Bárbara Rivera Holmes

Republicanincumbent

Commissioner of Labor · Cobb County, Georgia · November 3, 2026

Also on the ballot: Nikki Porcher (Democrat)

Bárbara Rivera Holmes is the incumbent Georgia Labor Commissioner, appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp in March 2025 as the state's first Hispanic woman in statewide office. A former journalist and Albany chamber of commerce leader, she is running for a full term on a platform of modernizing the Department of Labor and reducing bureaucratic "red tape."

What this office decides

The Labor Commissioner runs Georgia's unemployment insurance system, including claims processing and employer tax rates, and oversees workforce development and job placement services. The office also handles certain workplace safety and child labor administration. Its performance affects laid-off workers and employers paying into the system.

How this race lines up with you

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Dossier

Researched 2026-09-22 · Claude Code research agent with web search

Donald Trump: nothing found. No endorsement or criticism found.

Who they are

Bárbara Rivera Holmes was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, earned a bachelor's degree from Florida Southern College, and worked as a journalist at The Albany Herald before becoming president/CEO of the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce in 2016 (Wikipedia). Gov. Nathan Deal appointed her to the Georgia Board of Regents in 2017 (Wikipedia). After Labor Commissioner Bruce Thompson died in late 2024, Gov. Brian Kemp announced on March 18, 2025 that he would appoint Rivera Holmes to the post, making her the first Hispanic woman to hold statewide constitutional office in Georgia; she was sworn in April 4, 2025 (AP News via Wikipedia; AJC).

Positions

Business & regulation: Says her priorities include "reducing fraud and modernizing the department's processes and systems," and that she created a "red tape task force" to identify and remove bureaucratic bottlenecks in the department while maintaining system integrity (WTOC).
Schools/workforce training: Highlights the department's re-employment and upskilling partnerships with the Technical College System of Georgia and WorkSource Georgia through 34 statewide career centers (WTOC).

Record

As commissioner, Rivera Holmes says her department is completing what she calls the largest overhaul of the state's unemployment insurance platform in state history, and is shifting department communications to "plain language" (WTOC). She cites Georgia's 3.3% unemployment rate, about a percentage point below the national average, and the state's status as a perennial "top state for business" during her tenure (WTOC). She won the Republican primary unopposed on May 19, 2026 with 775,766 votes (Ballotpedia).

Money

Ballotpedia states campaign finance information for Rivera Holmes "is not yet available from OpenSecrets" (Ballotpedia); no other fundraising total was located in this research.

What we couldn't find

Campaign finance totals (explicitly not yet available per Ballotpedia/OpenSecrets).
Endorsements; Ballotpedia's endorsement section for this race is blank for Rivera Holmes as of this research.
Any Trump-related statement (none found in available coverage).
A detailed campaign issues page beyond her public remarks as sitting commissioner.

Sources (3)