CORRECTION 12:40 p.m., May 20: District 3 School Board candidate Janelle Johns in second photo
State Rep. Al Williams will return to the Gold Dome after winning the Georgia House District 168 Democratic primary against challenger Sabrina Newby. Williams, a 23-year veteran of the Gold Dome, marshaled his extensive political network of supporters to hold onto the seat.
With 12 of 12 precincts reporting, Williams won 61.54% or 3,727 votes cast, while Newby got 38.46% or 2,329 votes. All results are unofficial until certified by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
Williams’ campaign took over JJ’s Bar and Grill at the Econo Lodge in Hinesville, where School Board Chair Verdell Jones, Liberty County Development Authority Board Member Willa Lewis Dixon, District 2 Commissioner Justin Frasier, Midway Mayor Malcolm Williams, Hinesville Mayor Karl Riles, Riceboro Mayor Chris Stacy, Liberty County Sheriff Will Bowman, Walthourville council members Bridgette Kelly and Mitchell Boston, and Flemington councilman Hasit Patel joined the celebration.
Tallying up Black legislators who lost seats in nearby states, “This is the post-Civil Rights era,” Williams warned the crowd. “We’re gonna fight until hell freezes over to make sure nothing disenfranchises the people of Georgia.” He exhorted church leaders to “stand up and be somebody….We didn’t come across the Red Sea. We came across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama.”
Williams: Appeal to experience
Williams won endorsements from Georgia Minority House Leader Edna Hughley, former Savannah mayor and House District 165 Rep. Edna Jackson, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, former Atlanta mayor and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, former State Rep. Stacey Abrams, Georgia AFL-CIO, Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and Rev. Reverend Thurmond N. Tillman of First African Baptist Church of Savannah.
He told The Current GA Monday that he was irked by Georgia WIN List, who backed Newby despite what he said was his 100% voting record on the group’s issues.
Rally around Black voting rights
In the wake of the Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court ruling that declared Louisiana’s second Black-majority Congressional district “an unconstitutional racial gerrymander,” Williams touted his lifetime of civil rights work.
“This could create the atmosphere where I could be the last Democratic state representative for this area for a generation,” Williams said.
And he warned that his experience and positions on several powerful committees would be important defenses in the battle to come during the June 17 special session, when Georgia’s maps come up for reapportionment. The last such effort under the Republican-controlled legislature in 2021 was done behind closed doors, barred media scrutiny, and led to a federal district judge’s ruling that the maps disenfranchised Black voters, as well as other court challenges.
The senior legislator has established working relationships with Coastal Georgia Republicans, including State Rep. Buddy DeLoach in District 167. Williams also showed up at a May 5 rally at Clay Sikes’ farm for gubernatorial candidate Burt Jones, who as lieutenant governor also serves as president of the Georgia Senate. Williams said he went “to pay my respects” to his colleague, who joked that Williams was there “to endorse me formally.”
Critics pointed out Williams’ ties to gambling interests – he is president of the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States – and that his campaign also took money from KochPAC, the billionaire political action committee that donates less than 2% of its funds to Democratic candidates.
On the eve of the primary, Newby forwarded The Current GA an e-mail she had received from an employee of a Koch subsidiary. That e-mail appeared to contain KochPAC recommended candidates from Koch to its employees; one of those listed was Williams – the only Democrat on the right-wing PAC’s list. Koch Industries owns the paper company Georgia-Pacific, as well as a cellulose mill in Brunswick; Williams has been a strong advocate for Georgia’s timber industry.
Major legislation Williams passed during his tenure includes the Kemp-Deloach-Williams property tax exemption, which limits yearly property tax increases to the lower of 3% or the rate of inflation for Liberty County homeowners, as well as a local bill establishing the Hinesville Conference Center and Tourism Authority.
Newby: Call for fresh approach
Newby awaited results at her Hinesville home, along with School Board Chair candidate Kisya Burnett and School Board District 3 candidate Janelle Johns. After three of 12 precincts reported, Newby said, “I think Al won.”
Newby’s endorsements besides Georgia WIN List included Hinesville Mayor Pro Tem Diana Reid, Teresa Timmons, The Collective PAC, Fields of Change, and Candidates for Common Good, a left-wing evangelical political group.
Newby, a political consultant, contended that Williams had gotten little, if any, substantive legislation passed during a decade of his 22-year tenure at the Capitol. She said her background in business, law, and policy means she’s not afraid of launching audits. She said she would “enforce state-mandated reporting, which is already out there on the books, but if it’s not being active, then they shouldn’t get the money.”
The Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts (DOAA) tracks local governments that have failed to submit their mandatory annual audits. Cities and counties on the so-called “naughty list” are forbidden from applying for state and federal grants – a strong incentive especially for smaller governments with limited revenue and large expenses to get their paperwork caught up.
Newby also blamed Williams for the Liberty County Development Authority’s weak accounting procedures prior to the arrivals of CEO Brynn Grant and CPA Beth Hancock. The alleged wrongdoing was uncovered three months into Williams’ tenure as chair. Former COO Carmen Cole, who started at the LCDA in 1996 as a bookkeeper, resigned in January, made restitution, was indicted by a grand jury, and has pleaded not guilty.
On election night, Newby pointed out that Williams, along with Chairman Donald Lovette and Riles, served on three different county boards: the LCDA, Convention and Tourism, and MidCoast Regional Airport.
Newby founded the Coastal Georgia Minority Chamber of Commerce and, in a lease through the Coastal Georgia Minority Chamber, took over Geechee Kunda as curator in 2021. Newby told The Current GA she was done with the project.
A tale of two campaigns
A look at campaign finance disclosures shows Williams raked in donations from major corporations — many that tend to support Republicans — and from local developer R.T. Sikes, Clay Sikes’ son.
During that same period, Newby’s campaign was only able to marshal $6,496.60 in reported contributions by April 30 – a tenth of Williams’ $61,301 war chest.
Williams rallied supporters through his monthly first-Saturday meetings, fish frys, candidate meet and greets, and meeting up with candidates like U.S. Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, Bottoms, and Johnson in Savannah.
Newby leveraged social media outlets, including several podcasts that livestreamed to Facebook, and old-fashioned shoe leather to win voters.
Williams also had a heavy Facebook presence of mini-commercials, primarily driven by granddaughter Gabrielle Williams — who managed her father Malcolm’s successful bid for Midway mayor in November 2025 — and Hermina Glass-Hill, who runs the Susie King Taylor Museum in Hinesville.
After announcing her campaign, Newby knocked doors and met privately with people who wanted to know more about her. She does not support the kiss-the-ring approach to candidate selection. “I am so sick of these bequeaths and all they do with these candidates,” she said on election night. “You can’t crown these candidates.”
The day of Liberty County NAACP’s candidate forum, Newby campaigned at the 12 Gauge Hunting Club’s annual ATV trail ride, a prior commitment. Williams took advantage of Newby’s absence, telling the crowd in Riceboro, “Anybody who is not here is not worth your vote.”
This article appears in 2026 Elections: Candidate lists, news.
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