Democrats vying for state insurance commissioner focus on affordability
Five Democrats are competing in the May primary for the chance to challenge Georgia’s Republican incumbent Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King during the November general election.
Georgia’s insurance commissioner is responsible for overseeing insurance companies, licensing agents, regulating industrial loan offices and investigating suspected fraud. The office also conducts fire safety inspections of buildings.
Insurance costs remain a significant concern for consumers, with affordability taking center stage as a key issue in Georgia’s 2026 elections.
The Republican incumbent’s platform focuses on increasing fines and expanding legal pathways to take on bad-actor insurance companies, while Democrats are pushing more targeted policies to lower premiums.
Here are the candidates:
Democrats
Ambuj ‘AJ’ Jain
Ambuj “AJ” Jain is a business owner and nonprofit founder who previously worked for nearly a decade as the chief underwriting officer for an insurance company. He also serves on Fulton County’s Audit Committee and chaired its election task force after the 2020 election.
Jain is promoting himself as an industry insider who knows how insurance companies operate, which, he says, is often not in customers’ best interest.
Jain’s campaign platform includes doing away with automatic rate hikes, increasing investigations into denied claims or delayed payouts, and advocating for the legislature do away with ZIP code and credit score-based pricing. He also wants the state to expand Medicaid.
Clarence Blalock
Clarence Blalock is a Paulding County resident and small-business owner who also worked in local government for the cities of Smyrna and Forest Park.
More recently, he worked with the Democratic Party of Georgia’s coordinated campaign team to help elect candidates in local races.
He previously launched bids for U.S. House District 14 in northwest Georgia and Atlanta City Council.
In 2025, Blalock served as the campaign manager for Peter Hubbard, whose victory in the Public Service Comisssion race was the first statewide constitutional office win for Democrats in nearly two decades.
DeAndre Mathis
For more than two decades, DeAndre Mathis has worked as both an insurance agent and tax accountant. He is also a U.S. Navy veteran and chair of the South Fulton Zoning Board of Appeals.
Mathis is running on a platform of ending “modern day redlining” by doing away with rates based on ZIP codes and credit scores and increasing enforcement power against insurance scams.
He also wants to update the state’s fire inspection procedures to make sure schools, hospitals and rural communities are prioritized in the process.
Keisha Sean Waites
Keisha Sean Waites is a former three-term Georgia House representative and served as an Atlanta City Council member in an at-large seat that represents the entire city.
Her campaign for insurance commissioner includes challenging rate hikes by home and auto insurers, advocating to outlaw ZIP code and credit score-based premiums and creating a dedicated task force to investigate scams that target seniors and other vulnerable residents.
Waites resigned from the House in 2017 to run for Fulton County Commission and similarly stepped down from her seat on City Council to run for Fulton County clerk in 2024. She’s also launched bids for U.S. House Districts 5 and 13.
Thomas Gabriel Dean
No information available.
Republican
John King (incumbent)
John King became the first Hispanic constitutional officer in Georgia history when he was appointed to the position by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019. King arrived after the former commissioner was ousted because of fraud allegations. The Mexico native is also both a former Atlanta police officer and Doraville police chief. King was elected to serve a full four-year term in 2022.
While in office, he helped transition Georgia out of Obamacare onto the new state-run exchange and advocated for Kemp’s sweeping 2025 tort reform legislation.
His campaign platform includes cracking down on insurance companies by increasing maximum fines allowed against insurers, increasing legal avenues to recoup funds from insurers for residents and expanding investigations into potential scams.
King is also a retired a U.S. Army major general and vocal supporter of President Donald Trump. In May of last year, King announced he planned to launch a bid in the U.S. Senate race against Democrat incumbent Jon Ossoff, before dropping out four months later to run for reelection as insurance commissioner.
About the Author
Riley Bunch is a reporter on the local government team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covering Atlanta City Hall. She covers the mayor and Atlanta City Council while also keeping an eye on the city’s diverse neighborhoods.
