04.11.2026 12:01
In the midterm elections held in the US on November 3, Democratic candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Georgia gubernatorial race. Former Atlanta Mayor Bottoms, who defeated her Republican rival, billionaire businessman Rick Jackson, became the first Black woman elected governor in US history. With Bottoms's victory, the governorship in Georgia passed back to the Democrats after 24 years.
Georgia’s gubernatorial race, held alongside the midterm elections, ended with a historic result. Bottoms, 56, made the country’s political history by winning the election in a state that Republicans had governed for 24 years.
AMERICA’S FIRST BLACK WOMAN GOVERNOR According to AP’s projection, Democratic candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms defeated her Republican rival Rick Jackson in the Georgia governor’s race. With this result, Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor in the US. Bottoms also went down in the records as Georgia’s first woman and first Black governor.
Democratic candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms A DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR AFTER 24 YEARS With Bottoms’s victory, the governorship in Georgia returned to the Democrats after 24 years. Incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp could not run again because he had reached the two-consecutive-term limit. The last Democratic governor to govern Georgia, Roy Barnes, lost to Republican Sonny Perdue in the 2002 election. Bottoms will be sworn in and take office in January.
“I AM HONORED TO BE YOUR 84TH GOVERNOR” Addressing supporters in Atlanta, Bottoms said the victory belonged to all Georgians. Bottoms said she was honored to be the state’s 84th governor.
LOST DESPITE A $200 MILLION CAMPAIGN Rick Jackson, 72, entered the election for the first time as a billionaire businessman known for his investments in the healthcare sector. Jackson, who spent more than $200 million of his own fortune on his campaign, had also received Governor Kemp’s support. Jackson had promised to halve the state income tax by the end of his first term.
“I’M NOT RUNNING TO BE HIS FAVORITE GOVERNOR” Bottoms, who highlighted her opposition to the Trump administration throughout the campaign, said she would protect Georgians from Trump’s policies. Bottoms frequently brought up her rival Jackson’s remarks that he wanted to be Trump’s “favorite governor.” Responding to Jackson in the only debate between the candidates, Bottoms said, “I’m not running to be his favorite governor. I’m running to work for people like you.”
Bottoms’s promises included expanding Medicaid coverage, reducing housing costs, and fully funding schools. Bottoms also announced that she would work to repeal Georgia’s six-week abortion ban, which took effect in 2022.
SHE FOLLOWED THE PATH OPENED BY ABRAMS Bottoms is not the first Black woman to run for governor in Georgia. Democrat Stacey Abrams ran for governor in the state in 2018 and 2022 but lost both elections. Abrams’s campaigns are considered to have built a broad coalition that increased Democratic voter turnout.
POSSIBLE POWER LIMITATION FROM REPUBLICANS According to Axios, there is talk of the outgoing Republican state administration holding a special session before the new governor takes office. At this session, redrawing election maps and limiting the new governor’s powers could be on the agenda.
WHO IS KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS? Keisha Lance Bottoms was born on January 18, 1970, in Atlanta. Her father is R&B singer Major Lance, known for songs that charted in the US in the 1960s, and her mother is Sylvia Robinson.
Bottoms’s father, R&B singer Major Lance Bottoms, who grew up in Atlanta, graduated from Florida A&M University and studied law at Georgia State University.
Bottoms worked as a prosecutor, then served as a judge in Atlanta and was elected to the Atlanta City Council. She is known as the first Atlanta mayor to have served in all three branches: judicial, legislative, and executive.
Bottoms served as Atlanta’s 60th mayor from 2018 to 2022, during which she managed the COVID-19 pandemic and protests against police violence. She did not run for a second term. In the 2020 presidential election, her name was mentioned among Joe Biden’s vice-presidential candidates.
In 2022, Bottoms began serving in the Biden administration as a senior adviser to the White House and director of the Office of Public Engagement, and she held this position until 2023. Bottoms, who has also worked as a political commentator on CNN, has been married to Derek Bottoms since 1994. The couple has four adopted children.