Georgia Public Service Commissioner Tricia Pridemore’s announcement Tuesday that she won’t seek reelection opens up her District 5 race in November.
Pridemore is one of three Republicans on the five-member Public Service Commission (PSC), which regulates Georgia Power and other statewide utilities. The PSC’s District 3 seat, currently held by Democrat Peter Hubbard, is also up for election this year, so the November elections will determine the political balance of power on the commission.
There are at least five contenders – three Democrats, a Republican and a Libertarian – for Pridemore’s seat. Pridemore, who’s served on the PSC for eight years, said in her announcement that she may run for Congress in Georgia’s 11th District, where Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) is not seeking reelection.
PSC elections are statewide, but commissioners must live in the district they represent. PSC District 5 covers West and Central Georgia, including Cobb County, while District 3 covers Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton, and Rockdale Counties.
More candidates could jump into either PSC race, since the qualifying period runs from March 2 to March 6. However, contenders who’ve announced they’re running have already started fundraising ahead of the May 19 primaries.Here’s who is running for the two PSC seats so far and how much money they had raised as of Jan. 31, when they filed their most recent campaign finance disclosures.
PSC District 3
Peter Hubbard, the Democrat incumbent, flipped the District 3 seat from Republican in a special election upset last Nov. 4. So far, he does not appear to have any Democratic primary challengers. His campaign has $97,000 in cash on hand.
Two Republicans have indicated they’re running for the District 3 seat.
- Fitz Johnson, who lost the seat to Hubbard last November, is running to retake it. “See you in 2026,” was his message last year in an X post conceding his loss. He reported $88,000 in cash on hand in his Jan. 31 disclosure.
- Brandon Martin has reported no fundraising so far, but he has a campaign website.
PSC District 5
This now open seat has drawn at least five contenders, according to the Jan. 31 campaign finance disclosures.
- Thomas Blooming, a Libertarian, is a systems engineer in Smyrna. He has reported no fundraising so far.
- Joshua Tolbert, a Republican, owns an engineering consulting firm. He was previously the CTO of Last Energy, which develops small modular nuclear reactors. Tolbert was one of the contenders in last year’s special election to replace Sen. Jason Estevez (D-Smyrna) in state Senate District 35. (Jaha Howard, a Democrat, won the election.) He reported about $110,000 in cash on hand, with $91,000 as a self-loan.
- Craig Cupid, a Democrat, was a partner in the intellectual property practice at BakerHostetler until taking a professional sabbatical last March. He is married to the Cobb County Commission chair, Lisa Cupid. This is his first run for public office. Cupid has raised about $25,000, with $20,000 cash on hand.
- Shelia Edwards, a Democrat, has filed paperwork to fundraise. Edwards, who said she owns a concession business at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, also publishes SPOTLIGHT South Cobb News. She won the Democratic primary for the PSC District 3 race in 2022, but the General Election was cancelled, due to a lawsuit challenging its validity. Edwards ran in 2024 for the Cobb County Commission chair, but lost the Democratic primary to Lisa Cupid.
- Angelia Pressley, a Democrat, owns a public relations firm, AP Advertising & PR Worldwide, and teaches business communications at Clark Atlanta University. She also serves on the boards of Cobb Wellstar Hospital and Keep Cobb Beautiful. Pressley unsuccessfully ran for the Cobb County Commission in 2020. She has raised about $24,000, including a $2,600 self-loan.