Fed Up With Power Bills, Voters Hand Democrats Control Of Georgia’s Utility Board

Frustration with rising electricity bills and data centers helped Democrats win control of Georgia’s utility regulator on Tuesday, and make gains on Arizona’s.

Democrats Shelia Edwards and Peter Hubbard won, giving the party a 3-2 Georgia Public Service Commission majority, its first in decades, the Georgia Recorder reported. Out West, Democrats Clara Pratte and Jonathon Hill lead in unofficial returns for two Corporation Commission seats, though Republicans would keep a 3-2 majority there, the Arizona Capitol Times reported.

“And everyone said the same thing: The utility bill is too damn high,” Edwards said, according to Atlanta News First.

Georgia voters already ousted two Republican commissioners in 2025. The board had signed off on six rate hikes over three years, adding $43 a month to the average household’s electricity bill, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

In July 2025, the commission voted to freeze Georgia Power’s rates through 2028, according to its website.

The freeze applies only to base rates, not fuel or storm costs, Georgia Power said in a July 2025 release.

Once the new majority is seated, commissioners plan to open an Affordability Docket looking at what families can afford and how the grid costs of data centers get split, Atlanta News First reported.

“We campaigned on making affordability our number one priority, and we’re going to follow through on that promise,” Hill told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a Friday statement.

“We believe household ratepayers should not pay a dime for the cost of electricity, water or infrastructure used by data centers,” Pratte said in a Friday statement to the DCNF.