ICYMI: Politico: How Georgia supercharged sleepy utility boards

Atlanta, GA — Last week, Politico reported on Peter Hubbard and Alicia Johnson’s upset victories in November 2025, winning two spots on the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) – flipping Republican seats for the first time in over 20 years – as skyrocketing electricity prices drove voters to the polls. Politico also details Climate Power’s work to educate voters about how the PSC sets the price Georgians pay for power. 

Read some highlights below: 

Politico: How Georgia supercharged sleepy utility boards

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.’”

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.

“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 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.

“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.

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.

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