Five candidates are running for two seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission in the general election on November 3, 2026. Incumbent Peter Hubbard (D) and Fitz Johnson (R) are running in District 3. Shelia Edwards (D), Josh Tolbert (R), and Thomas Blooming (L) are running in District 5. District 5 incumbent Tricia Pridemore (R) ran for the U.S. House rather than seeking re-election.
The Georgia Recorder's Alander Rocha said the election "is becoming a test on whether pocketbook issues and concerns about unchecked data center growth can overcome traditional party lines ... after the commission signed off on a series of Georgia Power rate increases in recent years." Rocha said, "Republicans running for the seat this year are facing ideological differences over how to approach utility regulation, and looking at the May primary results, it appears Republican voters are also divided."
Hubbard defeated then-incumbent Johnson in a special election in 2025. He is a former energy analyst who ran unsuccessfully for the Georgia House of Representatives in 2022. His campaign website says he had "[p]ublished a data center cost analysis estimating that data center electricity discounts shift over a billion dollars in infrastructure costs onto residential customers."
