Marisa Mecke
| WABE
June 16th, 2026
Updated June 16, 2026,
10:10 PM EDT
Democratic Georgia state Sen. Josh McLaurin will face Republican state Sen. Greg Dolezal in the race for Georgia’s next lieutenant governor.
The race is to replace Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is running for governor.
McLaurin beat former state Sen. Nabilah Parkes by 10 percentage points in the Democratic primary, and Dolezal beat state Sen. John F. Kennedy by eight percentage points in the Republican primary on Tuesday.
McLaurin points to bipartisan work
McLaurin is a 38-year-old attorney from Sandy Springs. He serves in the state Senate covering District 14, which includes portions of Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Roswell, Sandy Springs and a small part of northeast Atlanta.
Before the Senate, McLaurin flipped a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives in 2018 in District 51 covering a portion of Atlanta north of the perimeter.
McLaurin points to his experience working broadly with Democrats and Republicans at the Georgia legislature as a sign he’d be an efficient leader as lieutenant governor.
McLaurin said he criticizes Georgia Republicans, but still maintains their respect.
“They trust me, because they know that I’m there to do the work and that I won’t back down — And that’s why, because I have Republicans’ respect, I’ve passed legislation,” McLaurin said at an Atlanta Press Club debate. “I got the first million dollars for veterans for PTSD in the state budget. I get regulated car booting, all because I could work with them and hold them accountable at the same time.”
Parkes is a 36-year-old consultant from Duluth. She campaigned on issues such as strengthening Medicaid, addressing cost of living, eliminating the sales tax on menstrual products, diapers and strollers in car seats, and bringing back the school tax holiday.
She highlighted her background as the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants, a public school student and first-generation college graduate, plus her work as a senator, in her pitch for how she would defend working-class Georgians in the state legislature.
She resigned from her position in the Senate to focus on her campaign earlier this spring, a move heavily criticized by her McLaurin, particularly during a legislative year featuring a special session.
Dolezal beats Kennedy for GOP nomination
As a senator, Dolezal serves the district around Cumming. He’s a member, and the original chair, of the Georgia Freedom Caucus, a state chapter of a national organization focusing on promoting ultra-conservative policies at the state level.
His campaign focused on big-ticket conservative policies he’s successfully passed legislation on, like school choice legislation, the Riley Gaines Act, and what he refers to as “DEI mandates.”
However, Dolezal has also bridged some political divides during his campaign: he has stated several times he is in favor cutting tax breaks for data centers and is generally against tax carve-outs for big companies, a stance supported by some legislators on both sides of the aisle.
Dolezal came under criticism during the lieutenant governor race for a video advertisement he released depicting Muslims terrorizing white Georgia residents, declaring he would “keep Georgia sharia free.” Legislators like Ruwa Romman said the commercial is expressly Islamophobic.
