Bottoms elected first Black female governor in Georgia

Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Georgia gubernatorial race on Tuesday, becoming the first Black woman to serve as governor in the United States. The Associated Press called the race for the 56-year-old former Atlanta mayor, confirming her victory over Republican candidate Rick Jackson.

Bottoms' win ends a 20-year Republican streak in the state's highest executive office. She will likely face a Republican majority in at least one chamber of the state legislature, a dynamic that will shape her first agenda items.

The race highlighted Georgia's recent political shift. President Donald Trump won the state in the 2024 presidential election but lost it in 2020. While the state now elects Democratic senators, the governor's office and the legislature had remained solidly Republican until Tuesday's vote.

Bottoms campaigned on expanding Medicaid, a proposal that requires legislative approval. She also promised to allow local municipalities to eliminate sales taxes on groceries and to eliminate the state income tax for public school teachers. She positioned herself as a counterweight to the Trump administration, citing the need to find relief for high consumer prices.

Data centers became a central issue in the campaign, as Georgia leads the nation in new construction in that sector. Bottoms said she supports a moratorium on new data centers to allow for a thorough review. During the sole gubernatorial debate in October, she stated, “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.”

Jackson, a billionaire healthcare executive, initially aligned with Trump during the primaries. He later removed references to the president from his website and speeches, instead aligning himself with incumbent Governor Brian Kemp. Kemp endorsed Jackson after the primary. Bottoms received endorsements from former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama and campaigned regularly with Senator Jon Ossoff.

Bottoms served as mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022, a period marked by the pandemic and social unrest. She declined to run for a second mayoral term and served as an adviser in the Biden administration. Jackson used her mayoral record in attack ads, claiming she allowed crime to fester in Atlanta during her tenure.