Judge Penny Brown Reynolds Becomes First Black Woman Elected Georgia Secretary of State

ATLANTA, Judge Penny Brown Reynolds has won the election for Georgia Secretary of State, becoming the first Black woman elected to the office that oversees Georgia's elections.

The victory, called late on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, places a former Fulton County judge in charge of the machinery of Georgia democracy at a moment when every county in the state is rebuilding trust in how votes are cast, counted, and certified.

Reynolds defeated Republican Tim Fleming and will succeed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who did not seek another term. In winning, she becomes the first Black woman to hold the office in Georgia history, and one of a wave of Black women elected to statewide executive posts across the state on the same night.

A Judge's Decade

Reynolds served as a Fulton County judge for nearly ten years. At the time of her appointment, she was one of the youngest judges in Georgia, a distinction she speaks about not as an achievement but as a responsibility.

Her career before the bench was already unusual in its range. She is an attorney and a graduate of Georgia State University College of Law, a former professor, and a pastor. She also served as executive counsel in state government, the first African American to hold that role in Georgia, and later became familiar to television audiences as the host of the syndicated program Family Court with Judge Penny.

That combination, a courtroom, a classroom, a pulpit, and a camera, produced a candidate who could talk about election administration in the plain language of fairness rather than the technical language of statutes. It also produced one of the most recognizable names on the statewide ballot.

The Office She Inherits

The Secretary of State's duties reach far beyond elections. The office registers businesses and charities, licenses dozens of professions, regulates the sale of securities, and maintains records that Georgians depend on from the first day they incorporate a company to the day they cast a ballot.

But it is the elections division that defines the office in the public mind. Georgia's county election officials, its voting equipment, its voter registration list, its early voting calendar, and its certification deadlines all sit within the secretary's orbit. The person in the job sets the tone for how complaints are answered, how counties are trained, and how quickly the public learns what happened and why.

Reynolds campaigned on the promise that the office would be administered without regard to party, and that the answer to doubt about elections is transparency rather than silence. She has argued that voters deserve to see the process, not simply the result, and that county officials deserve support rather than suspicion.

What the Night Means

Her win arrived in an election that redrew the map of Black political power in Georgia and across the country. Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governorship, becoming the first Black woman elected governor in United States history. Black women were elected to statewide offices in record numbers, and Georgia sent new voices to Congress.

Reynolds' name sits inside that story. When she takes the oath, a Black woman will oversee the elections of a state that once required voters to guess at a citizenship question, count the bubbles on a ballot, and trust a stranger with the outcome.

Her supporters framed the win in personal terms. For them, the significance is not only that a Black woman will run Georgia's elections, but that a woman who spent years listening to families in a courtroom will now listen to voters.

The Work Ahead

The next four years will not be quiet. Georgia's population is growing, its counties are unevenly resourced, and its election calendar is relentless. Legislatures across the country continue to rewrite election law, and every change lands on the desks of the people who must carry it out at the precinct level.

Reynolds has said her first priorities are the basics: accurate voter lists, well trained county officials, secure equipment, and clear information delivered early enough for voters to use it. The harder work will be cultural. An elections office earns confidence one honest explanation at a time, and loses it faster than that.

Late Tuesday night, as the count closed, the campaign described the result as a beginning rather than an ending. The judge who once presided over a Fulton County courtroom now presides over a statewide institution. The verdict is in, and the work of earning it starts in January.

Reporting originally published by Alex Jones of WSBTV.com on November 3, 2026 at 11:34 pm EST. Photo courtesy of the campaign.