ATLANTA (AP) — Former Republican and onetime Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is running as a Democrat for governor, a remarkable step for a staunch critic of President Donald Trump who left the conservative fold in a region where party switchers have gone the other direction for generations.
“I’ve never wavered in taking on Trump. So Georgia Republicans threw me out of their party,” Duncan said in his announcement video released Tuesday. “I was leaving anyway. Now I’m running for governor as a proud Democrat.”
A 50-year-old resident of a Republican stronghold north of Atlanta, Duncan joins an already crowded Democratic field. Top candidates include former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, state Sen. Jason Esteves and former labor commissioner Michael Thurmond.
Duncan pitches himself as the most electable Democrat in a state that still leans slightly Republican. On policy, he plans to focus on health care and cost-of-living issues. And he plays up opposition to the GOP’s Trumpian turn.
“It’s time to win,” Duncan told The Associated Press on Tuesday in a phone interview. “I’m the only one who can who can bring Democrats, independents and disgusted Republicans to vote for us in November ’26.”
Duncan served as lieutenant governor after a term in the state House
Duncan won the state’s second-highest office in 2018 after one term in the state House. Two years later, Democrat Joe Biden eked out a victory in a state Republicans had dominated.
Kemp and other key Georgia Republicans spurned Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 results, but Duncan was maybe the most outspoken opponent.
Kemp endured opposition from Trump, thrashing a Trump-endorsed challenger in the 2022 GOP primary on his way to again defeating Democrat Stacey Abrams. But Duncan opted against reelection to instead become a paid CNN contributor as a former elected Republican who opposed Trumpism. The state GOP formally excommunicated Duncan in January, citing acts including speaking at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris
“For someone who once proclaimed himself to be about principle over politics, it turns out the only principle that guides Geoff Duncan is his insatiable appetite for attention,” state Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon said Tuesday.
Duncan argues it’s the party that changed, not him. “I’m still the same Geoff Duncan that knocked on doors and told folks that I was going to do it a different way,” he said.
“I’m the only one in this race who’s pushed back on Donald Trump as hard as I have and been as consistent as I have, and I think that’s an important part of this narrative,” he said. “Millions of Georgians wake up every day embarrassed and disgusted by Donald Trump’s toxic, disruptive leadership style.”
Duncan faces questions about support of 2019 state law banning most abortions
Some of Duncan’s achievements as lieutenant governor may appeal to Democrats, like brokering a state hate crimes law and supporting foster care improvements. But a candidate who boasted in 2018 of being “100% pro-life” faces sharp questions about his support of a 2019 state law banning most abortions. Duncan now says “I think women do deserve the right to choose,” saying he’s gained “perspective” since the law passed.
Duncan explains his party switch in moral terms as well as political terms, saying he could “love my neighbor” better as a Democrat.
“Every day there was somebody else that we weren’t allowed to talk to, we weren’t allowed to work with, we weren’t allowed to problem solve with,” Duncan said. “And that just became a zero-sum game for me. Democrats have a much bigger tool bag of tools to use to help folks in need.”
He cites GOP opposition to tighter gun regulations and expansion of Medicaid health insurance as other examples of Republican orthodoxy he no longer supports.
A crowded Democratic field is seeking the nomination
The question for Duncan is whether he can corral enough Democratic votes to win the nomination. Duncan’s allies highlight his stumping for Harris. But Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, also backed Harris and earlier worked in Biden’s West Wing.
“Georgians want a governor who has fought to expand Medicaid instead of eliminated it, who protects reproductive rights rather than stands ‘100 percent’ against them and who puts Georgia, not political ambition, first,” Bottoms said in a statement Tuesday.
Duncan’s supporters tout his relative youth, but Esteves, an up-and-coming lawmaker, is even younger at 42. Like Bottoms, Esteves’ campaign criticized Duncan’s previous opposition to abortion.
“Georgia women won’t forget,” said Esteves spokesperson Aida Ross.
Supporters note Duncan’s experience as a former legislator who has won statewide office. But Thurmond, 72, has been a legislator, won statewide three times as Georgia labor commissioner and ran the school system and county government in DeKalb County. Thurmond, like Duncan is also appealing to moderates and even some anti-Trump conservatives.
