Laura Murvartian

Laura Murvartian is the Democratic candidate for the Georgia State Senate, District 48, where she faces Republican incumbent Shawn Still in the November 3, 2026 general election.[1][2] She is the founder and executive director of Arte GA, a nonprofit that supports Latino professional creatives, and a former corporate executive and small business owner, according to her Ballotpedia survey.[3]

Murvartian said in a Ballotpedia survey that she began working at age 12 to help her family and became the first in her family to earn a college degree, a bachelor's in political science with honors from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.[3] She received a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and earned a master's degree in public policy from the University of Michigan, with a focus on international economics; Ballotpedia lists her University of Michigan graduate degree as 1993.[3][1] After working at the Federal Reserve she moved to Atlanta, where she served as a corporate executive at several companies and, by her account, as a senior negotiator on information-technology infrastructure and data deals.[3] She then opened a Georgia wine franchise as its area developer and later founded Arte GA; she is a member of the 2014 Leadership Atlanta class and was named one of the 50 most influential Latinos in Georgia in 2018, according to the survey.[3]

Murvartian was the Democratic nominee for Georgia House of Representatives District 48 in 2024, losing the general election to incumbent Scott Hilton, 54.9% to 45.1%.[1] In 2026 she won the Democratic primary for Senate District 48, defeating Nathan Hombroek with 63.7% of the vote.[1] She listed better health care for Georgians, strengthening Georgia's economy and protecting democracy, including voting rights and fair districts, as the key messages of her campaign.[3]

Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21. Not yet independently fact-checked.