Nels Peterson

float:right;
border:1px solid #FFB81F;
background-color: white;
width: 250px;
font-size: .9em;
margin-bottom:0px;

} .infobox p { margin-bottom: 0; } .widget-row { display: inline-block; width: 100%; margin-top: 1px; margin-bottom: 1px; } .widget-row.heading { font-size: 1.2em; } .widget-row.value-only { text-align: center; background-color: grey; color: white; font-weight: bold; } .widget-row.value-only.white { background-color: #f9f9f9; } .widget-row.value-only.black { background-color: #f9f9f9; color: black; } .widget-row.Democratic { background-color: #003388; color: white; font-weight: bold; } .widget-row.Republican { background-color: red; color: white; font-weight: bold; } .widget-row.Independent, .widget-row.Nonpartisan, .widget-row.Constitution { background-color: grey; color: white; font-weight: bold; } .widget-row.Libertarian { background-color: #f9d334; color: black; font-weight: bold; } .widget-row.Green { background-color: green; color: white; font-weight: bold; } .widget-key { width: 43%; display: inline-block; padding-left: 10px; vertical-align: top; font-weight: bold; } .widget-value { width: 57%; float: right; display: inline-block; padding-left: 10px; word-wrap: break-word; } .widget-img { width: 150px; display: block; margin: auto; } .clearfix { clear: both; }

Nels Peterson is a judge of the Georgia Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 1, 2017. His current term ends on December 31, 2030.

Peterson ran for re-election for judge of the Georgia Supreme Court. He won in the general election on May 21, 2024.

Peterson was appointed by Governor Nathan Deal (R) on November 9, 2016.^[1] Peterson's appointment filled one of the two new seats on the supreme court created by law in 2016, increasing the number of supreme court justices from seven to nine. He took the bench on January 1, 2017.^[2] "To read more about judicial selection in Georgia, click here.

In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.^[3] Peterson received a confidence score of Strong Republican.^[4] Click here to read more about this study.

Peterson was previously a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals. He was appointed to this court by Governor Deal (R) on October 29, 2015, and his term began on January 1, 2016.^[5] Peterson was appointed to one of the three new seats on the Georgia Court of Appeals created by the expansion court from 12 to 15 judges in 2015.

Biography

Peterson earned his B.S. from Kennesaw State University in 2001 and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2004.^[6]

Peterson's career experience includes working as a law clerk for Judge Bill Pryor on the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He also worked for the firm King & Spalding, and served as Gov. Sonny Perdue’s (R) executive counsel. In 2012, he served as state Attorney General Sam Olens’ solicitor general.^[5] He later became vice chancellor for legal affairs and secretary to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. He was appointed to the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2016 and to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2017.

Elections

2024

General election

General election for Georgia Supreme Court

Incumbent Nels Peterson won election in the general election for Georgia Supreme Court on May 21, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Nels Peterson (Nonpartisan)	100.0	1,049,781

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,049,781
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

   .ballot-measure-endorsements p {
       display: inline;
   }
   .ballot-measure-endorsements td {
       width: 35% !important;
   }
   .endorsements-header {
       margin-top: 10px !important;
       margin-bottom: 5px !important;
   }
   .ballot-measure-endorsements ul {
       margin-top: 0 !important;
       margin-bottom: 0 !important;
   }
   .split-cols-bm {
       columns: 2;
       -webkit-columns: 2;
       -moz-columns: 2;
   }
   @media screen and (max-width: 792px) {
       .split-cols-bm {
           columns: 1;
           -webkit-columns: 1;
           -moz-columns: 1;
       }
   }

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Peterson in this election.

2018

See also: Georgia Supreme Court elections, 2018

General election

General election for Georgia Supreme Court

Incumbent Nels Peterson won election in the general election for Georgia Supreme Court on May 22, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Nels Peterson (Nonpartisan)	100.0	885,265

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 885,265
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Selection method

See also: Judicial selection in Georgia

There are nine justices on the Georgia Supreme Court, each chosen by popular vote in nonpartisan elections. They serve six-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to retain their seats.^[7]

The chief justice is selected by peer vote and serves in that capacity for four years.^[7]

Qualifications

To serve on this court, a judge must be:

a resident of Georgia and
admitted to practice law for at least seven years.^[7]

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

Nels Peterson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

Nels Peterson campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Georgia Supreme Court	Won general	$187,378	$11,690
Grand total			$187,378	$11,690
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

Analysis

Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)

See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship and Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters

Last updated: June 15, 2020

In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.

The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.^[8]

The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:

Strong Democrat
Mild Democrat
Indeterminate^[9]
Mild Republican
Strong Republican

This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.

.no-hover { text-decoration: none !important; text-decoration-color: none !important; } #PartisanProfile p span[style] { font-size: 16px !important; font-family: 'Libre Franklin' !important; color: #333 !important; } #PartisanProfile span[style] { font-family: 'Libre Franklin' !important; font-size: 16px !important; white-space: normal !important; font-weight: 400 !important; } .gray_accent{ color: #333333; } .gray_divider{ background-color: #333333; height: 5px; width: 50px; } #PartisanProfile>p{ display: none; } .right_side{ overflow-y: scroll !important; } #left_list { list-style: none !important; margin: 0; } #left_list li { margin-bottom: 10px; } .person_name{ font-size: 30pt !important; padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; line-height: 40px; } .part_profile_text{ font-size: 20pt !important; } #PartisanProfile h5 { font-size: 14pt !important; } #PartisanProfile h6{ font-size: 12pt !important; } #left_list span{ font-size: 12pt; } h4 { padding: 0 !important; } .partisan-prof-state { font-size: 24px !important; font-weight: 300; margin: 0; color: #333; }

a .partisan-prof-state { color: #333 !important; } .easy-black li span[style] { color: #333 !important; font-family: 'Libre Franklin' !important; font-size: 16px !important; } .Strong-Republican { background: #A30000 !important; border: 3px solid #A30000 !important; color: #A30000 !important; } .Mild-Republican { background: #F21414 !important; border: 3px solid #F21414 !important; color: #F21414 !important; } .Indeterminate { background: #777777 !important; border: 3px solid #777777 !important; color: #777777 !important; } .Mild-Democrat { background: #275DFF !important; border: 3px solid #275DFF !important; color: #275DFF !important; } .Strong-Democrat { background: #001A9B !important; border: 3px solid #001A9B !important; color: #001A9B !important; }

Nels
Peterson

Georgia

Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican
Judicial Selection Method:
Elected
Key Factors:
- Held political office as a Republican
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Received donations from Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations

Partisan Profile

Details:

Peterson served on Governor Sonny Perdue’s (R) executive council. He donated $300 to Republican candidates and organizations. He received $2,500 from Koch Industries, an organization that regularly donates to Republican candidates. Peterson was appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal (R) in 2016. At the time of his appointment, Georgia was a Republican trifecta.

State supreme court judicial selection in Georgia

See also: Judicial selection in Georgia

The nine justices on the Georgia Supreme Court are chosen by popular vote in nonpartisan elections. They serve six-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to retain their seats.^[10]

Qualifications

To serve on this court, a judge must be:

a resident of Georgia; and
admitted to practice law for at least seven years.^[10]

Chief justice

The chief justice is selected by peer vote and serves in that capacity for four years.^[10]

Vacancies

See also: How vacancies are filled in state supreme courts

If a vacancy appears on the court, the position is filled by assisted appointment. The governor chooses an appointee from a list of qualified candidates compiled by the judicial nominating commission. As of March 2023, the judicial nominating commission consisted of 35 members, each appointed by the governor. For each court vacancy, the commission recommends candidates, but the governor is not bound to the commission's choices and may choose to appoint a judge not found on the list.^[11] If appointed, an interim judge must run in the next general election held at least six months after the appointment, and, if confirmed by voters, he or she may finish the rest of the predecessor's term.^[10]^[12]^[13]

The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.

External links

   .contact_entity {font-size: 1.5em ;margin-top: 0.6em; margin-bottom: 0em;margin-right: 0.5em;}
   .contact_office { margin-top: 0.3em; margin-bottom: 0em;margin-right: 0.5em;}
   .external_links_table { width: auto !important; }
   @media (max-width:600px) {
       .contact_entity {font-size: 1.0em ;margin-top: 0.6em; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 0.5em;}
       .contact_office { font-size: 0.8 em; margin-top: 0.6em; margin-bottom: 0em;margin-right: 0.5em;}  
   }

Search Google News for this topic

Officeholder

Georgia Supreme Court

Website

Personal

Facebook

Footnotes

↑ Daily Report, "Deal Appoints Five New Appellate Judges," November 9, 2016
↑ Georgia General Assembly, "House Bill 927," accessed November 15, 2016
↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Gov. Deal appoints three to appeals court bench," October 29, 2015
↑ Martindale.com, "Nels Stefan David Peterson - Lawyer Profile," accessed July 18, 2021
↑ ^7.0 ^7.1 ^7.2 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014
↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
↑ ^10.0 ^10.1 ^10.2 ^10.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014
↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia; Judicial Nominating Commissions," archived October 2, 2014
↑ Governor Brian Kemp, "Executive Order," accessed March 29, 2023
↑ Governor Brian Kemp, "Gov. Kemp Names 35 to Judicial Nominating Commission," October 27, 2021

v • e

Georgia Supreme Court
Judicial selection in Georgia • 2024 elections • Courts in Georgia

Current judges

Charlie Bethel, Michael P. Boggs, Verda Colvin, John Ellington, Shawn Ellen LaGrua, Carla W. McMillian, Nels Peterson, Andrew Pinson, Sarah Warren

Former judges

Robert Benham, Keith Blackwell, George Carley, Britt Grant, Harris Hines, Carol Hunstein, Harold Melton, David Nahmias, Hugh Thompson

Georgia courts

Federal courts:

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Middle District of Georgia, Northern District of Georgia, Southern District of Georgia • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Middle District of Georgia, Northern District of Georgia, Southern District of Georgia

State courts:

Georgia Supreme Court • Georgia Court of Appeals • Georgia Superior Courts • Georgia State Courts • Georgia Business Court • Georgia Tax Court • Georgia Juvenile Courts • Georgia Probate Courts • Georgia Magistrate Courts • Georgia Municipal Courts

State resources:

Courts in Georgia • Georgia judicial elections • Judicial selection in Georgia

[SSC-1] Daily Report, "Deal Appoints Five New Appellate Judges," November 9, 2016

[Expansion-2] Georgia General Assembly, "House Bill 927," accessed November 15, 2016

[3] We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.

[4] The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.

[appt-5] 5.0 ^5.1 Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Gov. Deal appoints three to appeals court bench," October 29, 2015

[6] Martindale.com, "Nels Stefan David Peterson - Lawyer Profile," accessed July 18, 2021

[gen-7] 7.0 ^7.1 ^7.2 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014

[8] The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.

[9] An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.

[GAgen-10] 10.0 ^10.1 ^10.2 ^10.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014

[nom-11] American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia; Judicial Nominating Commissions," archived October 2, 2014

[12] Governor Brian Kemp, "Executive Order," accessed March 29, 2023

[13] Governor Brian Kemp, "Gov. Kemp Names 35 to Judicial Nominating Commission," October 27, 2021

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

Georgia	Judicial Selection	More Courts

Courts in Georgia Georgia Court of Appeals Georgia Supreme Court	Elections: 2025 • 2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 Gubernatorial appointments Judicial selection in Georgia	Federal courts State courts Local courts

	v • e State of Georgia Atlanta (capital)
Elections	What's on my ballot? \| Elections in 2025 \| How to vote \| How to run for office \| Ballot measures
Government	Who represents me? \| U.S. President \| U.S. Congress \| Federal courts \| State executives \| State legislature \| State and local courts \| Counties \| Cities \| School districts \| Public policy

Nels Peterson

Contents

Biography

Elections

2024

General election

General election for Georgia Supreme Court

Endorsements

2018

General election

General election for Georgia Supreme Court

Selection method

Qualifications

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

Campaign finance summary

Analysis

Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)

Nels
Peterson

State supreme court judicial selection in Georgia

Qualifications

Chief justice

Vacancies

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2024 Elections

2024 Election analysis

2025 Elections

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

Get Engaged

Services

Additional analysis

SITE NAVIGATION