Democrat Shuchita Patel is challenging Forsyth County Commissioner Todd Levent in Georgia’s Nov. 3 election, putting development and county spending before voters in a rapidly growing county.
Patel and the Republican incumbent are on the ballot for the District 3 seat on the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the county’s population at 282,805 on July 1, 2025, up 12.5% from its April 1, 2020, estimate base of 251,285.
Patel’s campaign says development has strained roads, schools and green space. Her platform calls for greater transparency in county spending, stronger development standards, infrastructure improvements and protection of open areas. The campaign argues that residents and families should benefit more from the county’s growth.
Patel, who says she works in finance, says she moved to North Georgia in 1993 and is raising three children in Forsyth County. She described her reason for running on her campaign website: “I got tired of watching this county make the same choices and call them inevitable.”
Official county results show Patel received 2,283 votes in the May 19, 2026, Democratic primary. Levent received 4,470 votes in the Republican primary that day. The figures come from separate party contests and do not show how the candidates performed against each other.
Forsyth County’s history includes the forced departure of more than 1,000 Black residents in 1912 after the lynching of Rob Edwards, according to Atlanta History Center. The New Georgia Encyclopedia says the Forsyth County Defense League, a group later linked to the Ku Klux Klan, scheduled a white-power rally for the day of a 1987 civil rights march.
Voters will decide the District 3 commission seat in the Nov. 3 general election.
