Rates, tort reform key in Georgia insurance commissioner race
Georgia insurance and safety fire commissioner is a three-way race in 2026.
Evelyn Davidson
The Telegraph
The Georgia insurance and safety fire commissioner is a four-year, no term-limit executive role in the state government.
The commissioner leads Georgia insurance industry regulation and state fire safety efforts through standards and best practices set by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
This seat is up for election on the Nov. 3 ballot. The incumbent, John F. King (R) is running against Keisha Sean Waites (D) and Colin McKinney (L).
Republican nominee John F. King
Appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 before being elected to a full term in 2022, King became the first Hispanic statewide official in Georgia. He grew up in Albany, served in the U.S. Army National Guard, worked as an Atlanta police officer and was chief of police for Doraville.
“When I was appointed Insurance Commissioner, I inherited a broken agency,” King wrote in an Aug. 18 Facebook campaign post.
King said finishing the work he started is part of his campaign for reelection.
His top issues and initiatives:
- Recovering taxpayer money from insurance companies
- Holding insurance companies accountable through fines
- Tort reform
- Switch from Obamacare to the state-run Georgia Access
- Strengthening partnerships with law enforcement and first responders
- Holding arsonists and other fraudsters accountable through investigations headed by the commissioner’s office
- Disaster support in the form of claims villages which connect impacted citizens with providers.
Democratic nominee Keisha Sean Waites
Waites served three terms as the Georgia House District 60 representative for southeast Atlanta. She is a former Atlanta City Council member, though she resigned before completing her full term. She worked in the U.S. Small Business Administration Disaster Assistance Division and held roles in the Legislative and External Affairs divisions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
At FEMA, Waites worked on recovery response efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and was on the external affairs team to help after the Haiti earthquake in 2010. She also helped organize tests of lead in Flint Michigan’s water in 2016.
Waites faces several ethics violations for using taxpayer money to print and mail campaign newsletters, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. After resigning from city council, she received cease-and-desist letters for filming campaign videos inside Atlanta City Hall.
Cost of living is a high priority for Waites in her campaign.
“Georgia families are paying some of the highest insurance rates in the country — for their homes, their cars, and their healthcare,” Waites wrote in an Aug. 13 Facebook post. “As a homeowner, driver, and taxpayer, I know exactly how painful and frustrating this system has become. Georgians deserve relief, accountability, and leadership that understands their struggle firsthand. I’m running for Insurance Commissioner to deliver that change.”
Her top issues and initiatives:
- Reviewing and challenging unjustified rate hikes for auto and home insurance
- Ending zip code and credit score discrimination, including bringing modern equipment and faster response times to underserved and rural Georgia areas
- Developing a fraud strike force to mitigate insurance scams targeting seniors and other vulnerable groups.
Libertarian nominee Colin McKinney
McKinney is an emergency medicine doctor in Athens. His goal as commissioner is to provide “the most free-market solutions possible,” according to his campaign webpage, while focusing on fraud protection, enforcement of contracts and justice.
“Georgians deserve a better relationship with their insurance,” he wrote in an X post Jan. 23.
His top issues and initiatives:
- Making health insurance plans outside of employers and across state lines more accessible.
- A free insurance market, where there is more competition and Georgia consumers can join co-ops to negotiate better rates.
- Autonomy in insurance choices for each individual citizen
- Fair prices
- Enforcing contracts and revoking licenses of insurers who abuse policyholders
- Enforcing contracts with providers when insurers require arbitration.
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