DAs seek to block Georgia law making local offices nonpartisan

Credit: (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Credit: (Ben Gray for the AJC)

The lawsuit against the state is being filed Wednesday afternoon in Fulton County by DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston. She announced the case at Liberty Plaza across from the Georgia Capitol, supported by District Attorneys Fani Willis, Sonya Allen and Tasha Mosley, representing Fulton, Cobb and Clayton counties, respectively.

“Republicans here at the state Capitol want to make it harder for voters in our counties to choose the people who best represent us and our values,” Boston said. “But today, we are here at the state Capitol to tell those lawmakers that we will not shy away from speaking up for the people of Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Fulton counties.”

If successful, Boston’s lawsuit will invalidate the new law and restore partisan elections to all five affected counties, each of which is represented by a Black Democratic woman serving as district attorney.

Gwinnett District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson supports the lawsuit but is taking a back seat in the fight out of respect for her role on the board of the statewide district attorneys’ association, Boston said.

“We have all been united from the very beginning of this fight, and as a group we made the decision that I was best positioned to take on this fight,” she said.

Austin-Gatson previously called the new law a “deliberate act of voter disenfranchisement” and vowed to fight it with “every tool available to us.”

Republicans have framed the legislation as an effort to depoliticize local offices and encourage voters to focus on candidates rather than party labels. Critics counter that if that were truly the goal, lawmakers would have applied the changes statewide instead of limiting them to the state’s biggest Democratic stronghold.

Boston said the inequality the new law creates is one of the ways it violates the Georgia and U.S. constitutions.

“The Legislature did not give any legitimate reason for treating our counties, our elected officials, our voters, different from the rest of the state’s 154 counties,” Boston said. “It is very hard to ignore that the five counties targeted by this law have large Black voter populations and have all elected Black female district attorneys.”

The law applies to district attorneys, county commissioners and other elected officials in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties beginning in 2028. It moves elections for most of those posts, excluding district attorneys, to lower-turnout May contests held alongside nonpartisan judicial races.

Under the new law, nonpartisan district attorney elections would be held in November.

Each of the district attorneys in the five metro counties are up for reelection in 2028. Willis, Boston, Austin-Gatson and Mosley each won reelection in 2024, when Allen ousted the Democratic incumbent in Cobb, Flynn Broady.

The new law is also tied to the political fallout surrounding Willis and her prosecution of President Donald Trump and his allies over efforts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election.

Willis was invoked during legislative debate over the measure, and Georgia Republicans have spent months pursuing other avenues to scrutinize her conduct. A state Senate committee investigated her handling of the election interference case, while Trump allies have signaled additional inquiries could follow.

Boston said the state Senate voted down the initial version of the new law in March, prompting certain Senators to unlawfully insert it into a bill about food trucks “to bring their dead bill back to life.”

“This statute is clearly unconstitutional, and we believe it will be struck down,” she said. “As the longest tenured DA in this group, I am honored to lead the charge on behalf of the nearly 4 million Georgians who live in the five affected counties.”

Willis and Boston previously denounced the legislation as a “clearly unconstitutional” effort to override the will of voters.

“Sadly, thanks to the irresponsible actions of the Republican majorities in the legislature and Governor Kemp, taxpayers will be the ones footing the bill to defend it in court,” they said in a joint statement.

The district attorneys have also argued the measure would obscure partisan affiliations from voters in counties where party identification is often a key factor in local elections.

“This is a blatant attempt by Republicans to give their candidates an edge in Democratic counties by hiding their party affiliation from voters,” Willis previously said.