In a state where the governor's chair had stayed in Republican hands for more than two decades, Keisha Lance Bottoms has now taken it, carrying a long life of public service from Atlanta City Hall into the state capitol. Her victory with 54.77% over Rick Jackson marks a turn in Georgia's political story and a notable step in the wider American arc of Black women reaching the highest executive offices. It arrives after years of hard-fought defeats, and it asks what a governor shaped by a welcoming city will do with a state that has long leaned the other way.
Keisha Lance Bottoms Becomes Georgia's First Black Woman Governor, Ending Two Decades of Republican Control
The first Black woman elected governor anywhere in the United States
Mark
Start with the headline fact. What exactly did Bottoms win, and why is it being called historic?
Mimi
She took 54.77% against Republican Rick Jackson. She's the first Black woman elected governor in the U.S., and Georgia's first female governor.
Mark
And it breaks a long streak.
Mimi
More than twenty years of Republican control of the governor's mansion. She's the first Democrat to win the race since 1998, and she follows Brian Kemp.
Luke
Worth saying the reporting is AP and Reuters on the result. The piece calls it a projected victory in one place and an election in another, so I'd treat formal certification as something not covered here.
Mark
Fair. What about the Stacey Abrams connection?
Mimi
Abrams lost to Kemp in 2018 and 2022. Bottoms was the third Black woman in a row nominated by Democrats for governor, and the first to win.
Mark
Her time in the Biden administration seems to carry a wrinkle.
Mimi
Yes. She was fired by Trump's office in 2025, but she says she resigned.
Luke
That's a disagreement over how she left, and the source doesn't resolve it. It just reports both versions.
Mark
And what should we expect on policy?
Mimi
Affordability and the economy were her focus, and she opposed data centers. On ICE and LGBTQ policy she has a mayoral record to point to.
Luke
A record as mayor tells us her stated direction. What a state governor can actually do with it isn't answered yet.
Il Polso
- Georgia's governor's mansion, held by Republicans for over twenty years, changes hands as Bottoms wins with 54.77% against Rick Jackson.
- The result follows Stacey Abrams's losses in 2018 and 2022, so the win carries the weight of earlier defeats.
- Bottoms's record as Atlanta mayor, on ICE cooperation, immigration and LGBTQ policy, now faces the harder test of statewide governing.
- Her campaign on affordability and opposition to data center construction sets expectations she must now translate into policy.
- She succeeds Brian Kemp, and the transition begins with a state watching closely how she navigates her own promises.
In a state where the governor's chair had stayed in Republican hands for more than two decades, Keisha Lance Bottoms has now taken it, carrying a long life of public service from Atlanta City Hall into the state capitol. Her victory with 54.77% over Rick Jackson marks a turn in Georgia's political story and a notable step in the wider American arc of Black women reaching the highest executive offices. It arrives after years of hard-fought defeats, and it asks what a governor shaped by a welcoming city will do with a state that has long leaned the other way.
Keisha Lance Bottoms has been elected governor of Georgia, taking 54.77% of the vote against Republican Rick Jackson. Her win makes her the first Black woman to be elected governor anywhere in the United States and the first woman to hold the office in Georgia. It also ends more than two decades of Republican control of the governor's mansion, and she is the first Democrat to win a Georgia governor's race since 1998.
The road here was long. Stacey Abrams lost to Brian Kemp in 2018 and again in 2022, and Bottoms's victory came as the third straight time Georgia Democrats nominated a Black woman for the job. Bottoms brings a career spanning Atlanta City Hall and federal service, including her years as the city's 6th mayor from 2018 to 2022.
As mayor, she drew a clear line on immigration. She barred Atlanta's detention center from holding ICE detainees, called the city welcoming, and said it would not pick up people on immigration violations. She also built LGBTQ policy into city government, releasing the first LGBTQ Affairs report and creating the first LGBTQ Advisory Board and Director of LGBTQ Affairs.
Now the question is how those commitments carry into state governance. Her campaign focused on affordability and opposed data center construction across Georgia, and she will take those stances into office as she succeeds Kemp.
Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Democratic nominee, has been elected governor of Georgia, according to AP reporting, taking 54.77% of the vote against Republican Rick Jackson. The result makes her the first Black woman elected governor anywhere in the United States, and the first woman to hold the office in Georgia, per Reuters.
The win ends more than two decades of Republican control of the governor's mansion. Bottoms is the first Democrat to win a Georgia governor's race since 1998, and she will succeed Republican Governor Brian Kemp.
The path to this result ran through two earlier losses. Stacey Abrams, also a Black woman, was the Democratic nominee in 2018 and 2022 and lost to Kemp both times. Bottoms's 2026 candidacy was the third consecutive time Georgia Democrats nominated a Black woman for the job.
Bottoms comes to the office with a long résumé in city and federal government. She served as the 6th mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022, and before that held other posts in the city, including a seat on the Atlanta City Council. Under President Joe Biden she became director of the Office of Public Liaison in 2022 and joined the President's Export Council in 2023. In 2025, President Donald Trump's office fired her, though she has said she resigned.
She has also been close to national politics before. During the 2020 presidential race she was projected as a possible running mate for Biden, after he promised in March 2022 to pick a woman for the role. The position went to Kamala Harris.
Her record as mayor shaped how she positioned herself on immigration and civil rights. In 2018 she signed an executive order barring Atlanta's detention center from holding ICE detainees, and described Atlanta as a welcoming city. In 2019 she said the city did not support ICE, had closed its detention center to ICE detainees, and would not pick up people on an immigration violation.
On LGBTQ issues, she released Atlanta's first LGBTQ Affairs report, which laid out new policies and initiatives meant to improve life for LGBTQ residents. She created the city's first LGBTQ Advisory Board and later appointed its first Director of LGBTQ Affairs.
In the governor's race, she leaned on affordability and other economic issues, and she opposed building data centers across the state.
What to watch now is how those mayoral-era positions on immigration enforcement, ICE cooperation and LGBTQ policy translate into state governance, and how her affordability and data center stances take shape once she succeeds Kemp.
Citazioni salienti
Our city does not support ICE. We closed our detention center to ICE detainees and we would not pick up people on an immigration violation.— Keisha Lance Bottoms, 2019, as Atlanta mayor
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Politics & Governance