Stonecrest is decidedly bourgeois. About six in 10 voters cast ballots in the 2026 election, and about 90% of them voted for Democrats, according to election figures. And they have often been overlooked by Georgia’s Republican establishment.
The fundraiser Keisha Lance Bottoms hosted at the Privi Event Center and Retreat in suburban Atlanta in September didn’t attract much attention. But Stonecrest, by some measure the largest city in the United States with a non-Hispanic black population above 90 percent, tends to fly under the radar.
It’s infuriating, said Vaughn Irons, Privi’s founder. “I think she came to speak to a community that is often passed through and flown over.”
Black voting power helped ensure the victory of U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, Bottoms’ candidacy in the gubernatorial race, and a large number of rejected candidates. Now, these voters expect to be heard.
Culture war issues arise with the shift in partisan control of the Georgia government; on abortion, on guns and on LGBTQ+ rights. But Georgia’s customary politics begins and ends with business, and that attitude is bipartisan.
Black voters in Georgia have long grappled with the black mecca paradox. Atlanta has long attracted black professional talent from across the country and around the world, seeking strong African American political and cultural institutions and an economic environment perceived to give equal opportunity to blacks.
But upward mobility among native-born black Atlantans has been anemic. Black unemployment rates are lower in Atlanta than in the country as a whole. Georgia leads the nation in black representation in the executive branch and recent income growth. But Georgia offers the worst chance of wealth of any state for a black child born into poverty.
For 20 years, activists have taken to platforms to denounce these economic problems to Georgian legislators. In January, these voters will expect their government to respond to them.
The opinions of black voters — particularly black women — have been ignored for years, said Tiffani Stephens, a DeKalb County voter. “We are seen as pretty people and all we care about are clothes, shoes and makeup,” she said. “Whereas if you really know a black woman, you know these are additives. We have substance. Deep substance.”
Democrats didn’t just win the big political elections in Georgia last November. They have won every statewide election, from lieutenant governor’s office to insurance commissioner. Democrats replaced the Republican majority on the public utility commission that sets electricity rates. Nearly all statewide officeholders will be Black women, including the new speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, state Rep. Carolyn Hugley of Columbus. The Democrats are missing one senator to control both chambers.
“It wasn’t just a magical thing. It took a long time to build the infrastructure for the South and particularly for Georgia,” said Deborah Scott, executive director of Georgia STAND-UP, a nonprofit “think and action tank” that advocates for job training and economic development for working families.
It took several failed election cycles, peeling back some layers of cynicism, to be ready to face this moment, Scott said. Stacey Abrams, a two-time gubernatorial candidate turned democracy activist, deserves some credit for Georgia’s political results in November. But it’s also the product of meticulous relationship-building work, particularly from organizations led by black women, she added.
“If Stacey is the tree that all these new elected officials are sitting in, then her roots are community organizations and nonprofits like Georgia STAND-UP and People’s Agenda, people who have been doing this work for a long time.”
Describing the election results as a referendum on gas prices, or on war, or on Donald Trump, is reductive, Scott said. Black voters evaluate their conditions holistically. “It’s not just about the price of gasoline being too high – which is true – but also about the quality of life of ordinary Americans.”
The last two years have been drastic for some Georgia voters, Scott said. As highly educated CDC employees found themselves impaled on the spearheads of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nonprofits serving low-income communities like Scott’s scrambled to replace federal spending and a lack of private funding, she said.
Before the election, activists competed for limited resources, she said. Today, they are bathed in the last glimmers of political unity.
For 20 years, Democrats were excluded from major decisions about Georgia’s political direction. The state has restrictive abortion laws and profligate gun laws. It is one of ten states that have not expanded access to Medicaid.
It also attracted impressive amounts of foreign investment during Kemp’s two terms, with automakers, battery factories and microchip makers locating in Georgia. But almost all of this state-led economic development has landed either in the foothills of north Georgia or rural areas of south Georgia, like Hyundai Motor Group’s Metaplant America manufacturing center in Bryan County, rewarding white Republican voters with jobs and political attention.
Scott speaks about the urgent need to encode voting rights protections into the Georgia Constitution in one breath. In the next, she talks about the deepening of the port of Savannah, or the new Audi automobile factory under construction near Mâcon.
“If you look at rural Georgia versus urban and suburban Georgia, it’s really a tale of two states,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for economic development in all areas around Georgia…it’s an opportunity to equalize the state. It’s Atlanta and the rest of the state. And of course, even in Atlanta, it’s a tale of two cities. Those who are born poor are not going to make it out. There’s an opportunity for truly affordable housing and real economic development.”
The town of Stonecrest, a southeast Atlanta suburb, exists as a municipality because its middle-class black voters decided 10 years ago that they wanted their community incorporated to serve them the way middle-class white voters are served 30 miles north in Sandy Springs. They wanted political leadership that lived up to their aspirations.
“As a small business owner, what I’m all about is an opportunity to have a seat at the table,” said Kazemde Ajamu, owner of Akoma Coffee & Books in Stonecrest.
Ajamu wants Georgia to recognize microbusinesses and strengthen entrepreneurship among small business owners. “I feel good about the new governor-elect because it gives us an opportunity to have a voice to speak to him, to create laws that help micro-businesses, families… It’s an example of having a seat at the table, having a voice and someone who listens and can be proactive in this area.
Even though Democrats control the state government, there is no reason to believe this is a permanent condition. Political competition will require Bottoms and the state Legislature to pay attention everywhere, Irons said.
“Everyone’s interest is to grow, to have prosperity and better education,” Irons said. “The success of what is likely to happen for the next governor lies in creating an environment in which all parties who are serious about the growth and prosperity of the state of Georgia can have a seat at the table.”
Bottoms’ ascension to governor and Democrats in control of government agencies could mean a place like Stonecrest is less likely to be overlooked, Irons said. But the former HUD official and DeKalb County economic development director said that alone doesn’t solve the problems.
“I think every community needs to be ready to receive the investments they want,” Irons said. “And so you have a governor that you can access differently. I think Governor (Brian) Kemp was probably aware of the needs, but a different group of people had access, right? I think now just because you have access doesn’t mean you don’t have your own responsibility to be ready.”
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