Long Spears wins DeKalb District 2 commission seat

Democrat Michelle Long Spears defeated Republican Ben Pepper to keep her DeKalb County Commission District 2 seat on Nov. 3, according to Fox 5 Atlanta, which attributed its results to the Associated Press.

Unofficial results posted by Decaturish on election night showed Long Spears with 81.47% of the vote and Pepper with 18.53%. Those totals are not certified.

Statewide, the AP reported that Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governor's race, becoming the first Black woman elected governor of any state, according to AP's midterm results coverage. The AP also reported that Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff won reelection in Georgia. Nationally, Democrats won control of Congress, flipping more than two dozen House seats and picking up seven Senate seats, the AP reported.

Polls closed at 7 p.m. Election workers across DeKalb County began tabulating ballots after most polling locations shut down, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

The candidates

Long Spears is seeking another term as county commissioner, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. She qualified for the race on March 2, according to the county's certified candidate list.

In published campaign materials, Long Spears highlights housing policy work during her current term. She says she introduced a resolution approved by the Board of Commissioners on Aug. 27, 2024, to develop the county's first housing plan, with $250,000 allocated from the 2024 county budget. She also says she sponsored a resolution approved on Oct. 14, 2025, allocating $122,000 for a feasibility study on creating a DeKalb County Community Land Trust.

Pepper is self-employed and making his first bid for the commission seat, Fox 5 reported. He qualified on March 4. No published campaign platform or policy positions for Pepper were available in the sources reviewed for this article.

What else is on the ballot

County ballots also included a proposed 1% Educational Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST) extension projected to generate more than $1.04 billion for capital improvements across three public school systems, Fox 5 reported. In Brookhaven, voters decided whether to increase the senior and disabled homestead tax exemption from $160,000 to $200,000.