from now.
On Tuesday, Kemp signed HB 369 (you can read it here), which would make elections for county commission, school board, District Attorney, Solicitor General, Tax Commissioner and court clerks non-partisan in Cobb, Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Clayton counties.
County sheriffs elections and DeKalb County commissioners elections would be exempt from the law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2028 and would become effective with the 2028 election cycle.
The law was passed near the end of the 2026 session of the Georgia General Assembly and was substituted for a bill designed to regulate food trucks that met the legislature’s crossover day deadline.
The Republican-led legislature was accused by Democrats of cutting into the latter’s political dominance in heavily populated metro Atlanta counties.
That includes Cobb, which had been GOP-dominated from the 1980s to 2018 but now has Democratic majorities on the Board of Commissioners and the Cobb legislative delegation.
Republicans lead the Cobb Board of Education with a 4-3 split on a body that has become increasingly contentious along party lines.
State Sens. John Albers and Kay Kirkpatrick, Republicans with East Cobb constituencies, were among the main co-sponsors of the bill.
Albers said the bill was necessary for local jurisdictions to focus on public safety, as the five counties are considered “consolidated law enforcement counties.”
But at a press conference Tuesday before Kemp signed the bill, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, Commissioner Erick Allen and Solicitor General Makia Metzer held a press conference urging him to veto it.
They contended that the bill isn’t Democratic because county elections in 154 other Georgia counties remain partisan.
“This is not transparency, and this is not how you promote democracy,” Cupid said in making prepared remarks at the Cobb County government headquarters building in downtown Marietta. ”
This is not how our Cobb County citizens expect us to make decisions here and it should not be how decisions are made at the state level.”
Cupid said also said the law raises state constitutional questions, which several metro district attorneys, including Sonya Allen of Cobb, have alleged.
On a social media posting Wednesday morning, State Rep. David Wilkerson, a Democrat who is the chairman of the Cobb legislative delegation, said that “the Republican brand is so tainted in the metro area that they had to remove party identification. All this will do is create need to identify every elected official by political party. Local judges, city council, etc.”
Many of the positions held by metro Atlanta Democrats are black females, including Cupid and Allen.
Not all local Republicans were on board with HB 369 or didn’t state a preference. State Rep. Don Parsons of East Cobb voted against the bill, and State Rep. Sharon Cooper of East Cobb was excused from the final vote.
In Georgia, county commission and school board races as well as statewide constitutional officers have been elected in partisan fashion. Municipal elections and judicial seats have been decided in non-partisan elections.
Related:
- Cobb Elections reports 32K early voters in primary elections
- Cobb commission candidates endorsed by ex-county leaders
- Cobb Board of Elections and Registration hires new director
- Cobb school board candidate profile, Nichelle Davis, Post 6
- Cobb school board candidate profile: Jennifer Susko, Post 6
- Cobb school board candidate profile: Susan McCartney, Post 4
- Cobb school board candidate profile: Micheal Garza, Post 4
- Cobb Commission candidate profile: JoAnn Birrell, District 3
- Cobb Commission candidate profile: Chris Wasserman, District 3
- Seven East Cobb precinct locations to change for 2026 elections
- East Cobb Early Voting Guide for the 2026 primary election
- East Cobb News explainer: How we cover politics and elections
- MORE: Visit the East Cobb News Politics & Elections Page
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