Georgia voters head to the polls Tuesday, November 3, 2026, to decide two statewide seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission, a five-member board that regulates Georgia Power and has final say over electricity rates and grid expansion. The outcome could determine how the state handles a data center pipeline that already includes more than 100 operational facilities and could grow by 119 more, according to reporting cited in the race coverage.
The stakes are unusually concrete this cycle. Georgia is expected to have roughly 60 large data centers running by the end of 2026, with the additional 119 planned for later years, according to Axios. Those planned facilities would increase Georgia's current 3,906-megawatt capacity by 287%, per Cleanview records cited in that same reporting — a figure also described elsewhere as requiring the state's power capacity to grow by nearly 300%. All registered Georgia voters can cast ballots for both commission seats because the races are conducted statewide rather than by district, according to Georgia Recorder.
The Candidates and the Math Behind a Possible Majority Flip
Democrat Peter Hubbard, a clean energy advocate who unseated Fitz Johnson in a 2025 special election, is defending his seat against Johnson in a rematch, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting. In the other race, Republican Josh Tolbert faces Democrat Sheila Edwards for the commission's other open seat. If Hubbard and Edwards both win, the pair would join sitting Democrat Alicia Johnson — who also won her seat in a 2025 special election after unseating Tim Echols — to form a 3-2 Democratic majority, which The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports would mark the first time Democrats have controlled the panel in three decades.
A mid-August poll of 800 likely voters conducted by GBAO Strategies for the Georgia Conservation Voters Action Fund found both Democratic candidates ahead after voters heard the candidates' biographies: Hubbard led Johnson 51% to 42%, and Edwards led Tolbert by the same 51-to-42 margin. Outside groups have poured an unprecedented $3.1 million into the statewide races, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's reporting on spending tied to backing the Republican candidate.
Why Data Centers Are Driving the Campaign
The commission's oversight of Georgia Power has made data centers a flashpoint in the race. Georgia Power is expanding the grid by nearly 10 gigawatts, with the utility saying 80% of that new generation is intended for hyperscale data centers, per Georgia Public Broadcasting's reporting. The commission approved that 10-gigawatt grid expansion agreement.
The proposed OpenAI data center planned for Effingham County illustrates the scale regulators are now weighing. The facility needs 3,200 megawatts of power — roughly equal to the output of three of the nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle — and is slated to become the single-largest electricity user in Georgia, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Georgia Power and OpenAI say the facility will be able to cut its usage by about one-third when demand from other customers surges. Commissioner Hubbard has said the single contract dwarfs what the commission typically approves through its standard 20-year load-growth planning process, per The Current.
Bills, Rate Freezes and Who Pays
Money is the other thread running through the race. Georgia Power customers saw their bills rise by more than $500 per year between 2023 and this past summer, before data-center-related costs have even begun filtering through, per the same Georgia Public Broadcasting report. The commission has approved electric-rate increases since 2022, though it also approved a rate freeze for residential customers through 2028 in July 2025.
Hubbard has said modeling shows that adding large-load data-center customers could push fuel costs for everyone up by 5% to 11%. A Georgia Public Service Commission fact sheet states that if projected large-load demand does not materialize at expected levels, Georgia Power — not ratepayers — will cover the associated costs through 2031, and a separate PSC media advisory says the utility agreed to financially backstop new projects in 2029, 2030 and 2031, beyond the residential rate freeze running through 2028.
Where the Candidates Diverge
Edwards supports a pause of at least one year on new data-center construction while Georgia develops regulations for the facilities, per Georgia Recorder's voter guide. She has pledged to stop Georgia Power from imposing additional rate hikes and to require data centers to pay their fair share, while Hubbard wants data centers to fully cover their own costs and supports a faster transition to renewable energy. Both Democratic candidates have pledged to hold Georgia Power more accountable for customer energy costs and to ensure data-center expenses are not passed on to residential ratepayers.
Tolbert, meanwhile, opposed approval of the grid expansion, according to the same Recorder voter guide. He has pointed to Plant Vogtle's cost history to make his case: construction there reached $17 million per megawatt, compared with $1 million to $2 million per megawatt for natural-gas plants, and the expansion was completed seven years late with a $17 billion cost overrun, Tolbert told FOX 5 Atlanta. He has also said utility costs play a major role in Georgia's broader affordability problem.
What Georgia Power and Regulators Are Saying
Debate over data-center contracts has included how to protect other ratepayers. A Georgia PSC spokesperson declined to comment for the story.
Economic Development Stakes on Both Sides
Economic development is another issue in the race. On October 24, President Donald Trump announced that Audi plans a plant in middle Georgia carrying an investment of more than $4 billion and projected to produce 200,000 vehicles annually.
