ATLANTA— Democrat Michael Thurmond has a long resume of public service, and now he wants to add governor of Georgia to the list. Thurmond announced his 2026 bid for the state’s highest office Wednesday, saying he’s “going to fight for the people of Georgia every day,” but also pitching himself as someone who can bridge racial and political divides to become the first Democrat to win the state’s top office in 28 years.
Thurmond promised in an interview Tuesday to be a leader who “will focus on the everyday issues that most Georgians are concerned about — i.e. the cost of groceries or rent or paying the mortgage, access to health care and quite frankly ending divisiveness that has prevented us from progressing more in this state.”
The 72-year-old Thurmond joins a Democratic field that already includes state Sen. Jason Esteves, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and others who are seeking their party’s nomination in an attempt to succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who can’t run again after two terms.
Thurmond is one of only three Black people to win election to statewide office in Georgia, serving three terms as labor commissioner after first winning election in 2010. He was also the first Black state legislator from his hometown of Athens since Reconstruction when elected in 1986. Like all the other currently declared Democratic candidates, Thurmond is now seeking to become Georgia’s first Black governor.
When Thurmond tried to run for Senate in 2010, he lost badly to incumbent Republican Johnny Isakson, running significantly behind Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Barnes that year.
Thurmond most recently served two terms as the elected CEO of DeKalb County, an Atlanta suburb that had $150 million in the bank when he left office. Before that, he was credited with stabilizing the DeKalb County school system as interim superintendent, after its accreditation agency threatened to strip its seal of approval, citing financial mismanagement, school board dysfunction and nepotism. Thurmond also oversaw welfare reform as director of Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services in the mid-1990s, after he gave up his state House seat to make an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1992. Thurmond is a lawyer and he has written multiple books on Georgia history. “I bring a record of service and accomplishment,” he said. “I, throughout my career, never shied away from taking on tough jobs.”
Both Bottoms and Esteves have showcased plans to oppose what they see as wrongheaded policies put forth by President Donald Trump, appealing to Democratic partisans who are fearful and angry. Thurmond says he too is a fighter, but frames it differently.
“It’s not fighting Trump,” he said. “I’m going to fight for Georgia residents.”
Some Democrats are also calling for a generational turnover in leadership, a trend that’s clearly apparent among the primary opponents of longtime U.S. Rep. David Scott. After more than four decades in politics, Thurmond said he believes a track record of success will be more important. “The number one concern of the Democrats I talked to is that they want a candidate who can win,” he said.
Thurmond is the youngest of nine children born to a sharecropper. He was class president of Athens’ all-Black high school when it was consolidated with the historically all-white high school in 1970. Thurmond has said that until then he knew few white people, but as co-student body president, had to learn how to deal with others. He said part of his path to victory is to pursue the “better angels” of voters in the same way that got him elected labor commissioner.
“It’s not a hypothetical for me. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I’ve experienced it,” Thurmond said. “And consequently I come into this race with great faith in this state and the people of Georgia.”
