Fulton commissioner enters Georgia secretary of state race

Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett formally announced her campaign for Georgia secretary of state Thursday with a promise to protect voting rights from forces she says are making it harder to vote.

“We should make it easy for every eligible voter in Georgia to vote,” she said at an Atlanta event announcing her candidacy.

Barrett has styled herself as an anti-MAGA warrior in Fulton County’s ongoing battle with President Donald Trump’s supporters who believe the 2020 election was rife with fraud. Last year, she was one of two county commissioners who refused to approve two Republican Party nominees to the county election board they labeled as far-right “extremists” — even after a judge ordered the commission to do so.

The judge later held the commission in civil contempt for violating his order, imposing a fine of $10,000 a day until it approved the appointments. The fine is on hold while the county appeals the judge’s order.

On Thursday, Barrett defended her decision.

“We followed the law and we are following the legal process,” she said. “I have a right to my vote on that board of commissioners. And I believe fully in that right.”

Barrett is a former talk radio host and small business owner who unseated an incumbent Republican county commissioner in 2022. She joins a growing field of Democratic candidates to replace Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who is term-limited and is running for governor.

The other Democratic candidates include political organizer Cam T. Ashling, former Fulton County State Court Judge Penny Brown Reynolds and voting rights advocate Adrian Consonery, Jr.

On the Republican side, the candidates include state Rep. Tim Fleming; former state Rep. Vernon Jones; former U.S. Senate candidate Kelvin King, who is married to State Election Board member Janelle King; and Gabriel Sterling, who served as one of Raffensperger’s top deputies.

If elected, Barrett said she would work to streamline business licensing and protect seniors from scams and cyberattacks. But she spent most of her news conference underscoring the stakes for future elections.

“Georgia’s next secretary of state will be the one who counts the votes for president in 2028,” Barrett said. “Donald Trump and his antidemocracy billionaire donors know that. And that’s why they’ll do everything they can to win this race.”

Raffensperger famously resisted Trump’s call to “find” 11,780 votes as he sought to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s Georgia victory in the 2020 election. Barrett said she’s glad Raffensperger did that but accused the secretary of doing the “bare minimum” required of his office.