On Monday, Georgia’s Cobb County swore in its first female and first Black district attorney, Joyette Holmes.
Holmes has served as Cobb county’s chief magistrate judge over the past four years and is also the vice-president of the Council of Magistrate Court Judges, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She even had plans to become president of the council, but bigger and better things were obviously in store.
“She is certainly one of our best and brightest in Georgia,” Gov. Brian Kemp told AJC reporters at a press conference for the announcement. “As DA, I know that Judge Holmes will work around the clock to keep our families safe as well as our businesses.”
Kemp selected Holmes after asking the previous DA, Vic Reynolds, to join the Georgia Bureau of Investigation as its director, according to WSB-TV 2. Holmes will finish the rest of Reynolds’s term, which ends in December 2020.
The former prosecutor said she intends to run for a four-year term for the office next year and will dedicate her time now to continuing the work of past leadership.
The goals of the previous DA included providing rehabilitation for people who need treatment and cracking down on gang activity in the county, the AJC reported.
“Being a black woman, I think there’s a role that it plays and it’s one of pride in the community and one of perspective that can be given that may not have been given in the years before,” Holmes told the AJC. “I think those things are a bonus for Cobb County.”