Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Georgia gubernatorial election on Tuesday, Nov. 3, defeating Republican businessman Rick Jackson to become the first Black woman elected governor in United States history. The former Atlanta mayor also becomes Georgia’s first female governor, its first Black governor, and the first Democrat to capture the state’s top executive office since 1998, according to the Associated Press.
Bottoms prevailed despite a steep campaign spending disadvantage against Jackson, a billionaire health care executive who put more than $200 million of his own fortune into the race and carried the endorsement of President Donald Trump. Jackson conceded the contest on Tuesday night, telling supporters: “Tonight, the voters spoke … and I respect their decision.”
Ahead of Election Day, Bottoms framed the contest around the state’s future. “What we do in this moment will echo through history,” she said. During the campaign, she frequently stepped past the historic nature of her candidacy to focus on economic proposals and opposition to the Trump administration in Washington. “Let’s choose hope over fear, progress over division, and come together to build a better Georgia for everyone,” Bottoms said.
Her victory shifts control of Georgia’s executive branch from Republicans to Democrats after two terms under Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who was barred by state term limits from seeking a third consecutive term. On the campaign trail, Bottoms pledged to expand Medicaid coverage, raise Georgia’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, and create a pathway to free technical education and community college, Anadolu Agency reported. According to The 19th, she also campaigned on eliminating state taxes on auto and homeowner insurance premiums, lowering the state gas tax, and pausing new data center construction across the state.
Alongside Bottoms’ win, Georgia voters reelected Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, the state’s first Jewish senator, to continue serving beside Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black senator. The outcome overcame a long-standing pattern among Georgia voters of resisting candidates from Atlanta for the governor’s mansion, reflecting the growing political weight of the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Bottoms began her elected career on the Atlanta City Council in 2009 before serving one term as mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022. She later joined President Joe Biden’s administration as a senior adviser and director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. While campaigning across Georgia, Bottoms often spoke about her family roots as the descendant of enslaved Georgians. “I am at least a fifth-generation Georgian,” she said. “I say ‘at least’ because we can only trace our family back five generations — to a plantation in Crawfordville.” She recounted that her grandfather moved to Atlanta from rural Georgia and had to enter downtown buildings through back doors that she later walked through from the front as mayor, adding that her ancestry is always present with her.
Tuesday’s election marked the third consecutive Georgia gubernatorial race featuring a Black woman at the top of the Democratic ticket, following Stacey Abrams’ two unsuccessful campaigns against Kemp. Nationally, only three Black governors had been elected in U.S. history prior to Tuesday, all of them Democratic men. Bottoms was one of eight Black major-party gubernatorial nominees on ballots across the country Tuesday, alongside Minnesota Republican nominee Lisa Demuth. Bottoms will take office when Kemp’s current term expires.