Why Jason Esteves Puts Georgia’s Housing Crisis at the Center of the Governor’s Race

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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Esteves recently voiced support for the growing Target boycott, as he and other state Democratic Party leaders continue working to mend fences with Black Georgia voters.

“My wife has had a [Target Circle 360] subscription, and she canceled it as a result,” Esteves said during an April phone interview with Capital B Atlanta. “I support Georgians having the right to vote with their wallets.”

The 41-year-old two-term state senator representing West Atlanta became the first Democrat to officially throw his hat in the 2026 gubernatorial race on April 21, as the party historically supported by the overwhelming majority of Black Georgians works to rebuild the diverse coalition that turned the state blue in 2020 for the first time in 28 years.

Esteves said lowering the cost of living in Georgia — especially housing, which remains a major pain point for Black voters — is his top political priority.

“I will make sure that this is at the forefront,” Esteves said regarding escalating housing costs. “No matter where you go across the state, people are talking about how expensive it is to live in this state, how expensive it is to rent, and how expensive it is to buy a home.”

Esteves’ plan to lower housing costs includes advocating for a new state law that would bar or limit private equity firms from buying up single-family homes in Georgia, a practice experts say has contributed to the extraction of wealth in metro Atlanta’s Black community and driven up the overall cost of home purchases by limiting the supply of houses available for sale.

The senator supported related legislation in the Georgia General Assembly this year that ultimately stalled in the Senate chamber.

The Democratic hopeful acknowledged Republicans in the state legislature, who have spent years preventing related bills from advancing, may be a roadblock to his proposed housing policy, but he said he can overcome them if he’s elected governor.

“When there’s a priority the governor has, it tends to move a lot more,” Esteves said. “I will do everything that I can to lower costs for Georgia families, especially those related to housing. And we do that by prioritizing it.”

Incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp has backed other possible solutions to the state’s affordable housing crisis, including a Rural Workforce Housing Initiative that his office says has allocated more than $42 million in infrastructure grants to 21 rural Georgia regions.

“An overwhelming majority of these grants have been awarded to communities whose population is predominantly made up of Black Georgians,” Kemp press secretary Garrison Douglas told Capital B Atlanta via email in March.

Who is Jason Esteves?

Esteves is a Columbus native living in northwest Atlanta who previously worked as a middle school social studies teacher and later an attorney, serving as a vice president of legal and assistant general counsel with Equifax and as an associate with McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP.

He served on the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education from 2013 to 2022 before resigning to run for the state Senate. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Miami and a law degree from Emory University.

He’s also a father of two and an entrepreneur who co-owns two Flying Biscuit Café locations and a West Atlanta urgent care clinic called WestsideMed with his wife, Ariel.

If elected, the senator, who has Black and Puerto Rican heritage, would become the first Afro-Latino to serve as Georgia’s chief executive, a milestone he hopes will blaze a trail for others.

​​“While I may be the first Black and Latino governor, I certainly will not be the last,” Esteves said. “This campaign is about the people of Georgia. They deserve so much better than they are getting from state leadership today. I launched this campaign because I know we can build a coalition to win.”

Rallying the base

Any Democrat looking to win a statewide office race next year has work to do energizing Black voters, whose turnout rate last November was slightly lower than it was four years prior.

Esteves and other state Democratic leaders — including newly elected state party chair Charlie Bailey and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who is up for reelection next year — are working to turn Georgia blue once more. He acknowledged some Democratic supporters have soured on politics in recent years, but argued Black folks may be the ones hurting the most as a result of the November election.

“My message to the Black community is that we are the ones that have to save ourselves, and we do that by building a better and brighter Georgia for the future, one where everyone has the opportunity to thrive, regardless of who you are or where you’re from,” Esteves said. “We do that by building a coalition that will elect the next governor.”

How the race is shaping up

Esteves’ early start on the campaign trail may be his attempt to gain a leg up on what looks to be a crowded field of Democratic candidates. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms recently filed paperwork ahead of an anticipated gubernatorial run. Two-time candidate Stacey Abrams is considering a third try. And former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond has also expressed interest in the race, along with state Rep. Derrick Jackson, D-Tyrone.

Attorney General Chris Carr is the only Republican who has officially entered the race so far, but Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Trump loyalist involved in the president’s 2020 fake electors scheme who state prosecutors ultimately chose not to charge, is also expected to launch a bid to replace Kemp, who is term-limited from seeking the office again. (Kemp recently said he won’t run for U.S. Senate against Ossoff as many political observers had expected.)

Esteves recently earned endorsements from fellow Democratic state Sens. Harold Jones of Augusta and Kim Jackson of Stone Mountain, who said they’ve watched him lead the way on policy issues like expanding health care access, lowering housing costs, and investing in public schools.

Esteves acknowledged he may not be as famous as the other rumored Democratic candidates, but he said he’s working hard to change that between now and next year.

“My wife and I are doing the work that’s necessary to build that coalition across the state, and we look forward to traveling across the state to hear directly from Georgia families about the issues that matter to them the most,” he said.

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