By David Wright

(CNN) — Geoff Duncan, the former Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia, announced Tuesday he will run for governor in 2026 as a Democrat, cementing a high-profile party switch and entering a key midterm contest.

In a video announcing his campaign, Duncan says that “Georgia Republicans threw me out of their party,” but “I was leaving anyway.”

And Duncan says he’ll “focus on what matters most to Georgians,” referencing rising costs for child care, medicine and housing, while vowing to “make Georgia the front line of democracy and a backstop against extremism.”

A longtime Georgia Republican who served in the state legislature and as outgoing GOP Gov. Brian Kemp’s No. 2 between 2019 and 2023, Duncan announced that he was switching parties in an Atlanta Journal Constitution op-ed last month. He has long been critical of President Donald Trump and endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, leading the state GOP’s executive committee to vote to expel him from the party.

“My journey to becoming a Democrat started well before Donald Trump tried to steal the 2020 election in Georgia,” Duncan wrote in the op-ed, calling out the clash between Kemp and his administration and the Trump campaign over the certification of former President Joe Biden’s victory there in 2020. “There’s no date on a calendar or line in the sand that points to the exact moment in time my political heart changed, but it has.”

Duncan, a former CNN contributor, enters a high-profile race in one of the country’s top battlegrounds, aiming to succeed an administration he once served in.

“Georgians deserve leaders with the courage to take on Donald Trump and do what’s right,” he said in a statement. “As Georgia’s first Democratic governor in 28 years, I will stand up to Trump and his yes men in our state while bringing down the costs of childcare, health care, and housing so every Georgia family is in the best position possible.”

Kemp, the outgoing governor, improved his margin of victory in repeat matchups against Democrat Stacey Abrams in Georgia’s last two gubernatorial contests, winning reelection in 2022 by more than 7 points.

Georgia has not elected a Democratic governor since Roy Barnes in 1998.

Democrats remain bullish on their chances statewide, however, as they hold both of Georgia’s US Senate seats and are prepared to aggressively contest next year’s governor race. The 2022 contest drew more than $80 million worth of ad spending for the general election, ranking among the five most expensive gubernatorial contests that year, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact.

Among the candidates already running in the Democratic gubernatorial primary are former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and former state Sen. Jason Esteves. On the Republican side, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is running with Trump’s endorsement in a primary against state Attorney General Chris Carr.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.