Fulton County Commission gets makeover in 2026 election

The 2026 election season remade more than just Congress and Georgia’s state government — it gave the Fulton County Commission a nearly complete makeover with new faces in five of its seven seats.

In interviews over the past week, newly elected commissioners pledged to be more collaborative than previous boards in tackling huge, systemic issues that have plagued the county for years, such as addressing an underfunded court system and horrid conditions at the jail, not to mention plans for a new hospital in Union City.

Chair-Elect Mo Ivory, who unseated longtime Chair Robb Pitts in the Democratic primary runoff election before easily winning the general election, said she hopes residents will see “a new level of class to the way that we deal with each other and our decorum.” She also said residents can expect an approach to decision-making based more on data analysis and research, and less on politics.

Ivory said Pitts often secured the three other votes he needed for a majority on a particular piece of legislation before the meeting, sidelining the three other commissioners from the policy-making process.

“Because of that, the meetings always were very long and contentious,” Ivory said in an interview at her home in Grant Park, adding the commission has operated like a dysfunctional family at times.

“I just don’t want that to be a part of the way that we govern,” she said.

The Nov. 3 Democratic landslide across the nation and state was felt in local races in metro Atlanta, where Democrats defeated incumbent county commissioners in Fulton, Cobb and Gwinnett, and flipped the majority on the Cobb school board.

Emory University political scientist Andra Gillespie said local candidates likely benefited from voters who chose Democrats straight down the ticket, when they might have skipped over local races in a less polarizing year.

Gillespie said Democrat Maggie Goldman’s victory over incumbent Republican Bridget Thorne for the Fulton Commission’s northern District 1 seat was especially unsurprising. Thorne was listed as a witness in an affidavit the U.S. Department of Justice used to justify the January raid of a county election operations center — a link to the Trump administration Goldman made part of her campaign.

“In a wave year, somebody like her is going to be particularly vulnerable,” Gillespie said of Thorne, noting she barely beat Goldman in 2022.

Goldman’s win means District 2 Commissioner Bob Ellis will be the board’s only Republican next year. He and District 6 Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman were not up for reelection.

Outgoing Commissioner Dana Barrett noted that Pitts and Abdur-Rahman, both Democrats, often formed a 4-vote majority voting bloc with Thorne and Ellis.

“Though we had five people with Ds next to their name in my commission, two of them didn’t really vote that way,” Barrett told the AJC, adding the new board will have a “clear Democrat majority,” one that aligns with Democratic values.

In a statement to the AJC, Ellis said he looks forward to welcoming the new members and has always worked well with commissioners across the aisle. He said his focus remains on ensuring the county provides the best services possible “while living within our means and giving our residents real value for their precious tax dollars.”

He said the board has accomplished too much to reverse course.

“We have several important projects in the works including building a new hospital, acquiring the Atlanta City Detention Center, building an 1,800-bed jail facility, and strengthening our behavioral health services,” he said.

Pitts and Abdur-Rahman did not respond to requests for an interview.

Ivory said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ plan to sell the city detention center to the county could affect the new commission’s approach to solving an intractable problem: abhorrent conditions in the Rice Street jail that a U.S. Department of Justice investigation deemed dangerous and unconstitutional.

In April, the Fulton Commission unanimously approved a $1.36 billion financing plan that involves renovating the jail and building an 1,800-bed “special purpose facility” for inmates with mental health or other medical conditions.

“Just in the election time period, this (detention center) deal came to be, so it kind of changes what the previous commission sort of anticipated to do and the dollars behind it, because they didn’t factor in necessarily the acquisition,” Ivory said.

Ivory and Goldman said they plan to do away with a requirement that new commissioners must serve at least two years on the board before being named vice chair, clearing the way for the new board to appoint an incoming commissioner to the leadership position.

Additionally, Ivory and Goldman said they expect the new board to roll back recent legislation, sponsored by Ellis and Abdur-Rahman, that made them the only two county commissioners to serve on a new “budget commission” that is preparing the proposed budget for calendar year 2027.

Some of the county’s justice system leaders last month protested the move by refusing to take part in budget hearings this fall.

Ivory also hopes to set up a committee structure to flesh out details on certain issues before they are brought to the full commission.

“A lot of our commissioners are subject matter experts on certain things,” she said. “They have been working on these issues, whether it was criminal justice, public health or tax appraisals, things like that.”

Goldman, a real estate agent, said one of her top priorities is examining whether the county is undervaluing commercial properties and needs to revamp its assessment process. Helen Willis, a former South Fulton City Council member, said her priorities include “adequately” funding the justice system and addressing a lack of healthcare facilities south of Interstate 20.

Commissioner-Elect Jodi Merriday, who works as ombudsman of neighborhoods for Atlanta’s mayor, said she plans to spend her first 90 days talking to residents throughout District 3.

Commissioner-elect Rohit Malhotra, who won a special election to fill the District 4 seat that Ivory vacated to run for chair, will be sworn in next week.

Ivory, Goldman, Willis and Merriday will take their seats in January.

Malhotra, founder and executive director of The Center for Civic Innovation, said one of his top priorities for the county is to treat gun violence like a public health crisis, in part by finding grants to fund related programs.