The same network of out-of-state environmental groups that spent millions to flip Georgia’s Public Service Commission is now pushing to reshape utility regulation across the Deep South – and Alabama appears to be next on their list.
The Georgia playbook
In November 2025, Georgia’s PSC elections delivered one of the most stunning political upsets in Southern politics in more than two decades.
Democrat challengers Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard crushed incumbent Republican commissioners Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson by 24-point margins, each capturing roughly 62% of the vote.
Why is that significant? Functionally speaking, Georgia is a Republican-run state. Republicans hold near-supermajorities in the General Assembly. In 2024, Republicans won every statewide constitutional office by at least 7 points. No Democrat had won a Georgia PSC seat since 2000 – nor had a Democrat won any statewide office whatsoever since 2002.
The difference? Money, and lots of it.
Georgia Conservation Voters PAC, a far-left Democrat-aligned political group, invested at least $2.2 million into the races, along with the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which contributed another $100,000.
According to Georgia campaign finance records, the PAC employed Corsair Campaigns, a Democrat digital and consulting firm, to execute the effort.
Following the money to Alabama
A Yellowhammer News investigation uncovered direct links between the national funding networks behind Georgia’s PSC flip and organizations now operating in Alabama.
One group at the center of the web is Multiplier, a San Francisco-based 501(c)(3) that has distributed more than $76 million in grants to progressive advocacy organizations.
According to years worth of 990 filings, which are public records that map major grants and funding relationships, the group has received $23.2 million funding from the Walton Family Foundation, $11 million from the Breakthrough Energy Foundation, $14 million from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and millions more from Rockefeller-affiliated entities and the Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation.
In terms of how Multiplier spreads that money out, since 2015, the group has distributed millions in grants, investing in causes related to social justice, left wing climate activism, immigration – and most recently – energy.
Since the group’s founding in the early 2000s, Multiplier has spent little on political causes that deal with energy policy or the regulation of utilities.
But beginning in 2023, that figure exploded to $16.3 million. Then in 2024, it shot up to $21.4 million.
That massive influx played out in Georgia during its 2025 off-year election cycle, and is poised to extend its reach to Alabama in 2026.
In 2024 alone, Multiplier made the following grants to organizations active in Alabama and the Southeast:
- $250,000 to Energy Alabama: the nonprofit currently running aggressive advertising campaigns
- $500,000 to the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC): whose attorney, Sarah Stokes, is registered to lobby in Alabama’s 2026 legislative session
- $975,000 to the League of Conservation Voters: the national parent organization of Georgia Conservation Voters
Energy Alabama also received $35,000 from Multiplier in 2023, bringing documented grants to the organization to $285,000 over two years.
The connections between Georgia’s environmental network and Alabama go beyond the financial element. Key players have moved between organizations targeting utilities in both states.
Neil Sardana, who served as Senior Policy Manager at Georgia Conservation Voters, was a chief strategist for Arm in Arm’s anti-Southern Company campaigns across Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Michael Malcom, leader of the People’s Justice Council, operates in Alabama and has absorbed Arm in Arm, the Atlanta-based environmental network that spent years targeting Southern Company and its affiliates. Malcom relocated to Atlanta recently.
What’s at stake
If the Georgia model is any indication, Alabama’s traditionally low-profile PSC races could become ground zero for a well-funded campaign by national environmental interests.
Georgia Conservation Voters showed that $2.2 million, a fraction of typical statewide campaign spending, was enough to flip two deeply entrenched Republican seats in races that had gone uncontested for decades.
The organization’s digital and direct-mail operation reached voters with a simple, consumer-focused message about electricity costs.
The funding is already flowing. The lobbyists are already registered. The advertising campaigns are already running.
The question now is whether Alabama is prepared for what comes next.
Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.
