Kamala Harris isn’t the only Black woman being scrutinized in the aftermath of Democrats’ latest devastating loss to Donald Trump.
Many Georgia Democrats are calling for the resignation of their party’s state leader, U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, arguing that voter turnout and election results across the state could have been better this election cycle if the Harris campaign and Georgia Democratic Party operatives had spent more time and resources outside of metro Atlanta.
Democratic leaders tell Capital B Atlanta that U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, is one of the most prominent critics calling for Williams’ departure. The first-term senator from Atlanta is up for reelection in 2026 in what is expected to be an uphill battle against a GOP opponent. Some say the Nov. 5 election results prove changes need to be made to turn Georgia blue in future elections.
Ossoff’s office declined to comment on rumors that he asked Williams to step aside, but Williams claims Ossoff told her, “I don’t want you leading the party with me at the top of the ticket,” according to recent texts obtained by Capital B Atlanta that the congresswoman sent to colleagues detailing the alleged discussion.
Conversations with more than a dozen Georgia Democratic Party leaders reveal a divide has emerged over whether Williams should continue to lead the party at the state level. Supporters, including state Rep. Derrick Jackson, D-Tyrone, say attacks against Williams may partly be due to her gender and race.
“If Nikema was a white man, nobody would be asking her to step down,” he said.
Jackson notes that Williams led the party during the 2020 election cycle, when Democrats turned Georgia blue for the presidential election for the first time since 1992. The state elected two Democratic U.S. senators, Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, for the first time since 2000. He also pointed out that the party has gained additional seats in the state House since Williams became its leader in 2019.
“When I got elected in 2016, there were only 62 [state House] Democrats,” Jackson said. “Now we’re up to 80.”
Yet critics point out that Williams is largely restricted from raising money for local and state office candidates due to campaign finance laws and rules limiting federal lawmakers from doing so.
The Young Democrats of Georgia raised the issue over the weekend in a letter calling for a change in leadership within the Democratic Party of Georgia.
“The Georgia Democratic Party deserves a chair that’s primary focus is raising money for the State Party and electing Georgia Democrats up and down the ballot,” the letter reads. “It is essential that we receive the necessary resources to operate effectively as a key part of the Democratic coalition in Georgia.”
That letter came a day after one signed by nearly two dozen Democratic state legislative candidates who also called on Williams to step down, suggesting she’s not doing enough to help candidates campaigning beyond Atlanta.
“Simply put, members of Congress shouldn’t be leading State Parties of battleground states, especially if they spend more time campaigning in their solid blue district than leading the party in every region of the state,” the letter reads.
State Rep. Carl Gilliard, D-Savannah, who chairs the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus, is also calling for Williams’ resignation. He acknowledged Harris and her campaign surrogates made multiple trips to southern Georgia cities like Savannah and Macon this year in response to years of related criticism from Georgia Democrats and voter engagement activists who do voter mobilization work outside the Atlanta region.
But more rural areas of the state, where many Black Georgians live, didn’t get much attention from the campaign, according to Gilliard and others, who argue the neglect may have dampened Black voter turnout and added fuel to the claim some have made that the party takes rural Black voters for granted.
“The Democratic Party of Georgia cannot continue to leave the people on Main Street out,” Gilliard told Capital B Atlanta. “We cannot assume that just because we’re Black we’re going to vote Democrat.”
Bryan County Democratic Party chair Keith McCants, who lives in Richmond Hill, said Democrats are losing support from many infrequent Black voters in rural areas who voter engagement activists such as New Georgia Project founder Stacey Abrams and Black Voters Matter co-founders LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright spent years mobilizing during the mid-to-late 2010s.
Part of the problem, McCants said, is that some of the progressive views supported by the state party, such as increasing gun safety laws and supporting transgender girls playing kindergarten through 12th-grade girls sports, are turning off more conservative Black Democrats who lived outside major cities.
“The policies they’re pushing are catering more towards the suburban voter and the urban voter, whereas down here in rural Georgia, we’re left out here in the cold,” McCants said. “A lot of folks down here don’t support no trans girls playing sports. You’ve got a huge majority of folks in the metro area that do believe that. So there’s a divide.”
State party leaders challenged some of their critics’ claims, pointing out that their get-out-the-vote efforts led to Harris gaining an estimated 2.54 million votes, slightly more than the roughly 2.47 million Biden gained in 2020 despite Harris losing to Trump, who received about 199,000 more votes this year (2.66 million) than he received during the last presidential election (2.47 million).
“We increased Kamala Harris’s vote total in Georgia over President Biden’s in 2020 by more than 70,000 votes — more than all other battleground states combined — and cemented the Peach State’s status as a battleground state heading into next election cycle,” Democratic Party of Georgia Executive Director Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye told Capital B Atlanta in statement. “While we’re all disappointed and still processing last week’s election results, Georgia Democrats made a strong showing in the face of a national red wave that saw Donald Trump sweep every battleground state.”
This story has been updated.
