Keisha Lance Bottoms wins Georgia governor’s race, making history

Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia’s governor’s race Tuesday, becoming the first Black woman elected governor in the United States and the first Democrat to win the state’s top office in more than 20 years.

The former Atlanta mayor defeated Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive endorsed by President Donald Trump, according to a race call by the Associated Press reported by NPR. Bottoms, 56, will succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is leaving office in January after eight years because of term limits.

The contest drew heavy spending from Jackson’s personal fortune, though accounts differ on the amount. The Guardian reported that he spent more than $100 million, while Al Jazeera put the figure at more than $200 million. The Guardian said Jackson had been favored to win until the final days of the race.

Jackson’s campaign attacked Bottoms’ record during her single term as Atlanta mayor, from 2018 to 2022. His ads portrayed the city as beset by crime during her tenure, which included the COVID-19 pandemic and a period of social unrest. The Guardian reported that his campaign aired images of the 2020 protests after George Floyd’s death and invoked the killing of Secoriea Turner, an 8-year-old girl shot during a street takeover by armed men.

“It’s a longstanding playbook to paint Atlanta as this big bad place,” Bottoms told the Associated Press, according to Al Jazeera. Bottoms chose not to seek a second term as mayor and later served as an adviser in former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Bottoms campaigned on fully expanding Medicaid, a change that would require approval from the state legislature. She also proposed allowing local governments to eliminate sales tax on groceries and ending the state income tax for public school teachers. She said she would stand up to the Trump administration and seek relief from high prices.

Data centers became another campaign issue. Bottoms backed a moratorium on new facilities and, during her only gubernatorial debate with Jackson in October, called for expert guidance on the state’s approach. “We need experts in this field to sit around the table and tell us and give us guidance as to how the state of Georgia should move forward,” she said.

Bottoms highlighted Trump’s endorsement of Jackson. NPR reported that Jackson aligned himself with Trump during the primaries but later removed references to him from his website and stopped mentioning him in campaign speeches. Kemp endorsed Jackson after the primary. Bottoms received endorsements from Biden and former President Barack Obama and regularly campaigned with Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, who also won re-election Tuesday.

Al Jazeera reported that strong early turnout among Georgia’s Black voters helped Bottoms. Her victory follows two unsuccessful gubernatorial bids by Stacey Abrams, the Democrats’ nominee in 2018 and 2022. Bottoms may face a Republican majority in at least one chamber of the legislature as she pursues her agenda, NPR reported.