Georgia primary voters will soon decide the next candidate for Insurance and Fire Safety Commissioner, leading to consequential decisions on data governance, the regulator's budget and other issues.
In Georgia, five Democratic candidates are vying for the nomination to run against Republican incumbent John King, who is running unopposed in his party's primary. Voting takes place May 19.
Digital Insurance posed a series of questions to all candidates. King and Democratic primary candidate Clarence Blalock did not respond. Democratic primary candidate Thomas Dean responded with his petition to Fulton County Superior Court to disqualify all other candidates (see below).
This is the last in a series of three articles compiling candidates responses, covering regulators' use of resources such as home-insurance data calls and management of regulatory resources. The first part covered
How can property insurance data and information,
A.J. Jain: NAIC data can help regulators identify where insurance markets are becoming unstable, where premiums are rising fastest, where coverage is being withdrawn and which communities are most exposed to climate-related risk.
That information should be used to guide policy, not just to describe the crisis after it happens. Georgia can use better data to support mitigation and preventative programs, strengthen homes against severe weather, improve land-use and building standards and make sure affordability problems are addressed before families are priced out of coverage.
Climate risk is insurance risk. A serious Insurance Commissioner has to treat it that way.
DeAndre Mathis: Take the historical data and weigh it against new trends in weather patterns and leverage that information to develop more accurate prediction models for the safety of society as well as minimizing loss to both the consumer and the insurer when catastrophes do occur.
Keisha Waites: NAIC data can be a strategic asset, not just a reporting requirement:
- Identify hotspots: Track where premiums, non‑renewals and loss ratios are spiking due to climate‑related perils.
- Support mitigation policy: Use data to target grants, building code upgrades and resilience investments where they matter most.
- Monitor market health: Spot early signs of withdrawal or concentration risk and intervene before a crisis.
- Inform rate and product innovation: Encourage parametric products, resilience credits and community‑level solutions.
As Commissioner, I'd use NAIC data to connect climate reality, consumer protection and market stability.
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A.J. Jain: No. Those numbers suggest Georgia's insurance department is being asked to oversee a large and complex market without the resources needed to fully protect consumers.
That matters. If the department does not have enough staff, budget or capacity, insurers have the upper hand. Rate filings get less scrutiny. Consumer complaints take longer to resolve. New technologies like AI are harder to oversee. And families are left wondering whether anyone is really watching out for them.
Georgia needs an Insurance Commissioner who will be honest about that gap and fight for the resources necessary to regulate the industry effectively. Consumers deserve a watchdog with the tools to do the job.
DeAndre Mathis: Georgia's Insurance department is gravely understaffed. And that one of the reasons why the insurers have been getting away with highway robbery is because no one is guarding the hen house. We plan on correcting these numbers from Day 1.
Keisha Waites: No — Georgia does not currently have the regulatory resources it needs, and as Insurance Commissioner, I would say that plainly and without hesitation.
When you look at the numbers, it's clear Georgia is being asked to regulate a multibillion‑dollar insurance market with tools that simply don't match the scale of the job. We rank 13th in staff relative to the number of insurers, but that advantage disappears when you look at the workload behind those staff positions. We fall to 32nd in premium volume per staff member and 43rd in regulatory budget as a share of premiums. That means our team is responsible for overseeing far more market activity with far fewer dollars than most states.
That gap matters. It affects how quickly we can investigate complaints, how aggressively we can monitor rates, how effectively we can police fraud, and how confidently we can evaluate the growing risks of climate change, cyber threats and AI‑driven underwriting. Georgians deserve a regulator with the capacity to protect them — not one forced to do more with less every year.
As Commissioner, I will push for a modernized regulatory budget, smarter technology investments and staffing levels that reflect the real size and complexity of Georgia's insurance market. Strong oversight isn't optional — it's the foundation of fair rates, honest practices and consumer protection for every Georgia family.
Note on candidate Thomas Dean:
Dean replied that he could not answer the questions and referred to his 28-page petition to the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia. The petition seeks a stay of two rulings against Dean's previous motions, which alleged that all opposing candidates are not eligible to be elected and should be disqualified. On April 16, an administrative judge confirmed King's eligibility to run. On April 27, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ruled that the other Democratic candidates are eligible to run.
Incumbent commissioner John King served on an appointed basis before being elected to his first full term in 2022; Dean stated this still violates the two-term limit for the post. Dean alleged that all of his Democratic primary opponents are not eligible to run because they currently or previously worked for insurance companies or have served in roles in other branches of Georgia state government.
