A self-proclaimed “proven conservative,” Fleming has served in the Georgia House of Representatives’ 114th District since 2023.
The UGA alum previously served as Gov. Brian Kemp’s chief of staff from 2018-2020, and as a Newton County Commissioner from 2009-2013.
Fleming is campaigning on protecting conservative values, championing small business owners and deporting people who live in the country illegally who attempt to vote in state-run elections, among other issues.
Vernon Jones
A former Democrat who shifted from blue to red in 2021, Jones brings over three decades of experience in Georgia politics, with several accolades and controversies.
The 65-year-old Atlanta resident served in the Georgia House of Representatives’ 91st district from 1993-2001 and from 2017-2021.
In 2000, Jones was elected the first African-American CEO of DeKalb County, where he managed a $3.2 billion budget and 7,000 employees from 2001 to 2008. Jones ran for the U.S. Senate in 2008 and for Georgia’s 4th Congressional District in 2010, with both campaigns unsuccessful.
Jones ran against Kemp in the Republican primary for Georgia governor in 2022 before withdrawing to run for the 10th Congressional District seat. He lost in the primary to Mike Collins, who would go on to win the general election.
Kelvin King
A Macon native and U.S. Air Force veteran, King ran for U.S. Senate in 2022, losing in the primary to Herschel Walker.
Kelvin King’s wife is Janelle King, a member of the Georgia State Election Board.
Outside of politics, King is the owner of the construction firm Osprey Management.
Ted Metz
A U.S. Navy veteran and Atlanta resident since 1975, Metz served as the chair of the Georgia Libertarian Party from 2017 to 2019.
He ran for secretary of state in 2022 as a Libertarian, losing to Raffensperger. He also ran for governor in 2018.
Metz is campaigning on the elimination of electronic voting systems to protect against voter fraud in state-run elections.
Gabriel Sterling
Sterling is a former Sandy Springs City Council member who ran for Fulton County Commission chair in 2017.
As the former COO of the Secretary of State’s office, Sterling’s responsibilities included managing state operations such as voting system implementation and the professional licensing board.
The Sandy Springs native garnered national attention for his pushback against President Donald Trump’s accusations of voter fraud in the state during the 2020 presidential election.
“What you don’t have the ability to do, and you need to step up and say this, is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence,” Sterling said in remarks directed at Trump at the time. “Someone’s going to get hurt. Someone’s going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed.”
Sterling ran for the Georgia House of Representatives in District 43 in 1998, losing to Dorothy Felton in the Republican primary.
Democratic
Cam Ashling
Ashling, a small business owner who came to Georgia as a child of political refugees from Vietnam, is running for political office for the first time.
The entrepreneur previously served as the Asian American and Pacific Islander constituency outreach director for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s 2022 campaign.
Dana Barrett
Barrett was the 2020 Democratic nominee for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District seat, losing to Barry Loudermilk.
She has served on the Fulton County Commission in District 3 since 2023. In 2025, she and the other Democrats on the commission refused to seat two conservative election activists on the county’s election board.
“I was willing to go to jail to protect Fulton County elections from MAGA interference. With those efforts ramping up across Georgia, we need a Secretary of State that will fight back against the lies and conspiracy theories,” Barrett wrote in a January social media post announcing her candidacy.
“I will stop at nothing to secure our elections, invest in Georgia’s hardworking small business owners, and crack down on fraud and abuse.”
Penny Brown Reynolds
A former state judge and host of “Family Court with Judge Penny,” Brown Reynolds has over 25 years of legal experience.
She was appointed deputy assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2022.
“I will protect our democracy,” Brown Reynolds said in a 2025 social media video. “I will defend every eligible Georgian’s right to vote. Whether you live in Atlanta or Albany, whether you’re 19 or 90, whether you vote blue, red or not at all.”
Adrian Consonery Jr.
Consonery is a 25-year-old civil rights and voting-engagement advocate from Marietta. He began his activism in 2020 as a student at Grambling State University, when his absentee ballot was challenged.
“Every voter deserves confidence that their voice matters, their ballot counts, and their democracy works for them,” Consonery wrote on his campaign website. “It’s time to build a Georgia where fairness, access, and transparency are the standard, not the exception.”
What are Republican candidates advocating for?
During the Republican debate on Tuesday, Jones said that he stands with those who believe there was election fraud in 2020.
“The comments were there was no widespread fraud. Well, people wanna know how wide was the wide,” he noted. “They didn’t say there was no fraud. They said there was no widespread fraud. So that tells me we had issues with our elections, and I stand for free, fair and transparent elections. That’s why I wanna come back to paper ballots.”
Metz and Kelvin say they’ve questioned elections since then.
“So under my administration, we’re going to implement hand-marked paper ballots. We’re going to have election night results because we will do machine tabulation, but certification will not occur until every count, every ballot has been counted by hand,” said King.
“The myth that paper ballot election counting is error-prone is only a manufactured propaganda point made by the left-wingers to try to keep the machines in place because the left knows that they can manipulate the votes,” added Metz.
Sterling, on the other hand, spent much of the debate defending the state’s systems.
“The faith has been restored except for a small segment of Georgians, and we have a very good system. People like doing it. They go in, they show their ID, they vote very quickly, very easily. We got rid of lines. We have to look at the reality of this. In 2024, right after the election, 90.5% of conservatives said they believed the outcome, and 98.6% of Georgians had a great voting experience.”
There were also several clashes over conflicts of interest and state contracts.
What are Democratic candidates advocating for?
During the Democratic debate, also held on Tuesday, Barrett proposed that voters get a receipt after they cast their ballot, but others raised concerns about privacy.
“I think it’s a very good point. And I think the whole idea here is that we’re trying to rebuild confidence in our elections. And so what do we have to do so that people walk in, cast their ballot, and feel like what they put in is what got counted,” she said. “I’m open to whatever systems are gonna work best, whatever combination of paper and technology that’s gonna work best for the state.”
Brown Reynolds advocated for more early voting locations, something that is currently in the hands of counties.
“They need support from a secretary of state that’s going to help them in any way that I can to do that with training, to do that to advocate for resources they may need. I think that we need to have consistency throughout all 159 counties,” said the former Fulton judge.
Newcomer Consonery talked about changing ID verification for absentee voting, while Ashling talked about the idea of making Election Day a state holiday.
“So everybody can go vote on Election Day without having the many barriers of taking time off,” Ashling said.
All four candidates said they supported expanding ranked choice voting in Georgia.
Early voting continues through May 15. Election Day is on May 19.
