Leila Meadows had never heard of Georgia’s Public Service Commission.
But when climate organizers came to her apartment complex in Milledgeville, Georgia, last November and said two Democrats running for the five-member board promised to lower her soaring electric bills, the 62-year-old retired nurse was sold.
“I’m supposed to be living the best years of my life, and here I am going to a food bank once a month and getting food stamps so I can pay my bills,” she said in an interview. “So seeing that possibly I could have a say-so on who decides about our rates and what’s happening with the data centers and all, made me interested.”
Meadows, who voted for President Donald Trump three times, cast her ballot for Democratic candidates Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard in last November’s special election.
She was not alone. In a stunning upset, Johnson and Hubbard unseated Republican incumbents Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson by record margins — installing Democrats on Georgia’s Public Service Commission for the first time in more than 20 years. The race, the only statewide election on the ballot, ultimately flipped 22 counties that Trump carried the year before.
Democrats’ victory in Georgia could be a bellwether for public utility elections throughout the country this year as Republicans and Democrats vie to win the messaging battle on energy affordability — and as sky-high power bills shine a national spotlight on the typically low-profile regulatory boards.
Most state utility regulators are appointed by governors — but in 10 states, voters elect them. This fall, 15 commissioner seats will be on the ballot in nine states, all controlled by Republican majorities. Democratic strategists and green groups are already looking to replicate Georgia’s playbook, which leveraged voter frustration with high power bills to drive a multipronged campaign and record fundraising.
Public utility commissioners determine how much customers pay for power and how states meet their energy needs — making these obscure state regulators some of the most powerful officials shaping the nation’s energy mix and approving electricity prices. The proliferation of sprawling data centers to power artificial intelligence is only elevating their role, as energy-guzzling supercomputers threaten to hike rates higher, destabilize an already shaky electric grid and pollute neighborhoods.
“There was a lot of organic anger at folks’ power bills across the state,” said Mark McLaurin, Georgia state director for the advocacy group Climate Power. “And so a few of us looked at that and said, ‘Well, if we can harness that anger into getting folks to recognize that where this happens is at the Public Service Commission level, we could really get a campaign going.’”
Momentum builds
It’s difficult to overstate the buzz surrounding Georgia’s utility board election last fall.
Political efforts to connect the dots for voters between their surging bills and the little-known utility board rapidly gained speed. Johnson, a public health professional, and Hubbard, a clean energy expert, each ran on a platform largely focused on lowering power bills. Funding from national groups poured in, YouTube vloggers and social media influencers took up the cause and green groups hosted get-out-the-vote events across the state.
“Almost everyone we know voted,” Atlanta resident JD Penn, who voted for Johnson and Hubbard, said in a text. “And the majority were reposting voting guides and information about what the commission does and the significance of flipping those seats.”
Georgia Conservation Voters PAC invested $2.3 million, its largest-ever electoral campaign. The group’s national affiliates contributed a further $1 million. And the Democratic National Committee raised $100,000, turning out hundreds of volunteers to call, text and otherwise motivate voters on the ground.
It was the first time the DNC got involved to that extent in a regulatory panel race, a spokesperson told local publication Capital B Atlanta last year.
“Our team is already working in Arizona on some of the very same things,” McLaurin of Climate Power said. In Arizona, utility regulators are weighing a 14 percent rate increase on top of hikes in 2024, 2023 and 2017.
Other states are taking note. On the heels of Georgia’s Democratic victory, Alabama Republicans introduced a bill that would have shifted utility commission elections to an appointment system — but it failed to gain support.
In a statement announcing the bill’s demise, Alabama Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, a Republican, said lawmakers had offered the bill as a “solution” to protect Alabama’s Public Service Commission from the same “environmental extremists” that “captured” Georgia’s panel.
In addition to Georgia, Alabama and Arizona, the other states that elect utility board members are Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota. All but Mississippi will hold elections this fall. Louisiana and now Georgia are the only states with elected Democratic commissioners on their boards.
Georgia’s playbook
In some ways, Georgia’s election offered a perfect storm for Democrats that could be difficult for activists to replicate.
A lawsuit alleging voter discrimination led officials to delay the PSC race to 2025, making it the only statewide election on the ballot last year. With no competition for attention or resources, the election took center stage in progressive political circles and drew major funding from national groups looking to influence clean energy policies at the local level in the wake of Trump’s push to annihilate federal climate policy.
“There was nothing else consuming people’s time and energy,” said Brionté McCorkle, executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters, who filed the lawsuit. “And so we decided that we were going to embrace this opportunity and really kick up our organizing.”
Georgia Conservation Voters and Climate Power enlisted comedians to create online content. They sent educational pamphlets through the mail, visited apartment complexes like Meadows’ and hosted early voting events, such as a food truck open house with the Park Avenue Baptist Church, which is right across the street from the Grant Park early voting site.
Advocates plastered a bus with the slogan “power bills too high” and delivered residents from across the state to a utility commission meeting, McLaurin said. Power bills in hand, customers testified during the public comment period about how exorbitant rates were affecting their day-to-day lives.
McLaurin secured guest spots on Black radio stations in Savannah, Macon and Albany. His organization partnered with ONE Musicfest, the Southeast’s largest music festival celebrating Black culture and featuring a lineup of hip-hop, R&B and soul. Concertgoers were consistently reminded to vote by a giant static ad flanking the mainstage, he said.
“Climate Power’s focus was not exclusively, but predominantly among Black voters, and especially among Black voters outside of Atlanta,” McLaurin said.
It paid dividends. Black voters came out in force.
Anger over increasing utility bills had been simmering for years. The Public Service Commission greenlit Georgia Power’s requests for six rate hikes in two years, in part to pay down Plant Vogtle, the most expensive infrastructure project in U.S. history. The nuclear plant suffered delays and budget overruns, ultimately costing $35 billion, nearly double the original budget.
Rising gasoline prices, infrastructure updates and projections for higher power demand — driven in part by the state’s rapidly growing data center industry — hiked rates an average of $516 more per year between 2023 and 2025.
Georgia Power requested a whopping 10,000-megawatt electric grid expansion to power data centers that the Public Service Commission approved last December. The commission has frozen rates through 2028, but advocates worry that the grid expansion, which is estimated to cost $60 billion, could eventually be recouped through ratepayers.
“Our bill right now is almost $500 a month, and it’s supposed to be reduced because I have an electric car,” said Atlanta resident Shannon Owens, who gets a home energy rebate for her EV charger. “So I can’t even imagine what other people in the neighborhood are paying.”
While the timing and momentum may have been particular to Georgia, Democrats’ victory highlights the extent to which rising electricity rates can animate voters and spur education about utility regulation.
National electricity rates continue to rise, outpacing wages and inflation, federal data shows. A recent report from the consumer group PowerLines found that since 2021, costs for residential electricity have risen 30 percent.
New politics of electricity
Ultimately, Democrats’ winning message in Georgia was pretty simple, said Hubbard, one of the newly instated Democratic commissioners.
“If you’re frustrated with your power bill, then here are the reasons why, and here’s the solution, which is to vote for me,” he said.
That is a message candidates at every level of government are trying to cash in on as the 2026 midterms approach.
“We are entering a new politics of electricity,” said Charles Hua, executive director of PowerLines, which advocates for lower utility bills. “A much broader set of stakeholders and policymakers are suddenly being asked about this issue and need to have solutions and responses for tackling the issue of rising utility bills.”
Democrats running on a message of energy affordability secured gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey last fall. And underdog candidates in key congressional and state legislative races are following suit in an effort to differentiate themselves.
While more Americans think Democrats, not Republicans, are the party most committed to reducing electric prices, those margins are thin, a recent POLITICO poll found. And Republicans are working to catch up.
Trump announced during his State of the Union address that major technology companies building sprawling data centers had committed to “pay their own way” to keep consumer prices from surging — though his plan is nonbinding and still sparse on details. The president also ordered an all-of-government effort earlier this year to identify ways to cut electricity prices for American households.
While energy affordability is shaping up to be a key issue in major elections this year, ultimately the government officials with the most direct power to lower prices sit on state utility commissions most people have never heard of — until now, perhaps.
“There’s just generally going to be a lot more eyeballs around obscure elections like these,” Hua said. “People recognize and are connecting the dots that this impacts their daily pocketbooks.”
So, now what?
Johnson and Hubbard may have secured hard-won spots on Georgia’s utility commission, but they are still in the minority. Last month, the board voted 3-2, along party lines, against a motion from environmental groups to reconsider Georgia Power’s grid expansion request to fuel data centers.
Environmental groups said the utility was relying on speculative electricity demand growth that may not be borne out by events. The grid expansion would mark Georgia Power’s largest ever.
“So a little frustrating to still be in the minority,” Hubbard said. “But that’s to be expected, of course.”
There’s a chance that could change this November if Democrats can win two races.
Because Georgia’s PSC elections were pushed off for several years, the term Hubbard won was for one year only. That means he will again face Fitz Johnson, who has formally announced he will run to reclaim his PSC seat.
This time, Johnson is doing more to emphasize ratepayer protections.
“Reliable, affordable power is not a luxury. It’s the backbone of family budgets, job growth and Georgia’s economic future,” he said in his campaign announcement.
The second race is to replace Republican Commissioner Tricia Pridemore, who recently announced she would not seek another term — setting up a competitive campaign to secure the panel’s majority.
“We could control the commission 3-2,” McLaurin of Climate Power said, referring to Democrats. “So that’s going from 0-5 to 3-2 in one year.”
While a political overhaul could be swift if Democrats can replicate their 2025 victories, bringing prices down could take longer.
“Even though electricity travels at the speed of light, we can’t change the system overnight,” Hubbard said. “It’s going to take time.”
