Bentley Hudgins Wins Democratic Primary, Poised to Become Georgia’s First Openly Trans State Legislator

Bentley Hudgins secured the Democratic nomination for Georgia House District 90, winning roughly 66 % of the vote and defeating fellow Democrat Leisa Stafford by 32 percentage points. The district, covering heavily Democratic neighborhoods in DeKalb County east and southeast of Atlanta, is rated overwhelmingly blue and is among the state’s safest Democratic seats. Hudgins now faces Republican nominee Samantha Boston in the November general election.

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Hudgins’s campaign highlighted brown-water taps, housing loss after an apartment sale, and sleeping in a 1997 Dodge Dakota pickup truck during a Georgia summer. They also described a 19-year struggle for hearing-loss treatment after doctors dismissed symptoms. They organized residents after repeated gunfire near a park, built a community gun-violence tracker, and secured investment for public-space rehabilitation. Their outreach included a Black church where a deacon prayed for victory.

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The campaign emphasized water-infrastructure upgrades, housing affordability, transit access, voting-rights protection, wage growth, and neighborhood investment. Hudgins proposed district-wide infrastructure audits, neighborhood advisory groups, and interfaith outreach teams for a “bottom-up” governance approach. These priorities were framed as alternatives to the culture-war issues dominating state legislative debates.

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The Human Rights Campaign praised Hudgins’s victory, with President Kelley Robinson stating the candidate has become “a political force for good” and describing the campaign as reflecting “service, compassion, and community.” The organization called the win a milestone for transgender representation in the Deep South and affirmed support for Hudgins’s legislative agenda.

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State legislators have introduced more than 530 anti-LGBTQ bills this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, and Georgia’s recent session featured similar proposals. Critics view transgender issues as central to a “culture-war” agenda, funding organized campaigns that target LGBTQ rights. Hudgins called these efforts “AstroTurfed, well-funded” and counterproductive to voters’ everyday concerns.

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• “It sends a clear message when the strongest Democratic district in the Georgia General Assembly says, ‘We want this person who is a member of these different communities who is also qualified to represent us in the State House,’” — Bentley Hudgins, candidate

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• “All the time they spend with the hysterics and attacking people, they’re not making life better for anybody,” — Bentley Hudgins

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• “We at HRC have been privileged to see Bentley’s continued growth into a political force for good in recent years,” — Kelley Robinson, President, Human Rights Campaign

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• “This AstroTurfed, well-funded campaign to attack LGBT people has by and large proved to be counterproductive,” — Bentley Hudgins

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Hudgins will campaign through the fall against Samantha Boston while preparing infrastructure audits, advisory councils, and interfaith outreach if elected. If successful, Hudgins would become the first out transgender lawmaker elected in Georgia and among the first openly trans and nonbinary state legislators in the Deep South.

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