“I hope this doesn’t have to become public, but this is something I’m absolutely planning to pursue,” Williams said Ossoff told her. Ossoff’s allies confirmed the exchange is a broadly accurate, though not verbatim, depiction of their conversation.

Credit: TNS

Credit: TNS

The rift compounds nasty internal Democratic finger-pointing that followed Trump’s victory in Georgia, one of seven battleground states the Republican swept last week on his way to a second term.

State Rep. Derrick Jackson, who is competing for a Democratic House leadership post, said he spoke to both Williams and Ossoff in recent days, and he questioned the U.S. senator about whether he would still have called for Williams’ ouster if Vice President Kamala Harris had won Georgia.

“Harris’ loss doesn’t mean the party did something wrong,” said Jackson, a Williams supporter. “We should do a forensic analysis of what happened, but let’s not do it in the public square.”

Asked Tuesday whether Williams should step down, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock sidestepped the debate.

“I think we need to get beyond the current distraction and focus on the work,” said Warnock, who was elected with Ossoff in the 2021 runoffs that flipped control of the Senate.

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a close friend of Ossoff, was less circumspect when asked if Williams should resign.

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC

”I think there’s a groundswell of support for that to happen,“ the DeKalb Democrat told the AJC. “It’s up to her.“

As for Williams, she was tightlipped about her next step. She told Michael Jones, author of the Once Upon A Hill political newsletter, late Tuesday that she’s in internal discussions with party officials about her next steps.

“And there are a lot of people with a lot of comments that are not involved in the party, never have been and are not looking at what’s in the best interest of the party,” she said.

A tough 2026 looms

Ossoff will likely be a top GOP target in 2026 when Republicans face a more challenging U.S. Senate landscape in their quest to keep the chamber under GOP control. Gov. Brian Kemp is among the Republicans who could seek the seat.

The Democratic officials, several of whom requested anonymity to talk about private discussions, said the conversations took place shortly after Trump won Georgia by roughly 120,000 votes, flipping the state back into the GOP column four years after Joe Biden’s narrow victory.

In the hours after the election, about a dozen donors, activists and officials spoke publicly to the AJC about their concerns with Williams’ leadership. Since then, several left-leaning organizations, including the Young Democrats of Georgia and the Georgia Federation of Democratic Women, echoed the criticism.

Some of the pushback has focused on the party’s strategy in the 2024 election, accusing Williams and her leadership team of taking a ham-handed approach and wasting resources. Others say Williams can’t effectively raise money for the state party because of federal restrictions since she’s a member of Congress.

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

“There’s a lot of frustration in Democratic circles right now,” said Parker Short, the former head of the Young Democrats of Georgia. “Now is the time to act. She should value the opinions of people inside the party who say that we can’t afford for her to lead the party another two years.”

On Tuesday, several prominent Democrats vouched for Williams. A letter signed by Savannah Mayor Van Johnson acknowledged frustration over Trump’s victory but praised Williams’ “steady leadership” and noted Democrats came closer in Georgia than most other battlegrounds.

(House Minority Caucus Chair Billy Mitchell’s name was also on the letter, but said Wednesday that it was sent without his approval. “I have nothing against Nikema. I wish this debate, this debacle, could have been done in private. But I’m not getting involved in this fight.”)

And Erick Allen, a former lawmaker who chaired the Cobb Democratic Party, said partisans should resist “knee-jerk reactions driven by personal ambitions of people seeking a future office.”

Williams, who was first elected to lead the party in 2019, won another four-year term in 2023. She’s said the party needs a “course correction” but that those discussions shouldn’t play out in public.

“There are always things we wished we had done better,” she told the AJC’s “Politically Georgia” podcast after the election. “I wish we had more time. I wish we had the luxury of running an eight-year campaign like Donald Trump. But we didn’t have that. We worked with what we had.”

Others are worried about the growing fallout. DeKalb County Commissioner Lorraine Cochran-Johnson, elected last week as the county’s next chief executive, told “Politically Georgia” on Tuesday that she’s concerned the infighting could become a broader distraction.

“It seems a bit late to say that, at this point, an individual cannot perform the essential job, roles and responsibilities when they’ve been allowed to function in that capacity,” she said. “It’s easy to point fingers after it’s done.”

Washington correspondent Tia Mitchell contributed to this article.