Georgia voters turned out in record numbers Tuesday, setting a new midterm election high on the first day of early voting in the battleground state.
More than 188,000 ballots were cast on Day 1, roughly 50,000 more than the number of Georgians who voted early on the first day in 2022, according to the Georgia secretary of state’s office.
Black voters are driving the surge. They accounted for more than 36 percent of first-day early votes, according to nonpartisan election data site VoteHub, which said that figure is more than 6 percent higher than in 2024.
The Peach State is home to several of the most closely watched races of the 2026 midterm elections, including high-stakes contests for the U.S. Senate and governor.
In the Senate race, Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff is fighting to hold onto his seat against Republican challenger Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia. The race is unfolding in a state President Trump carried by about 2 points.
Republicans had hoped to make the contest competitive given Georgia’s status as a battleground, but Ossoff has led in every preelection poll so far.
Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), a nonpartisan election data site, gives Ossoff an 88 percent chance of winning reelection. The Democrat leads by an average of 8.8 points in DDHQ’s polling average.
Ossoff and Collins went head-to-head Tuesday night in their final scheduled debate, hosted by the Atlanta Press Club.
The race for governor, however, is shaping up to be far tighter.
Former Democratic Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is squaring off against healthcare executive Rick Jackson for the open seat left by the retirement of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
Jackson, a billionaire, has far outspent Bottoms, thanks in large part to self-funding his campaign. DDHQ’s forecast gives Bottoms a 57 percent chance of flipping the governor’s mansion, even though Jackson leads by 2 points in the polling average.
Election integrity in the spotlight
Georgia is no stranger to competitive elections, and it has also been at the center of election integrity disputes from both sides of the aisle.
Following the 2020 presidential election, Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asked him to find more than 11,000 votes, the number needed to overturn former President Biden’s victory in the state. Raffensperger refused.
Questions were also raised during the 2018 governor’s race, when Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams accused Kemp, her Republican opponent, of using his role as secretary of state to suppress voters. A court ruled against Abrams in 2022.
On Wednesday, Raffensperger touted the strength of Georgia’s election system in light of the record-setting turnout.
“This record-breaking turnout proves that voters have confidence in the integrity of our elections,” Raffensperger said in a statement.
With early voting now underway, all eyes remain on Georgia as voters weigh in on races that could carry significant weight in the midterm elections.
The latest turnout figures are available on the Georgia secretary of state’s election data website.
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