BURSTRep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), the chair of state Democratic Party in Georgia, announced to state committee members on Monday that she would be stepping down from her role following a party rules change to leadership and amid concerns over her ability to steer the party.
Williams, who took the helm of the state party in 2019, noted that state committee members had approved a change to the state party rules over the weekend, now requiring the Democratic Party of Georgia to have a paid full-time chair in an email to the party obtained by The Hill.
“I was clear from the beginning of this process, that once the approved language was adopted, this would prohibit me from continuing to serve as your Chairwoman due to ethics rules in the US House of Representatives,” she wrote.
She said first vice chair Matthew Wilson would helm the party in the interim until the party elected its new chair.
Williams had faced pressure from some members of the party to leave her post after the November election, with some expressing concern that her role as a congresswoman made it hard for her to be able to commit to her other job as state party chair. Others have also pointed out that she’s limited in how she could fundraise for the party given her job as a congresswoman.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in November after the election that Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) had privately pressured Williams to leave her post. Ossoff is Senate Republicans’ top target of the 2026 cycle.
In Williams’ email to state committee members, she noted that it was under her leadership that both Ossoff and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) were elected to the Senate, “sent a Democrat to the White House for the first time in 28 years, expanded our influence in the state legislature and flipped hundreds of municipal and county seats—proving that Georgia’s political future belongs to those willing to fight for it.”