Keisha Lance Bottoms Becomes Georgia's First Black Woman Governor, Flipping Key Swing-State Seat

Keisha Lance Bottoms was elected governor of Georgia on Tuesday, becoming the first Black woman elected governor in the United States. She defeated Republican businessman Rick Jackson and flipped the state's top office in one of the country's key swing states.

Bottoms, a former mayor of Atlanta, won despite a steep spending gap. Jackson, a billionaire, put more than $200 million of his own money into the race. Her win makes her the first Democrat to take a Georgia governor's race since 1998. Jackson conceded, telling supporters that the voters had spoken and that he respected their decision.

She will succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who was barred by law from a third term. It was the third Georgia governor's race in a row with a Black woman at the top of a major ticket. Kemp beat Stacey Abrams twice; Abrams remains a prominent voting rights advocate and Democratic fundraiser but chose not to run a third time. Bottoms was one of eight Black major-party nominees for governor on Tuesday's ballot, in a country that has elected just three Black governors, all Democratic men. Republican Lisa Demuth of Minnesota was the other Black woman seeking a governorship this year.

Bottoms rarely dwelt on the history she was making. She spoke instead about the economy and about countering President Donald Trump's administration. Still, she often told her family story. A descendant of enslaved Georgians, she described herself as at least a fifth-generation Georgian, since her family can be traced back only five generations, to a plantation in Crawfordville. She said her grandfather moved to Atlanta from rural Georgia and had to walk through the back doors of downtown buildings that she later entered through the front as mayor.

Her platform called for expanding Medicaid to cover hundreds of thousands more people and raising the state minimum wage to $15 an hour. She also proposed higher pay for teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees, a pause on new data center development, an end to installing additional automated Flock cameras used by law enforcement, and repeal of Georgia's ban on abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy. She called the abortion ban a life and death issue, citing women who have died of miscarriage and pregnancy complications because doctors feared prosecution.

Much of the campaign was a contrast with Jackson. He had said he wanted to govern like "Trump with a Southern tone" and be the president's "favorite governor." In the lone debate, Bottoms answered that she was not running to be Trump's favorite governor but to work for the voters in front of her. She disputed Jackson's claim to be a self-made outsider who understood Georgians' struggles, pointing to the lucrative government contracts of his company, Jackson Healthcare, and accusing him of using money made from taxpayers to try to buy the election.

Jackson's heavy TV advertising included clips of the protests that followed the 2020 police killings of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta and George Floyd in Minneapolis. He also attacked her for not seeking a second term as mayor, saying she abandoned the city.

The result is a hard turn for Republicans. Jackson entered the race as a relative unknown and used his wealth and outsider appeal to beat the sitting lieutenant governor, who had Trump's early endorsement, along with the attorney general and the secretary of state. The outcome also breaks Georgia voters' long reluctance to send an Atlantan to the governor's mansion, and it reflects the growing weight of the state's largest metro area. Georgia also reelected Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, its first Jewish senator, who serves alongside Raphael Warnock, its first Black senator.

Bottoms will not govern with a free hand. Republicans have held the governor's office and both chambers of the General Assembly for more than two decades. Democrats were trying to flip the state House, but Republicans were heavily favored to keep the Senate, leaving her at least one GOP-led chamber to work with.