On November 4, 2025, only one seat on the ballot was contested in Acworth, Georgia’s municipal elections. The race pitted Tim Richardson, a 28-year incumbent on the city council, against Kimberly Haase, an independent challenger.
The matchup was familiar to Acworth voters. In 2021, the same two candidates had faced off. At the end of that race, the incumbent had won by 123 votes.
This time, Haase beat Richardson with a margin almost three times as wide: 352 votes.
Haase became the first African-American woman elected to the Acworth Board of Aldermen, making history and ushering in a season of change for her community.
She achieved her victory without party backing or PAC money. She won on a budget under $5,000, using GoodParty.org’s campaign toolkit.
"It's an honor. When my grandchildren ask me what did I do during that timeframe, I can sit back and I can tell them, ‘Well, Grandma made history. It didn't just make history for our family's name, but we made history to pave the way for others to come behind.'"
Running for Alderwoman as a First-Generation Candidate
Haase is a local business owner and holds a political science degree from Kennesaw State University. No one from her family had run for office before, and she hadn’t imagined she would take the leap this early in her career.
“I did not think I would run for office until I was older. Now, what older meant, I don't know, but I thought I just was too young to run. For whatever reason, that is how we have blocks in our mind,” Haase said.
As she watched political discourse grow more polarized in 2021, Haase decided she needed to do more than stand on the sidelines. She launched her first campaign against Richardson. When she lost that race, Haase took note of the slim margin between herself and the incumbent.
“It told me that the city of Acworth was looking for a change,” she said.
“It normally takes a couple of times, especially when you're what I coin a ‘first-generation’ candidate, to run for office. There's a learning curve. I was very aware that I was not going to probably win because I had been taught that, but I was very excited and surprised about the voters who came out for my first time, not really knowing me by my name or my family's name.”
In 2023, Haase ran a second campaign for city council, this time competing for a different seat. Her opponent ended up winning the election, though Haase earned 67% of the vote in one of Acworth’s three precincts.
Looking back, Haase said her two losses both built toward her victory in 2025.
"I was still building from 2021. Those years and that trial — and some would say that fail — was a lesson that I just put in my toolbox for 2023. And then 2023, though that failed, some would say, was nothing but a learning lesson and toolbox to bring me into victory."
A Campaign Built on Data, Not Dollars
Heading into 2025, Haase knew her campaign needed a more robust structure. She needed the kind of support major-party campaigns receive, like strategy guidance, voter data, and a network for accountability, but without the strings attached.
"I really believe, and I still believe to this day, it's about the people and helping the people and not getting caught up in the bureaucracy of party-driven campaigns," she said.
She searched for something that fit, and found GoodParty.org.
"I found that it was a community, and who you saw were people that you could email and you could really get an answer from those people. In going through the [resource] library and just looking at the plethora of archived information, of wealth — if you're not ready to go out, if you did not go to school for it, GoodParty.org has a library full of information that's available to you."
GoodParty.org gave Haase the resources to run a more strategic campaign than she had in 2021 or 2023. Actionable data helped her identify her target voters, including residents who didn't know they lived within city limits and were eligible to vote in the race.
Really what helped me with GoodParty.org was the narrowing down of the data to penetrate my people who would come out and vote for me, or who may not have even known they were in the district for the city to vote for me.
There was an educational piece that GoodParty.org helped me with, being able to locate those addresses and simply put out information to say, ‘Yes, you are in the city limits, and yes, you can vote.’
Haase used her targeted list to send text messages to voters, as well as election-day robocalls.
“I targeted who GoodParty.org told me to target. That list was golden,” she said.
Haase said robocalls were especially useful for reaching older voters who have landlines. Overall, she credits voter data as a key factor to her victory.
That really was the final touch to make it all come together, because with that voter data, we were able to tap our voters multiple times.
Before, I might have been tapping my voters, but I might have been only tapping them once and then tapping someone who wasn't my ideal voter.
In addition to voter data, Haase relied on her creativity to reach voters on a low budget. For example, she worked with local family-owned businesses to tuck campaign flyers into food delivery orders. She also invested in digital billboards and produced a short commercial toward the end of her campaign.
Haase’s efforts paid off. A total of 3,210 voters turned out to vote in her race — more than twice as many as had voted in her 2021 faceoff with Richardson.
On election night, Haase watched the numbers come in, but didn't let herself exhale completely until she saw the results officially certified.
“I was thankful and I had a tear in my eye when I saw the numbers that night, but I didn't really exhale until I went down there with my mother to watch where they sealed the deal for the elections. That was when I was really like, ‘Okay, this is real,’” Haase said.
Encouraging Civic Engagement as Alderwoman
Since becoming Acworth’s first African-American alderwoman, Haase has turned her attention to making progress for her community.
“I celebrate, but work needs to be done,” Haase said. “I hope that myself and people who supported me, like GoodParty.org and my family, that we can even have another conversation about my years of governing and how I stay true to what my convictions are.”
Haase is encouraging her constituents to stay engaged beyond election day. After her election, she sent a constituent survey to ask Acworth residents what they most wanted her to focus on.
Her challenge to them: keep engaging and hold your elected officials accountable.
“We get out and we vote and then we're finished, right? Then you don't really hear from people unless it's an issue sometimes,” Haase said.
"I would challenge us as voters to do better and not wait till the crisis comes, not wait till it is drama, not wait till the house is burning. You have to stay engaged. You have to hold us accountable to what we say. You cannot just vote and then don't do anything for the next four years. That's just not going to work, especially in this day and time."
Haase also has words of guidance for those who are thinking about running for local office:
“Losing is part of the process. Sacrifice is part of the process. Knowing yourself is part of the process. That is one of the things you're just going to have to [know] if you're running for office — losing even if it's nothing but you won but you had to lose some friendships, you had to lose some sleepless nights, you had to lose some habits,” she said.
“There is a loss and there is a sacrifice to running. But you know what I think in general, to move forward in life, to do good, that's just part of the evolution of growing. I think we should be comfortable with being uncomfortable, right? That should be a new norm.”
Haase emphasized the importance of each person making a difference, whether you’re running for office or serving in a smaller way:
"You have to start doing things that you really would not usually do in this day and time to move forward."
Kimberly Haase is one of over 13,000 independent and nonpartisan candidates who have won their elections using GoodParty.org.