Rep. Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), the chair of the state Democratic Party in Georgia, announced to state committee members Monday she would step down from her role following a party rules change to leadership and amid concerns about her ability to steer the party.
Williams, who took the helm of the state party in 2019, noted in an email to the party obtained by The Hill that committee members approved a change to the party rules over the weekend, now requiring the Democratic Party of Georgia to have a paid full-time chair.
“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 faced pressure from some members of the party to leave her post after the November election, with some expressing concern that her role in Congress made it hard for her to be able to commit to her other job as state party chair. Others have also pointed out she’s limited in how she could fundraise for the party given her job as a congresswoman.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported after the election in November that Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) privately pressured Williams to leave her post as party chair. Ossoff is Senate Republicans’ top target of the 2026 cycle.
In Williams’s email to state committee members, she noted it was under her leadership that 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.”