ATLANTA, Ga. — Every Georgia voter gets a say Tuesday in who sets the price of electricity, and the two Public Service Commission contests on the ballot could hand Democrats a majority on the five-member board for the first time in decades.
Commissioners represent districts but run statewide. Republicans hold three of its seats today; Democrats hold the other two. It decides rates and long-range plans for privately owned power, gas and phone utilities, with Georgia Power the biggest of them.
In District 3, Democratic incumbent Peter Hubbard faces Republican Fitz Johnson in a rematch. Hubbard beat Johnson last year in a special election, taking nearly 63% of the vote, took office in January for a one-year term, and now seeks a full six years. Johnson, a 21-year Army veteran, first joined the board in 2021 on an appointment from Gov. Brian Kemp and left it in December 2025.
District 5 is an open seat between Republican nominee Josh Tolbert and a Democratic nominee who is a business owner and communications consultant. If Hubbard holds on and the Democrat takes District 5, Democrats would control the commission alongside Commissioner Alicia Johnson.
Data centers sit at the center of the fight. Georgia has more than 100 operating sites and roughly another 100 planned that together would need close to 20 gigawatts of power. Last December the commission approved a deal letting Georgia Power add 10 gigawatts to the grid by 2030, largely to serve that demand. Since 2022 the board has also approved a string of rate increases.
Both Democrats say data centers must cover the cost of their own power, and the District 5 Democrat has backed a pause of at least a year on new ones while rules are written. Johnson has defended the current rules for large power users and says he wants to keep energy reliable and affordable and keep Georgia attractive to employers. Georgia Power says it already makes data center operators pay for the extra capacity they need, and some site-selection consultants warn tougher approvals could push projects to other states.
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