Primary Election Day brings candidates to the streets all over Metro Atlanta

Georgia Democratic candidates, including Jason Esteves, Andrew Young, Penny Brown Reynolds, and Angelia Pressley, made public appearances outside of polling places on Tuesday to encourage voters to cast their ballots in the primary election. The post Primary Election Day brings candidates to the streets all over Metro Atlanta appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.

Primary Election Day brings candidates to the streets all over Metro Atlanta
Georgia Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Jason Esteves (above) joined supporters outside of the C.T. Martin Rec Center in Southwest Atlanta on Tuesday morning. Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice

Georgia primary election day started the way it always has, with candidates for races up and down the ballot making public appearances outside of polling places and voters making their way to cast their ballots.

Former Atlanta Mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young (above) was voting in Southwest Atlanta on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice

Across the street from the Buckhead Library, Judge Penny Brown Reynolds, a first-time Democratic candidate for Secretary of State, flashed a bright smile, a trademark of hers, and waved campaign signs at passing cars. Brown Reynolds, if victorious in the primary election, would be setting a new standard as a Black female candidate for Secretary of State.

“I think now more than ever, we’re seeing where things are in America. If there was ever a time for people who believe their vote matters, this is your time,” Brown Reynolds said.

On the corner near the C.T. Martin Natatorium & Rec Center in Southwest Atlanta, Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former Georgia State Senator Jason Esteves shook hands with, hugged, and took selfies with supporters. Moments earlier, former Atlanta Mayor, Georgia State Representative, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, had just finished voting. The combination of Georgia politics’ past and present at one intersection in the heart of Atlanta is part of what makes election day, even in the primary sense, so important.

Angelia Pressley is running for a seat on the Georgia Public Service Commission. Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice

Esteves said it was important for Georgia voters to get out and vote today because this is how they express themselves.

Clark Atlanta University professor Angelia Pressley was also out taking part in the primary election day. Running for the District 5 seat on the Georgia Public Service Commission, Pressley, a data and analytics expert, said she got into the race for many reasons, the most important being the power and licenses being granted to companies seeking to build data centers throughout the state.

“My hope is to win so that we Democrats have a majority in the commission,” she said. “I want to put people over data centers.”

The polls will be open till 7 p.m. today.

The post Primary Election Day brings candidates to the streets all over Metro Atlanta appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.