Updated February 26th, 2026: Rep. Ruwa Romman is listed as a gubernatorial candidate in this article. Her campaign has announced that she is removing herself from this race and is now running for State Senate District 7.
Original Story February 20th, 2026:
Last night was the joint gubernatorial forum hosted by Fulton and DeKalb County Democrats. Below are the present candidates’ introduction statements and a summary of some of the pertinent questions asked of each candidate.
Gubernatorial Candidates present (listed in alphabetical order):
Olu Brown – Impact Church Founder
Geoff Duncan – Former Lieutenant Governor
Jason Esteves – Former State Senator, District 35
Derrick Jackson – State Representative, District 68
Ruwa Romman – State Representative, District 97
Mike Thurmond – Former DeKalb County CEO
Opening Statements (90 seconds each, summarized, quoted when needed)
Keisha Lance Bottoms: Began by describing her Georgia roots and added, “I am the only mayor in the history of Atlanta to have served in all three branches of government. I am running for governor of this state to make a difference in your lives.” Bottoms wants to expand Medicaid, eliminate teachers’ state income taxes, address affordability, support small businesses, and develop a free technical and community college pathway.
Olu Brown: Brown introduced himself as a family man and protector, followed by a reflection on the late Rev. Jesse Jackson, who “told us to keep hope alive.” He continued, stating, “But hope without a blueprint is just a wish…we’re crushed by the cost of living, we need a governor with courage who stands up. I’m not a career politician. I’m a builder. I’m an architect, and together we can build Georgia’s next future.”
Geoff Duncan: “I get asked a lot, ‘Geoff, why are you running for governor as a democrat?’…It’s not because I’ve lost my mind. It’s because I found my heart.” Duncan described the various reasons a democrat has not taken the governor’s office since Gov. Roy Barnes, stating he is building a coalition of “Democrats, independents, and this growing batch of disgusted Republicans to show up and vote for us in November up and down the ballot.” He is focused on three crises: affordability, healthcare, and Trump.
Jason Esteves: “In times of crisis, I’ve always run towards the fight…I’m going to stand tall and fight back against Donald Trump. I won’t stay silent like my Republican opponents, nor will I quit when the going gets tough, like some of my Democratic opponents have. I’ll focus on what matters the most: your health, your wealth, and your opportunities.
Ruwa Romman: Romman began her introduction with her multi-generational Georgia roots. “I love our state. I was raised here. It’s everything to me…For too long, we have been defined by the worst of us. Our state has led movements. Our state has led the country. And our state can do it again this year. Because don’t forget, we’re the reason the Voting Rights Act was passed. We’re the reason the Civil Rights Act was passed.”
Michael Thurmond: Thurmond began by thanking the constituents of DeKalb County for allowing him to serve as the county’s School Superintendent and CEO. He continued by leaning into his rural Georgia roots, continuing with “That old road will take us from the outhouse to the courthouse to the state house, and we’re going to the governor’s house, and we’re going to rename it into the people’s house.” Thurmond wants to focus on Medicaid expansion and public education.
Derrick Jackson: Jackson talked about his family with his wife, including their seven kids and two grandchildren, his military service, and his tenure as a state representative. “Each and every day I think about my family, I’m thinking about yours…when you facilitate a billion-dollar portfolio for General Electric and your products go to 162 countries, that certainly qualifies you to be a chief executive officer…And for the last 10 years, I’ve been fighting the good fight for all of us, making sure that I introduced over 314 bills, and 38 of them are law today.”
Education
QBE formula question: Districts like DeKalb argue that the state’s school funding equalization formula is broken because they receive minimal state aid despite high local tax efforts. How would you reform the QBE formula to ensure high property value districts with high tax burdens receive fair and equitable state funding?
Bottoms: Would adjust the formula to make it a better formula for assisting schools and leaders to calculate the needed changes for equalization. Bottoms stated that she would build an opportunity weight into the formula so that the funding follows the student. “The federal government is failing us, which means the state government must step up, tapping into its 50-billion-dollar reserve, making sure that the formula is easy to understand and easy to plan for.”
Brown: Described his mom’s work as a teacher and his lifetime teaching certificate. “I believe the greatest leader is never the smartest in the room, but brings together the smartest people for the best solution…In the first 100 days as your next governor, we will address the QBE formula, not by me taking action directly, but by bringing citizens and community members and educators together because the formula doesn’t address the current innovative needs.”
Duncan: Wants to build a coalition across party lines to make sure kids are off ramped into an economy they’re prepared for. “I think there’s some specific reasons why [the QBE formula is] outdated. It’s not weighted for poverty. It’s not weighted for technology resources that have changed in 40 years. It’s not weighted for a lot of things. And we need to make sure that the burden isn’t pushed back onto the counties and put it on the backs of property taxes…We should not be making education policy based on Republicans and Democrats.”
Esteves: Having served as a former chair of the school board, Estevez wants to make it easier for those in the classroom. “[The QBE formula] needs to be updated to include considerations for poverty, for special needs students, for mental health services, for transportation, and for technology. And Georgia is one of six states that does not currently consider poverty when it distributes money. We distribute money evenly across the state when it should be distributed based on need.”
Jackson: (Broke the rules a bit) and talked about voting on a bill to defund education. Jackson did not directly respond to the question but said the budget should be a moral document and talked about the budget surplus as well. “We sitting on 15-billion-dollar surplus. Let’s make this happen for our children.”
Romman: Went through her legislative plan and emphasized the need to have legislation on day one. “In my first year as a state representative, we did have an updated QBE formula. People did go through the process of another study committee, of figuring it out, of calling in constituents, of working with community members…We have the plan…A child’s zip code should not determine the rest of their future.”
Thurmond: Also did not directly respond to the question but stated he would be an advocate for every child across the state of Georgia. “I will be an advocate for public education. Not for me, but for those thousands of Mike Thurmonds who only need a chance. We must fight to ensure that every child, urban, rural, suburban, has equal access to a quality education.”
GA has one of the highest arrest rates in schools in the nation. What will you do about the school-to-prison pipeline?
Romman: Part of the campaign is to feed hungry kids. “A hungry child cannot learn. A hungry child falls behind. A hungry child acts out. And instead of giving them the support they need through counselors, through free schools, free school breakfast and lunch, we instead end up criminalizing them. It’s immoral.”
Jackson: wants to repeal old bills that were used to criminalize students. Wants to replace the legislation, stating, “We need to make sure that the school resource officers are sent there for the reason that the general assembly said they were going to send them there for security against mass shootings, not for disciplinary issues. That’s the principle. That’s the administrator. And so, we have to go back, repeal these bad laws that Republicans put in place that empowered this school-to-prison pipeline.
Thurmond: Wants to create a school system and curriculum that empowers all students. “This economy is equally about degrees and skills. We have to create a school system and a curriculum that encourages and empowers all of our children. It’s really not about white collar, blue collar, or no collar. It’s not the color of the collar, but it’s the green of the dollar that makes all the difference.”
Duncan: Would utilize state funds to feed kids, even if we didn’t get reimbursement from the federal government. “We’ve got to build a program in place that allows early childhood education at zero through three to give us the head start we need to be able to walk into. Some will say, ‘Well, that’s just too expensive. We can’t afford it.’ I think we ought to start leveraging the $17 billion that we have in our state’s rainy day fund. Take 10% of that rainy day fund…put it in what I’m calling a jump start fund to give individuals and families, and even some of those kids that one jump start they might need to get themselves out of that vicious cycle of poverty as we move forward.”
Bottoms: Provided a lot of statistics on the disproportionate amount of African Americans impacted by disciplinary standards in school. “This is a crisis that begins long before people get to prison. When I had the opportunity to serve as a judge, I saw men and women stand before me who had not completed their high school education. There is a direct connection. There are a few things that we need to do. One is to make sure that disciplinary standards are equal, that they are not a pipeline to prison but to diversion programs in the state, and also provide wraparound services not just for our children but for their parents, so that children are not going back home into chaos, repeating a vicious cycle.”
Brown: “First, we’ve got to stop criminalizing behavior with kids, and they’re just crying out for help. We’ve got to stop criminalizing poverty. We’ve got to stop criminalizing mental health. We have to stop criminalizing illiteracy. We have to stop criminalizing family backgrounds.” Will present the 12+2 promise, where every high school graduate will also receive a 2-year certificate in a trade.
Esteves: Wants to remove city police from schools and replace them with highly specialized and trained officers. Also wants to diversify the workforce. Wants to propose universal childcare using the $2 billion in childhood reserves. “We also have to make sure that we change the laws that are currently in place that are criminalizing our students.”
Healthcare
Georgia has one of the worst mortality rates in the nation, disproportionately impacting Black mothers. How would you address this?
Thurmond: Would re-envision and reform our Department of Public Health. Thurmond wants the terminated CDC employees to work for the public health system of the state of Georgia. “What I’m going to do is focus our attention and our resources on prevention as opposed to a reactive strategy.”
Jackson: “Allow for the women to write the legislation, and then we as men support them. There’s no reason why in 82 counties you cannot find an OB/GYN. [In] 67 counties in Georgia, you cannot find a pediatrician. That’s a problem.”
Brown: Discussed the funerals he had to attend as clergy, stating that he won’t just be the chief executive officer but the chief empathy officer. “This is a moral dilemma, and this is really about maternal health, and it’s also about infant health. I can honestly say as a faith leader, there’s not a single hospital I haven’t visited in Fulton County or in DeKalb County. And many of those hospital visits were from women who were having difficult pregnancies.” Brown wants to create tax-free opportunity zones in Georgia to help with rural and municipal healthcare.
Esteves: Wants to repeal the abortion ban on day one. Esteves co-sponsored the Reproductive Freedom Act, and he wants to ensure insurance pays for maternal care, including doulas and lactation consultants. “We have to make sure that we expand access to Medicaid and lower the cost of private health insurance.”
Romman: “90% of the deaths are preventable.” Romman talked about most counties not having an OB/GYN. “And so that’s why, in addition to expanding Medicaid, because there is a coalition to expand Medicaid, we have essentially put forward a plan that says we want to use 10% of our surplus to invest in a cancer research hospital because unfortunately, Georgia also ranks as one of the highest states when it comes to cancer rates around the entire state.”
Duncan: Wants to expand Medicaid. “We need to get the legislature to expand Medicaid in a way to be able to take federal dollars and not send 1.2 million people to the hospital without health insurance and force them to make the most difficult decision they’ve ever made. Either deal with their own medical issues on their own or bankrupt themselves when they walk into the hospital. We’ve also got to work for opportunities to expand mental health.”
Bottoms: Described her experience of knowing two women who died during childbirth and two friends who almost died in childbirth. “The state can no longer put its head in the sand and act as if we don’t have a problem. Governor Kemp eliminated the maternal mortality committee because he didn’t like the results. The first thing that I will do as governor is reinstate that committee so that we can have professionals help us better understand how to address this crisis, putting funding in place so that another woman does not die in this state.”
Learn more about DeKalb Dems and Fulton Dems.
See more questions and the candidate’s closing statements by viewing the full forum at the links below for the two-part DeKalb Dems gubernatorial forum:
Part One: 2026 Georgia Gubernatorial Forum (First Hour)
Part Two: 2026 Georgia Gubernatorial Forum (Second Hour)