Barbara Rivera Holmes will be the first Latina to hold statewide constitutional office in Georgia after Gov. Brian Kemp tapped the business executive to fill the state’s long-vacant labor commissioner post.
Kemp appointed the Albany resident Tuesday to succeed Bruce Thompson, a former GOP legislator who died in November from complications of pancreatic cancer.
Holmes told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she will seek a full four-year term in 2026, when her seat and other statewide posts will be on the ballot. Her appointment adds diversity to a Republican Party eager to expand its appeal ahead of the next election cycle.
“I’ll bring a fresh perspective to our statewide team,” Holmes said. “I bring competency, I bring character, I lead with trust and transparency. Those things are already present in our constitutional officers, but I will be there to elevate that.”
She inherits a state agency responsible for handling claims for unemployment insurance from laid-off workers that is still smarting from struggles during the coronavirus pandemic, as hundreds of thousands of unemployed Georgians sought benefits.
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Ben Gray for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Labor Department staffers were overwhelmed by the tsunami of jobless claims, falling months behind in getting checks out. It triggered an ongoing overhaul of the agency’s decades-old technology that Holmes said she would complete.
“My background is leading transformational and organizational excellence,” she said. “I’ll be able to get in there with the team and see where we’re at and see what next steps need to be taken.”
From the Herald to high office
A former journalist at the Albany Herald, Holmes has led the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce since 2016 and was appointed to the Board of Regents in 2018 by then-Gov. Nathan Deal.
In Albany, she spearheaded efforts to recruit more business startups and attract younger workers, winning her bipartisan accolades. Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2023 commended her for launching programs “aimed at helping unemployed rural residents start their own businesses.”
Holmes is a bilingual native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, who graduated from Florida Southern College with degrees in journalism and Spanish. She later moved to southwest Georgia, where she worked in economic development before taking the chamber job.
With Georgia Democrats expected to field a diverse ticket in 2026, Republicans are under pressure to broaden their appeal. Kemp has at times surprised critics by appointing Republicans to high-level posts that better reflect Georgia’s population.
He tapped business executive Kelly Loeffler to an open U.S. Senate seat in 2019, making her the highest-ranking female politician in Georgia at the time, and he named Fitz Johnson the first Black member of the Public Service Commission in 2021.
Kemp also appointed John King as Georgia’s first Hispanic constitutional officer when he named him insurance commissioner in 2019. King, who won reelection in 2022, has since become one of the South’s most prominent Republican Latino elected officials and is weighing a U.S. Senate bid.
The governor tapped Holmes after a roughly three-month vetting process. He cast her appointment as another fulfillment of a campaign promise to give rural residents a bigger stake in the state government and “empower Georgians to succeed, no matter where they came from.”
“She has worked tirelessly for her community,” he said, “and she will do the same for all of Georgia in the years ahead.”
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