Penny Brown Reynolds Runs to End a 20-Year GOP Hold

Penny Brown Reynolds is the Democratic nominee for Georgia secretary of state and faces Republican Tim Fleming on November 3. The seat is open because Brad Raffensperger left it to run for governor and finished third in the May Republican primary with 15.0 percent.

Reynolds is a former Fulton County State Court judge. She was executive counsel to Roy Barnes, Georgia’s last Democratic governor, who chairs her campaign. If she wins, she would be the first Democrat to hold the office since Cathy Cox left after Karen Handel, a Republican, was sworn in on January 8, 2007.

Reynolds Faces Fleming on November 3

She led a four-person Democratic primary on May 19 with 435,185 votes, then beat Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett in the June 16 runoff, 242,439 to 141,759. That is 63.1 percent to 36.9 percent on 384,198 certified runoff ballots.

Barrett had Fair Fight Action in the runoff. Reynolds had U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Georgia AFL-CIO, and Georgia Conservation Voters, and she still cleared 60 percent. Cam Ashling took 12.3 percent in May and Adrian Consonery Jr., the other Democrat in the original field, took 10.1 percent.

THE 2026 NOMINATION PATH

Fleming, a Republican state representative from the 114th District, finished first in a five-person GOP primary, then beat former state Rep. Vernon Jones 430,455 to 236,920. Gabriel Sterling, the secretary of state’s former chief operating officer, was held to 12.0 percent in May. Kelvin King took 15.9 percent and Ted Metz 5.6 percent.

The Last Democrat Left This Office in 2007

Cox, the first woman to serve as Georgia secretary of state, left after the 2006 election. Handel’s swearing-in on January 8, 2007, started an unbroken Republican run that now includes Brian Kemp, Robyn Crittenden, and Raffensperger, who has held the job since January 14, 2019.

WHO HAS HELD THE OFFICE

Georgia’s official roster of secretaries of state shows no Democrat after Cox. A January 2027 successor would mark 20 years of Republican control of the office that certifies statewide results, charters businesses, and licenses professions.

Democrats have been on the ballot. In 2018, an open-seat runoff, Raffensperger beat former U.S. Rep. John Barrow 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent, a 3.8-point race. In 2022, Raffensperger beat Bee Nguyen 53.2 percent to 44.0 percent, a 9.2-point gap. The 2026 contest is the first open secretary of state race since that 2018 runoff.

What Roy Barnes Is Betting On

Barnes lost the governorship in 2002, the same turn that ended Democratic control of Georgia’s statewide machinery. Reynolds worked for him as executive counsel from 1998 to 2000 and, according to her campaign biography, was the first African American to hold that post and to serve as his chief of staff. He is now her campaign chair.

Republican turnout talk treats that arrangement as the point of the race. A Democratic secretary of state chaired by the last Democratic governor is, in that telling, a Barnes-network office, not a neutral clerk. Reynolds has answered with a pulpit-style canvass and a convention speech that casts the job as a calling, not a title.

REYNOLDS’S PUBLIC RECORD

• Governor’s counsel: Executive counsel to Gov. Roy Barnes from 1998 to 2000, after earlier work as chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Pierre Howard.
• Trial judge: Fulton County State Court judge from 2000 to 2008, one of the youngest judges in the state, with a prior stint as a state assistant attorney general.
• Civil rights post: Acting assistant secretary and deputy assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2022 to 2025.
• Other work: Ordained minister, Georgia State University instructor, and host of the 2009 Emmy-nominated series Family Court with Judge Penny.

When she entered the secretary of state race in September 2025, she put the bid in those terms.

I didn’t come to have a job, I came to do a job.

Penny Brown Reynolds, campaign announcement

She also said every Georgian, “no matter their zip code, age, or income, deserves dignity, fairness, and the chance to succeed.” Warnock, endorsing her on June 3 before the runoff, said she would “expand access to the ballot and cut bureaucratic red tape.” Barnes called her a leader with “vision, integrity, and a proven record to lead.”

Jessica Mackler, president of EMILYs List, went further after the runoff, when EMILYs List endorsed her in June. Mackler called Reynolds “the exact leader we need in office to stop Republicans’ scheme to suppress voters in its tracks,” and said Fleming had spent his time in the House “clamoring for Donald Trump’s support, peddling lies about Georgia’s elections, and pushing bills to strip away Georgians’ voting rights.”

Fleming Took the Lane Raffensperger Left

Raffensperger became a national figure by refusing Donald Trump’s request to “find” enough votes to reverse Georgia’s 2020 presidential result, then winning re-election in 2022. He used that record in a 2026 governor’s bid and was rejected by Republican primary voters, taking 15.0 percent behind Burt Jones and Rick Jackson. Sterling, the office insider most tied to Raffensperger’s elections operation, finished fourth for secretary of state.

Fleming is a former chief of staff to Gov. Kemp and served as deputy secretary of state under Kemp. President Donald Trump has endorsed him. The Republican runoff was a contest between Fleming and Jones, a former Democratic legislator who switched parties; both ran as Trump allies, and Fleming won it with 64.5 percent.

The Georgia Democratic Party has cast that endorsement as the choice on the ballot: a former judge who has taken an oath, or a Trump-backed legislator at the head of the elections office.

The guy who tried to steal Georgia’s 2020 election wants “MAGA Patriot” Tim Fleming to be our state’s top elections official. 

One more reason we’re voting for Penny Brown Reynolds – an experienced judge who’s sworn an oath to uphold our Constitution and will never let bullies… pic.twitter.com/bUfxyC5TOl

— Georgia Democrats (@GeorgiaDemocrat) September 29, 2026

Raffensperger is still in the job through January. His office is spending the close of the term fighting a State Election Board that, in letters dated September 30, asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Georgia’s voting system, force a software update, and end QR-code tabulation. Spokeswoman Michon Lindstrom said people “who are serious about election security don’t inject chaos in the eleventh hour,” and that in roughly 30 days Georgia’s 159 election directors “will conduct a free, fair, and fast election for all eligible Georgia voters.” Early voting begins October 13, so that update will not be on the machines this cycle.

The Winner Awards Georgia’s 2028 Voting System

In-person voters on November 3 will still use Liberty Vote (Dominion) ImageCast X ballot-marking devices and ImageCast Precinct scanners, the statewide system Georgia has used since 2020. The state paid $108 million in 2019 for that rollout.

The next secretary of state will not run those machines forever. During a June special session, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 3EX and Gov. Kemp signed it. The law creates an Election Equipment Specifications and Standards Committee, due to report by January 31, 2027, on a new statewide system built around hand-marked paper ballots printed on demand, in time for 2028. A 2024 deadline to stop counting QR codes was pushed to January 1, 2028, so this year’s printouts still carry them.

The same bill bars the sitting secretary from choosing equipment unless the committee votes to bring in staff. Lawmakers set the specs and the budget. The contract itself goes to Georgia’s next secretary of state. Vendors were already pitching printers and tabulators in early October. The Eternal Vigilance Institute has put the cost of 6,500 on-demand printers alone at about $85 million.

SB 202, in 2021, had already taken the State Election Board gavel away from the secretary of state. SB 3EX also adds a statewide hand recount, paid for by the state, if the margin in designated constitutional offices, including secretary of state, is 0.5 percent or closer. County officials still check in voters and count ballots. The secretary certifies the statewide result and, after this cycle, signs the hardware that will be used in 2028.

HER STATED PRIORITIES

• Voting access: Her campaign says she will expand early voting sites and drop boxes, keep absentee instructions clear, and protect election workers from threats.
• Licenses: She says Georgia processes over 700,000 licenses across 64 professions and that nurses, teachers, contractors, and social workers should get priority processing.
• Small business: She wants faster business formation, a “Business Access Georgia” dashboard, and mobile fairs aimed at rural counties and farms.
• Fraud: She proposes a statewide campaign against licensing scams and elder exploitation, with more public education on cybersecurity.
• Records: She promises a public data portal on elections, filings, and licenses, plus quarterly accountability reports and town halls.

At the 2026 Democratic Party of Georgia state convention she put the same pitch in shorter words: “This is our time. This is our Georgia.”

Voter Registration Closes on October 5

The calendar is short. Georgia’s voter registration deadline for the November 3 election is October 5, in person, by mail postmark, or online. Advance voting starts October 13. Absentee requests opened August 17. SB 3EX did not change those dates.

THE ROAD TO NOVEMBER 3

1. September 2025: Reynolds announces a Democratic bid for secretary of state, with Barnes as campaign chair.
2. May 19, 2026: She finishes first in the Democratic primary with 435,185 votes (42.3 percent) and advances to a runoff.
3. June 16, 2026: She wins the runoff with 242,439 votes (63.1 percent); Fleming wins the Republican runoff with 430,455 votes (64.5 percent).
4. October 5, 2026: Voter registration closes for the general election.
5. October 13, 2026: Early in-person voting begins, still on the 2019 Dominion equipment.
6. November 3, 2026: Georgia elects a secretary of state to succeed Raffensperger.

County election directors will still run the rooms on November 3. The next secretary of state will certify what they count, and will later sign the contract for the machines that replace the ones voters are using now. Registration for that election closes on October 5.