Five Democrats competing to challenge appointed Republican labor commissioner

by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

May 12, 2026

Most Georgians don’t come into contact with the state’s Department of Labor unless something has already gone wrong – like if you’ve lost your job and need to file for unemployment benefits or if you need to report unpaid wages or other workplace violations.

This time six years ago, things were going wrong for a lot of Georgians. Pandemic restrictions led businesses to shutter, and desperate residents struggled to get help from the overwhelmed department, bringing new scrutiny to the agency.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Bárbara Rivera Holmes, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2025 following the death of Commissioner Bruce Thompson, touts strong labor force growth and low unemployment across the state.

Georgia’s unemployment rate in March was 3.5%, 0.8% better than the national average and 0.1% higher than a year prior.

“With the state labor force and employment both reaching all-time highs and unemployment falling across all metro areas and nearly all regional commissions, more Georgians are securing good-paying jobs that support families, build the future, and strengthen the communities they call home,” Holmes said in a statement Thursday.

But five Democrats are seeking to challenge Holmes to lead the state’s Department of Labor. In phone interviews, the candidates largely said they would emphasize the rights of workers rather than corporations as well as focus on affordability.

Brett Hulme

Brett Hulme is a 36-year union member with 25 years of leadership experience with the Savannah Regional Central Labor Council. He also serves as a lobbyist for the Southeastern Carpenter’s Regional Council.

Hulme said he was inspired to run for the spot after state lawmakers passed a bill designed to punish employers who misclassify employees as independent contractors in 2022.

Hulme said he was overjoyed at the bill’s passage but argued the department has failed to live up to its duty to investigate misclassification, and one of his top priorities would be to step up enforcement of that law and others related to safety, retaliation and discrimination.

He said other top priorities if elected would include expanding opportunities for workplace training and updating the agency’s software and customer service to be prepared for another shock like the pandemic.

“Work connects us all, and the Department of Labor’s focus should be on workers,” he said. “So you would expect and want a commissioner with the focus on worker interests front and center, because it does affect you, if not directly today, it could very well affect you tomorrow.”

Jason Moon

Jason Moon said he works in the U.S. government and that his past experience includes working as a sales executive for a transportation company and serving as an aide to the late Democratic U.S. Sen Max Cleland.

If elected, Moon said his top priorities will be supporting farmers, helping workers with job accessibility and affordability including by placing Department of Labor computers in public libraries and encouraging companies to share profits with workers.

“These are ideas I’ve kept with me for almost 40 years,” he said. “I used to work at a library, I know all about adult services, and I’ve seen this in corporate sales as I’ve worked around the state of Georgia, in 80 counties. That’s where I came up with these ideas, it didn’t just occur on the campaign trail. I was drafted to be a labor commissioner. It’s just where hope and despair meets at the intersection of the possible, that’s where I’m able to intervene and convey these wonderful ideas that let me lead the way.”

Nikki Porcher

Nikki Porcher is an Air Force veteran, former teacher and founder of Atlanta-based Buy From a Black Woman, a nonprofit that supports Black woman-owned businesses.

Porcher said she sought the labor department’s help when she was transitioning to the civilian workforce and when her son was seeking work after high school and was disappointed in both cases. Porcher said she will work to reshape the department to better help veterans and others seeking employment or job training.

If elected, Porcher said she will also prioritize affordability, specifically citing the high costs of childcare for workers.

“The lower the race on the ballot is, the closer it is to you, and that’s why we have to go and vote,” Porcher said. “If you’ve never heard of the Department of Labor commissioner, if you didn’t know that you voted for your labor commissioner in Georgia, there’s a reason behind that. Because the labor commissioner touches every Georgian, not just the working people of Georgia, but every Georgian from the classroom to the ballroom to the boardroom. Everybody’s impacted by labor.”

Michelle ‘Michi’ Sánchez

Michelle “Michi” Sánchez is a community organizer who owns a house cleaning business and previously served on the Hall County Board of Elections and ran for a seat in the state House.

The daughter of a single mother who fled Nicaragua in the 1980s, Sánchez has been involved with groups including CASA in Action, Poder Latinx and Georgia Familias Unidas, which helps Georgia poultry plant workers and their families.

She said she was inspired to become politically active during the first presidential run of Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and decided to run for labor commissioner after she said she faced wage theft and other workplace violations.

Sánchez said she wants to prioritize investigating those kinds of allegations and decreasing the time in which claimants receive their unemployment benefits. She also pledged to publish materials in multiple languages and use the bully pulpit to push for increasing Georgia’s minimum wage.

“People really pay attention when I tell them about wage theft, because so many people have experienced it in many different ways,” she said. “Sometimes they don’t understand what that means, so I’ll have to explain that that can look like shorting your hours, not paying you overtime, asking you to work before and after you’ve clocked in or out, and sometimes not getting paid at all. That really grabs people’s attention because, more often than not, either they’ve experienced that or they know people that have experienced that.”

Christian Wise Smith

Christian Wise Smith said he overcame a childhood filled with economic insecurity and run-ins with the justice system to become the first in his family to go to college. He is an attorney and founder of the National Social Justice Alliance, a nonprofit aimed at teaching kids to become engaged with politics.

Smith has previously run for Fulton County district attorney and as Georgia attorney general. He said he decided to run for labor commissioner because he hopes it will enable him to help divert people from getting involved in the legal system by encouraging more stable, high-paying jobs.

He said his top priorities if elected will include improving and modernizing the unemployment insurance system, using his platform to convince the Legislature to raise the state minimum wage and expanding the department’s career centers to help people find good work.

“I understand that this is a race and a position that a lot of people don’t know about,” he said. “Most people don’t know about the Department of Labor until they go through an unfortunate situation and they need to apply for unemployment benefits. But I’m preaching something that has never been preached before coming out of this office, saying I want to dismantle the school to prison pipeline, saying that I want your family to thrive and not just survive, saying that I want to be an opportunity hub for everybody in this state, saying I’m going to advocate to increase the minimum wage. We’ve never heard somebody from this office say that. We’ve never had somebody with my background and vision lead this office.”

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