Clean-energy advocate Peter Hubbard captured the Democratic nomination for a seat on Georgia’s energy-regulating Public Service Commission (PSC) Tuesday.

Hubbard defeated former Atlanta City Councilwoman Keisha Sean Waites with 58.2% of the vote to 41.8% for Waites in Tuesday’s runoff election, according to unofficial results. He will face incumbent Republican Commissioner Fitz Johnson in November in PSC District 3, which covers Fulton, Clayton, and DeKalb counties.

Waites was the top vote-getter in a three-way race in last month’s Democratic primary, with Hubbard coming in second. While neither candidate received the 50%-plus-one vote margin needed to win the primary outright, third-place finisher Robert Jones, a former utility executive, was eliminated.

Hubbard is an advocate for the nonprofit Georgia Center for Energy Solutions. In that role, he has served as an intervenor calling for reducing the use of fossil fuels in the production of electricity, which is expensive, pollutes the air and harms human health.

Waites served three terms in the state House of Representatives before being elected to the Atlanta City Council in 2021. Before entering city and state politics, she spent 15 years working in the federal government, with the Small Business Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The nonprofit group Georgia Conservation Voters congratulated Hubbard Tuesday night on his victory.

“We endorsed Peter because he knows how to bring bills down,” said Connie Di Cicco, the group’s political director. “When we talk to voters about a candidate, they ask two questions: Are they qualified, and will they fight for me? With Peter, the answer to both is yes.”

Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Johnson to the commission in 2021 to fill a vacancy, so this year will mark the first time he has faced Georgia voters.

Both the 2022 and 2024 PSC elections were postponed pending the outcome of a lawsuit that challenged the way commissioners are elected. Voting rights advocates argued that choosing members of the PSC statewide rather than by districts dilutes Black voting strength in violation of the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act.

A federal appeals court ruled against the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, leaving the system of statewide PSC elections intact.

Two seats on the commission will be on the ballot this fall. Besides the District 3 contest, incumbent Republican Commissioner Tim Echols is seeking reelection in District 2 against Democratic challenger Alicia Johnson. District 2 stretches from Atlanta’s eastern and southeastern suburbs to Savannah.

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.